Creating and organising approval units and workflows, which may consist of any number of approval units, is easy and intuitive. This tutorial will show you how to set up both simple and more complex workflows. For a full explanation of what approval units and workflows are and how they function, click here.
A. APPROVAL UNITS
Users gain approver status when they are assigned to any approval unit. When such an approval unit is triggered – by being part of a workflow which itself is triggered – during the questionnaire, all of its users will receive a notification by e-mail and gain access to the contract entry in the Weagree Wizard.
On the Administrator page, open the Workflows & approvals item and navigate to Approval units.
1. To create a new approval unit:
a. Click Insert.
b. Insert a name.
c. Click Save.
Note 1: it is good practice to insert a clear, descriptive name for any approval unit. Consider using prefixes, either abbreviations or short phrases, to distinguish between subject, department or template (if you intend to have approval units for specific templates).
Note 2: it is possible to disable the switch Check for active users, but this is not recommended. When enabled, a warning icon will appear on the Administrator page if no active users have been assigned to an approval unit.
2. An existing approval unit’s name or Check for active users setting can be edited by clicking on its name in the list.
3. Click Delete to remove any selected approval unit.
Note: before deleting any approval units altogether, first remove them from any workflows in which they appear (see section B below).
4. An approval unit’s users can be managed as follows:
a. To add users to an approval unit, click Insert users.
b. To assign users to another approval unit in addition to this one, tick their checkboxes and click Copy users.
c. To remove users from this approval unit and assign them to another one, tick their checkboxes and click Move users.
d. To remove users from this approval unit, tick their checkboxes and click Delete users. This will not affect other approval units or the user accounts themselves.
Note: although multiple users can be added to an approval unit, the first to approve or reject a contract will effectively decide on behalf of the entire unit. Users will immediately gain or lose access to contracts that are already pending approval when they are added to or removed from an applicable approval unit.
B. WORKFLOWS
Approval units will only take effect when added to workflows that in turn are triggered during the questionnaire. Workflows support different configurations of approval units.
On the Administrator page, open the Workflows & approvals item and navigate to Workflows.
1. To create a new workflow:
a. Click Insert.
b. Insert a workflow name.
c. If applicable, select an authorisation level from the Approval below level dropdown menu.
d. Click Save.
Note: the Approval below level setting determines for which authorisation level(s) the workflow will trigger. For example, if set to Legal Counsel, a user with Contract manager (i.e. lower) authorisation will trigger the workflow and therefore require approval. Conversely, a user with Senior legal counsel (i.e. higher) authorisation will not trigger the workflow. This setting may be left blank if it should always trigger.
2. To configure a workflow, first click the pen icon next to its name:
In the pop-up Edit tree that will appear, add and arrange approval units as desired.
a. In an entirely new workflow, start by clicking Insert a sequential approval unit. This will produce a selection pop-up. Select the unit that must give approval first (if the workflow should incorporate multiple approval units).
b. Click Insert a sequential approval unit again to add another approval unit that will be triggered after the first has given approval.
c. Click Insert a parallel approval unit to add an approval unit that will be triggered at the same time as the first. Both will have to give approval in order for the workflow to be completed.
d. Use the arrow icons (if applicable) to rearrange approval units and therefore the order of the workflow. Sequential approval units are indented beneath the preceding units, parallel units have the same indentation level.
e. Any approval unit, including indentend approval units within the same tree (sequence), can be removed again with the minus icon. This will not delete an approval unit altogether, but only remove it from the workflow.
