Create a single-use approval process
Approval processes on projects, tasks, and issues allow a project manager to get expert confirmation that the work has been done right before moving forward. The project manager can create an approval process for each situation (this is known as a single-use approval process) or choose from a list of possibly many approval processes that have been created previously to meet common needs (these are known as global approval processes).
In either instance, when the object status changes to one specified in the approval process the approver is notified in various ways to review the work and approve or reject it. Given that the entire project may be paused waiting for an approval, approvers should be aware in advance that they may be called on for an approval. If an approver is out of the office for any reason they may delegate their approvals to a qualified substitute. See Delegate tasks, issues, and approvals for details.
In this video, you will learn how to create a single-use approval process on an object in Workfront.
Transcript
Creating a single-use approval process. In this video, you’ll learn how to create a single-use approval process on an object.
Approval processes can be created on the object types of projects, tasks, and issues. They are object-based and only able to be used on a per object basis. Project approval processes, therefore, could only be used on projects, not on a task or an issue, and vice versa.
There are two types of approval processes in Workfront. The first is called a global approval process. This type is created by the system administrator in the setup area. This process is also reusable and can be used as many times as needed within the system. The second type of approval is called a single-use approval process. This process is created on a single object, such as a project, task, or issue. It is only able to be used once for the object it is created on. Let’s begin by creating a task level single-use approval process.
First, we will select the project from which to select our task from. For this example, we will select the Fall Signage project. Once we’ve navigated to the Fall Signage project page, we will select a task. The task we have selected for this example is task number six, Proofread Copy. When we click on the task, we are navigated to the task landing page. From the task landing page, we go ahead and select Approvals. From here, we have a choice. We can use an existing approval process, also known as a global approval process, or create a single-use approval process for this particular task. Approvals within Workfront are based on status changes and there are two parts to the approval process. The first part is what’s called the approval path. This tells the system when the approval process will be triggered. The second part of the approval process is called the approval stage. This lets Workfront know who or where the approval is going to go to. Let’s begin by clicking create single-use approval process.
The first step is to create the approval path. In the dropdown beneath Path 1, we will select the status in which we’ll trigger the approval process. Clicking in the dropdown, you can see that we have statuses of new, in-progress, and complete. For this approval process, we want to trigger the approval when the task is updated to complete.
The next step in creating the approval process is to decide who will be named in the approval. This is done in the area called Stage 1. Under the name field in Stage 1, we can name the first stage of our approval process. For this example, we will name this stage Copywriter Approval.
As far as who the approver is for Stage 1, we select that in the next field labeled Approvers. From this field, you can type an individual user, a job role, or a team. Let’s enter copywriter Ann Owen.
We have selected Ann Owen as the approver for Stage 1. However, I am also able, as you can see, to enter multiple names here or job roles or teams. Now, entering additional names here gives us an additional field to enter. Once we have added additional names to the stage, we then need to let Workfront know if we only need one of the individuals to make the decision or if we need everyone that we’ve listed during the stage. We do that by putting a check in the box next to only one decision required. For this example, I’m going to remove Lonnie and leave Anne Owen as the only approver for Stage 1.
We are able to add additional stages to this approval process by clicking on the button Add Stage. Adding additional stages separates the approval process between one approver and the next. For this example, I will name Stage 2 Editor Approval and I will name Lonnie Collins as the approver for Stage 2.
Scrolling to the bottom of the approval creation, we have one more field to fill out. We need to tell Workfront what to do if this approval were to be rejected. In the dropdown under If Rejected, we can select the status that Workfront will revert this task back to. The default is previous status, meaning that the task status will revert back to in-progress. To complete the approval process creation, we select Save at the bottom of the screen. We have now created an approval process for the task of Proofread Copy. The approval path will start when the status is updated to complete. The first approver through Stage 1 is Ann Owen. The second approver through Stage 2 is Lonnie Collins. If the approval is rejected at any point, the status will revert back to previous status. -
TIP
You can add a single use approval process for a project or task to a project template.
NOTE
You can set up a single use approval on projects and issues in the same way as described for tasks in the video.
If you want to set up automatic issue approvals, these can only be done using a global issue approval process and applied in a queue topic. See Create a Request Queue for information on how to do this.
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