Changes Waiting for Approval

When Approval config says a right needs approval, you can still make the change. It is held and takes effect only once it is approved.

Requests that have their own pending state (expenses, advances, advance spend, reallocations, finance releases, revisions, budget approval, purchase orders, direct purchases, adjustments, counts and transfers) wait in that state, on their own page. Everything else, such as editing a draft budget, posting a ledger entry, adding a supplier or changing an item, becomes a held change, described here.

Make a change

Make the change as usual. If it needs approval, Resources checks it straight away, so you see any mistake now rather than later, then says Sent for approval. It takes effect once approved.

Nothing has changed yet. Everyone else, you included, still sees the record as it was. Its approvers get an alert and find it under Approvals.

While it waits:

• The record shows a banner: A change to this is waiting for approval, with who made it and when, and View to open it.
• A record has one pending change at a time. Trying to change it again says A change to this is already waiting for approval. Wait for it or cancel it first.
• Something you create, such as a new supplier or item, doesn’t appear in its list until it is approved. Find it under My changes.
• A pending stock issue already holds the stock it takes, and a pending ledger entry already counts against its line, so nothing else can use the same stock or money in the meantime.

My changes

Inbox → My changes lists the changes you made that waited for approval, newest first, with their Status: Pending, Approved, Rejected, Cancelled or Failed. Filter by status. Admins also have All changes, every held change in the workspace.

Open one to see:

• what it changes: each field Before and After, or, for something new, the values it will have;
• the budget, line or location it is about, and its amount, if any;
• the file it was made with, for an import (Download);
• its approval chain: each step, who voted and who is still to vote.

Remind the approvers

On a change or request you made that is still waiting, click Remind approvers under its approval chain. The people who can decide the current step get an alert. You can remind them once an hour.

Cancel it

While it is pending, click Cancel change. Nothing is changed and the approvers stop seeing it. An admin can cancel it too. To change what you asked for, cancel it and make it again.

Approving a held change

Approvers open it from Approvals and see the same before-and-after view. Approve or Reject it there, like a request. Nobody approves their own change, and one rejection rejects it.

The last approval applies the change as the person who made it. The record keeps the date it was made; the approval date is shown next to it: Applied. Made on 3 Oct, approved on 5 Oct. The maker gets an alert when it is approved, rejected or cancelled.

When an approved change fails

A change is checked again when it is approved. If it no longer fits, nothing is applied and it is marked Failed, with the reason. For example:

• the record was changed by someone else after the request was made: This changed after the request was made; make it again;
• the budget is no longer active, or the stock or money is no longer there.

The maker gets an alert. Make the change again if it is still needed.

Who can make it, and when people leave

Whether you can make a change depends on your role: the area’s Write permission. It is checked when you make the change, not again when it is approved. A held change keeps the rule it was made under, even if an admin changes the rule later.

When a user is suspended or removed, their pending changes are cancelled.