Review Changes - Workflow process
Last updated
Last updated
In this section, we will discuss the approval workflow process from both the author's and the approver's ends. The author is the user who has requested changes, and the approver is the user who approves them.
Let us assume the author has made a few changes and has sent them for approval.
Now we will explore the Review tab which provides an outline as well as detailed information on the change requests. The Review tab has two sections: Pending Requests (requests you need to approve) and My Requests (requests raised by you).
In certain situations, a user may serve as both an approver and an author, depending on the set rules for specific sections or departments. In this case, the user can easily switch between tabs to view their pending approval requests as well as the requests they have submitted.
Let us start with the 'My Requests' tab.
This tab displays an overview of the requests and changes you have made and sent to the approver.
This screen has the following sections:
Open: This tab lists all your open requests, yet to be approved.
Closed: This tab lists the closed requests that are approved/closed.
You can switch between these tabs to view your open and closed requests. Once the requests are approved/closed, they will be moved to the 'Closed' section.
Search: This window has a search box that helps you search for specific requests.
Priority: You can use this filter to filter requests based on priority.
Status: Using this filter, you can filter requests based on their status.
-> Active status refers to open requests that are awaiting approval from the approver.
-> The 'Requested Changes' status indicates requests that need revisions, as suggested by the approver.
-> The 'Changes Submitted' status denotes requests that have been re-submitted to the approver after incorporating those adjustments and suggestions.
Sort: This option is used to sort them from newest to oldest, oldest to newest, and most recently updated.
The 'My Request' screen provides an overview of all change requests submitted. To understand each change request in detail, you can click on the specific change request.
Let's click on one of the requests:
It has the request ID, description of the request (if you have added it), approver details, time it was raised, priority, and its status. It has a host of options such as editing data, adding comments, viewing history, closing the request, and submitting it for review.
It has a comment option that lets you add comments to the changes so that approvers can understand it better. This works similarly to the commenting and collaboration feature.
Click on the cell to which you want to add the comment. The comment icon is enabled.
Click it to add a comment and select Post. The comments are updated automatically and approvers can view them when they open the requests.
Please note that the email notification for comments will be sent to the approver only in case of published reports.
You can also add assignees and start a comment thread. The task status is automatically set to 'open' and an email notification is sent to them. The assignees can reply to the thread to start a conversation.
Click on View Comments to view all the added comments.
To edit the data in the submitted changes click on the Edit option.
The changes can be a new one or the undoing/modification of the existing ones. After editing, click Save. The saved changes are submitted automatically.
You can optionally add a comment which gets updated too.
Click History to view the history of edits committed.
Use the Close Request option to pull back the submitted request and move it from the 'Open' to the 'Closed' section.
If the approver has requested changes during their review, you can either make the suggested changes or choose to skip them while adding a comment. Once you have made the necessary changes or added your comment, click the Submit for Review button to resubmit your work.
This tab shows all the pending changes that require your review and approval. If you are an approver, you can view the requests submitted by other users in this section.
Similar to the 'My requests' tab, this window has options to search and filter for specific requests based on their status, priority, author's name, etc. You can also sort them from newest to oldest, oldest to newest, and most recently updated.
Click on any request to access the detailed information.
The approver can access this window to view detailed changes in a single request. They can view the changes, which are highlighted in blue, and deleted rows in red as below:
Note that in the above example, one of the changes (ID number: 7) is sent to another approver, based on configured rules.
To approve a change, select it and click Approve.
To reject a change, select it and click Reject.
To request/suggest changes, click Request Changes. The steps are explained here.
Click on View Comments to view added comments.
Select History to view the history of actions performed.
The approver can suggest modifications by requesting changes. In response, the author can review these suggestions, make the necessary adjustments, and then resubmit the revised request for further consideration.
If you are an approver, you can request changes to the author by clicking Request Changes.
You can optionally add comments describing the suggestion. Comments help the author understand the modifications you need. Click Submit.
The author is notified through email. They can make the changes and resubmit it for review.
Both the author and the approver are notified through emails about the suggested changes and the resubmission, facilitating quicker and easier collaboration through a simple conversation thread.
To disable the approvals, toggle off the Enable Approvals button and click Proceed.
Once a workflow is disabled, all active requests will be deleted and further changes in the table will be committed directly.
