Your approval inbox is the Approvals module - open it, pick a folder, and every document waiting for your decision appears under Awaiting.
Finding documents to review
Open the Approvals module, then select the folder you want to work in. The folder shows three tabs: Awaiting (waiting for a decision, including yours), Approved (completed all stages), and Rejected (sent back for correction).
š Where do I find the documents waiting for me?
In the Awaiting tab of the folder.
Approving a document
Open a document from the Awaiting tab. If you are the assigned approver for the current stage, the Approve and Reject buttons are active.
š What happens when I approve?
If the workflow has more stages after the current one, approving moves the document to the next stage and it stays Awaiting approval. If you are approving at the last stage, the document becomes Approved and is ready to export. Stages run in order - A, then B, then C - and each must be approved before the next begins.
If the stage requires approval from all approvers, the document will stay Awaiting approval in that stage until all of them approve. Your approval will be recorded.
š What if a stage has more than one approver?
If any one of them can approve it - you do not all need to act, and the first decision clears the stage. The status card shows this as Any one of N approvers, and a stage with more than 3 approvers shows the count rather than every name.
If all approvers need to approve it - the status card will show as All N must sign.
Rejecting a document
š How do I reject a document?
Click Reject and enter a short reason - you cannot reject without one. The document moves to Rejected, appears in the Rejected tab, and the person who submitted it can correct it and resubmit.
Bulk approve and reject
š Can I approve or reject several documents at once?
Yes. Select the checkboxes in the Awaiting tab and choose Approve or Reject from the bulk-action bar. Bulk reject also requires a short reason, applied to all selected documents.
How a decision is recorded
š How is each decision recorded?
Every action is captured in the document's audit trail, with who acted, which role, and when.
A decision comes from one of three sources, and nothing can be removed from the history:
Approver - a named person clicked Approve or Reject on their assigned stage.
System - the document was auto-approved because the supplier contact has auto-approval enabled.
Admin override - an admin used Approve as admin while the document was still Awaiting approval; it reads as a normal Approved in the header but is recorded separately in history.
What you cannot do as an approver
š What can't I do as an approver?
Remove yourself from a workflow - ask an admin to use Reassign instead. See Admin tools: Approve as admin, Reassign, Reset.
Approve your own submission when the path has self-approval off - the buttons appear but are disabled, and another approver or an admin must act.
Export to accounting from the approval view - once a document is Approved it becomes available for export in the normal document list.
Frequently Asked Questions
š What if I approved by mistake?
You cannot undo an approval yourself. Ask an admin to use Reset approval under More actions to return the document to Ready, then the submitter can correct and resubmit it. See Admin tools: Approve as admin, Reassign, Reset.
š What happens after a document is fully approved?
It becomes Approved and can be exported to your accounting software (automatically, if the folder has auto-export on). An approved document is also locked from editing - if you need a final review step, an admin can build it into the workflow as a stage. See Exporting when approval is enabled and Editing documents during approval.
š Why canāt I approve a document, or why donāt I see the Approve button?
The Approve and Reject buttons only work for the approvers assigned to the documentās current stage. If you canāt approve, the most common reason is that you havenāt been added as an approver in the folderās approval workflow, for example when youāve just joined the team. Your folder role doesnāt make you an assigned approver on its own.
A folder admin can add you. Open Folder Preferences, go to Approval Workflows, open the workflow (for example the Default path) and add yourself under Approvers on the relevant stage. See Setting up an approval workflow.
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The change only applies to documents submitted after it. Documents already Awaiting approval keep the approvers they had when they were submitted. An admin can use Reset approval to send them back to Ready, and then they can be submitted again. See Admin tools: Approve as admin, Reassign, Reset approval.