Add and Configure an Approval Group

Auto - Delegate

Auto-Delegate is a feature that automatically sends approval requests to a delegate if someone misses their deadline. Instead of an assistant(s) being tasked with having to step in and manually reassign approval(s), the system handles it automatically, keeping your processes moving forward.​ Assigning an auto delegate is the same process used when assigning a manual delegate. 

To change the the default number of days before the approval step is auto assigned, Administrators must edit an existing Approval Group and disable the Approver Assistant function for the auto delegate to send emails automatically to the delegate (s). In the  event Approver Assistant remains on in the toggle, Assistants will be required to login to re-assign manually.

To edit approvals follow these steps below:  Menu > Approvals> Approval Groups> Edit Desired Group:.

1. To enable the auto delegate feature, admins must disable the Approver Assistant toggle.
2. If required, changed the default number of days to a desired number of work days.
3. Save changes to the approval group.

In the scenario illustrated below, Approver 1 has both an Assistant and a Delegate assigned. If the Approver Assistant feature is turned off in the settings, an email notification will be sent to both the first Approver and the initiator of the request when the approval process begins. Additionally, according to the default number of days set, the delegate(s) will automatically receive a task related to the delegation. 

Once the delegate receives the email notification they will log into eScribe and complete their task. If there is additional approvers in the queue, the approvers will receive a task email based on the order.

Decline & Send Back

Decline & Send back gives approvers the ability to decline an Approval without stopping the existing Approval request allowing the user to reroute to the previous step or multiple users in the approval.  Each approval group setup can be configured as needed as this is not a global setting. 

To manage approval settings begin here:  Toolbar> Approval  Groups > Edit Details per Approval Group to configure the best option: 

Send Back to selected Approval step(s)

The first option displayed below allows the approver to decline the approval and send it back to one specific approver or multiple approvers in order to keep the approval request flowing. 

Send Back to an Approval step in the Approval:

In the image displayed below, an approver can decline once the  and send it back to the previous step to be actioned. 

Workflow Associations

To add an association to a workflow group, click on the Add Permission button on the Approval Group screen. Creating an association means that this workflow will appear with any of the reports/agenda/minutes documents that meet the association criteria. For example, a report created from an associated department/branch, or a report that is going into an associated meeting type.

Option #1: All Departments/All Meeting Types

To create a workflow that will apply to any meeting type or department, select “All Departments”  and "All Meeting Types" from the dropdowns. This setup below is a very broad setup that has little to no restrictions on when workflows are triggered. 

Option #2: Specific Department for all Meeting Types

To create a workflow that will apply to a specific department and applicable for all meeting types, configure it as shown below. This setup indicates that the workflow will only appear to users when the specific Department has been selected.

Option #3: Specific Department to Specific Meeting Type (restrictive)

To create a workflow that will apply a specific department and  a specific Meeting Type, configure it as shown below. This setup indicated that the workflow will only appear to users when Finance is the Department and the Meeting Type is Council.

Adding Users as Approval Steps in Workflows

To configure a User as an Approval step, simply click on the Add Step button in the workflow screen. In the Approver Steps screen select Add Approver from the drop-down menu.

Now fill in the form by entering details in the Approver, Admin Assistant, Delegates, and Options drop-down and click Save.

Editing/Deleting an Approval  Step

Ensure the correct Approval Group has been selected by clicking Approvals Approval Groups from the menu bar. Approval Steps can be Edited or Removed (Deleted) by clicking the options menu for that step.

Adding an Exception Approval Group

Exception Approvals are used to manage submissions after a deadline has passed. If a meeting’s submission deadline is missed, an Exception approval must be completed to approve the document for late submission. 

These approvals are automatically triggered based on the organization's Document Settings. For more information on how this is configured, refer to the Document Settings documentation.

Note: Once a late exception approval has completed, the document still needs to be approved via a regular approval.

Adding Permissions in an Exception Approval Group

Permissions are used to associate when the Exception Approval Group appears once a Document has passed the submission deadline. Most often, permissions are configured to appear for All Departments and All Meeting Types if there is one single Approver for all late  Documents.

Approval Steps in an Exception Approval Group

Late Exception Approval Groups require an Approver to complete the task, however there are no roles for Approver Assistants and Delegates as a regular approval group as these items are passed the submission deadline.

Search for the Approver from the Approver drop down and click Add. Repeat the step again if additional Approvers are required. 

The late exception Group is now complete and will appear to the initiator of the Approver in the event the Document is late.

Starting an Exception Approval

Documents that are past the submission deadline will require the initiator to select the Exception Approval Group (Step 1) as displayed below and then clicking" Start Exception Approval" (Step 2). The approval begins and emails the designated users in the Approval steps. In the event the approval is declined, the Document status will be changed to Declined.

Managing Late Exception Approvals

As an optional feature a Late Exception Approval can be forced on a contributor when they try to initiate an approval for an item where the Meeting Submission Date has already passed as shown below. There are 3 options to determine how reports are handled when a meeting deadline has passed, these settings are configured in the Report Settings (see Document Manager - Document Settings for further reference). These setting options are: to allow late reports, only allow late reports with late exception workflow, and to not allow late reports at all.

To run the late exception workflow, go to Approval Request  in the Document drop down menu, in the Start Approval Process screen select the required Late Exception Group and required Approval Group and click Start Approval. A processing screen appears showing the workflow has started.

The Status of the report in the Item History changes to Approval Started (in the case of User as Approver) 

Note: Once the Submission Deadline has passed and the late exception workflow has started, approvals for the late exception workflow complete as normal. Once the late exception workflow has completed, then the regular approval workflow continues. The workflow is completed only when the last approver approves the their step in the approval queue.

Once the late exception approval group has been selected, the user must also select the Approval Group for routing based on the Department. The Late Exception Approval group will action to accept or decline the late item, however editing and commenting will only be available in the second Approval Group.

The final step is to click Start Approval where the users in the Exception Approval Group receive the first task assigned and it will then be routed to the Approval Group as selected. Upon starting the approval process, the following user(s) will receive an email:

• Author
• Sponsor
• Approver and Assistant
• Delegates only receive email notification once triggered by the Approver Assistant,

Signature Pages

This option serves as a default value for whether signature pages should be affixed to the document name after it is added to an agenda by Attach to New Agenda Item or Attach to Agenda Item. 

If selected, then the Signature page will be added automatically to the Agenda when an Administrator chooses Attach to New Agenda Item or Attach to Agenda Item within a meeting.

The signature page is appended to the end of the Document, and contains details about the approval steps taken to approve the document as well as any signature images that have been uploaded. Signature images can be managed within the user's profile (Users & Groups > User List). Signature images will only appear for Approvers only and not for Administrators and Delegates who approve on behalf of the approver.