Approvals
When policy requires approval, the action waits in the Approvals inbox until the right people decide. The approver sees the exact action that will run.
Who is asked
The rule that requires approval names its reviewers. A reviewer group can be made of:
- people with a given role,
- members of a team,
- named people,
- the manager of the person the agent acts for.
A group can require more than one approver, and groups can be ordered so one signs off before the next. The people behind a request — whoever asked for it, the person the agent acts for and whoever started the run — are kept out of its reviewers.
The inbox
The inbox lists what is waiting on you. When nothing is, it reads Nothing is waiting on you. Open a request to see the full action, the rules that matched and how it got here.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Approve | Approves the action. When the action carries an amount, the button shows it, for example Approve €4,200.00. |
| Request changes | Sends the action back for changes. |
| Ask for info | Asks for more information. Once it is answered, the request is waiting again. |
| Refuse | Refuses the action. It never runs. |
| Confirm | Shown instead of the buttons above when the request is a confirmation. |
A rationale is required to refuse. For an action that cannot be undone, a rationale is required to approve as well.
After approval
An approval is used once, for the action it was given for. It is valid for a limited time — one hour unless the rule sets otherwise. When the action executes, policy is checked again: if the approval no longer meets the policy, a new approval is requested and the action does not run on the old one.
When someone is away
- Substitutes. A person can have a substitute for approvals over a set period. While it is active, their requests also reach the substitute.
- Reminders. Reviewers who haven't decided get a reminder part-way through the request's lifetime.
- Escalation. Later on, the request is routed to more people.
- Expiry. A request that is never decided expires — 24 hours unless the rule sets otherwise — and the action does not run.
Slack and Microsoft Teams
Approval requests can reach reviewers in Slack or Microsoft Teams, where they can acknowledge or claim a request. The decision itself is made in the TaskGate console.