Approval Workflow
Multi-step document approval with role-based assignment, delegation, and full history — from first submission to final sign-off.
Overview
The Approval Workflow screen gives every document a governed path from draft to published. Authors submit a document version for review, and a configurable chain of approvers acts on it step by step. Nothing moves forward until the right role or person clicks Approve — and any rejection sends the document back to the author with a mandatory comment explaining why.
Pending Approvals
All documents currently waiting for your action. One click to approve or reject, with a comment field for context.
My Submissions
Every document you have submitted for approval — track its current step, see who approved, and read comments from reviewers.
Workflows
Define multi-step approval chains per document category. Assign each step to a role or a specific user. Edit or delete workflows at any time.
Approval History
Expand any submission to see a timestamped timeline of every approval and rejection — who acted, when, and what they said.
Approval Request Lifecycle
| Request Status | Meaning | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| In Progress | One or more steps still pending. | The next assigned approver sees it in Pending Approvals. |
| Approved | All steps have been approved. | Document status advances to Approved automatically. |
| Rejected | Any step was rejected. | Document reverts to Draft. Author can revise and resubmit. |
Pending Approvals Tab
This tab shows every document request where you are the assigned approver for the current step. Each card displays:
- Document name — click to open the Document Viewer and read the full content before acting.
- Current step number — e.g. "Step 2" so you know where you are in the chain.
- Submitted by and submission date.
- Previous comments — collapsed list of prior approvers' notes so you have full context.
Use the Approve (green) or Reject (red) buttons on each card. Both open a comment modal.
Rejection requires a comment
The Reject button stays disabled until the reviewer types at least one character. Approvals accept an empty comment. This ensures authors never receive a silent rejection.
My Submissions Tab
A chronological list of every approval request you initiated. Filter by status (In Progress, Approved, Rejected) using the pill tabs at the top.
Expanding a submission
Click the chevron on any row to reveal the full Approval History timeline:
- Each entry shows the step number, approver name, action (approved / rejected), comment, and timestamp.
- Rejected entries are shown in red; approved entries in green — easy to scan at a glance.
Resubmitting after rejection
After a rejection the document returns to Draft status. Go to the Document Library, upload a revised version (or edit the metadata), then click ⋯ → Submit for Approval again. A brand-new approval request is created — the old rejected request remains in history for the record.
Workflow Designer
Administrators define the approval chain for each document category. Click New Workflow to open the designer.
Step configuration
| Field | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Step name | Human-readable label shown on approval cards. | "Quality Review", "Legal Sign-off" |
| Role or user | A role slug (any user with that role can act) or a specific user email. | quality_manager or ceo@company.com |
| Action | Review (read-only acknowledgment), Approve (binding approval), or Sign (final signature). | Review → Approve → Sign |
Drag to reorder
Use the grip handle () on the left of each step to drag it into the correct sequence. Order matters — step 1 always goes first. The reorder is live: drop a step and the order field on every step is recalculated immediately. The Save button persists the final sequence.
In-flight requests are not affected
Editing a workflow does not retroactively change approval requests that are already In Progress. Those requests follow the original workflow definition they were created with.
Category binding
Each workflow is bound to one document category (e.g. Policy, Procedure). When an author submits a document for approval, the system automatically uses the workflow matching that document's category. If no workflow exists for the category, the submit button is greyed out — create a workflow first.
Role-based assignment
When a step is assigned to a role (e.g. quality_manager), any user with that role sees the request in their Pending Approvals tab. This is a "first-to-act" model — as soon as one qualifying user approves or rejects, the step completes. Other users with the same role will no longer see that request.
When a step is assigned to a specific user email, only that user sees the request. If they are unavailable, an admin can delegate the request from the Workflows tab.
AI Assistant
Approval Workflow includes a right-edge AI Assistant panel that reviews your pending approval requests and configured workflows — document name, status, current step, submitted by, submitted date, workflow name, category, and step count — and answers natural-language questions about them.
Bottleneck Review
Flags requests that have been stuck at the same step for a long time, or submitters with many pending requests.
Workload Analysis
Summarizes how the pending approval workload is distributed across steps or approver roles.
Workflow Design Help
Describe a new approval need in plain language and get a proposed workflow step structure (step names, roles, actions) you can create.
Workflow Audit
Flags workflows with very few or unusually many steps compared to the rest, or document categories without a matching workflow.
Save Assistant Answers as Reports
Any assistant response can be saved directly to My Reports with one click, so a bottleneck review or drafted workflow structure doesn't have to be re-generated later.
Frequently Asked Questions
compliance-approvals.json and persists across sessions. It is never deleted — rejected requests remain for auditing purposes even after a new request for the same document is approved.