How to approve a submitted record

Prerequisites

Permissions Required

A user must hold one of the following Role Permissions to approve a record:

• Approve - makes the user eligible to be selected as a default approver within an Organisational Unit. The user will also appear for selection when using the manual approval workflow. 
• Force Approve - allows the user to approve a module record that they are not the designated approver of. 

The Record Must Be in a Submitted Status

Only records with a Submitted status can be approved or rejected. If the record is still In Progress, Assigned, or Rejected, it must first be submitted before it can be actioned by an approver.

Option 1 - Submit and Approve in a Single Step 

Users with permissions to both submit and approve a record can bypass the separate submission step entirely.

An option is available in Settings > System Settings to Allow Simultaneous Submit and Approve. When selected, this option allows users to submit and approve a record in a single step when they have permissions to both submit and approve a specific record. This option appears as Submit and Approve Record in the multifunction Save Record button dropdown from within a record.

Note: As submit and approve is being done in a single step, notes can only be added to the approval stage. The submit stage will have a default note of "This record was submitted and approved at the same time" to indicate that the record was submitted and approved in a single step. 

Option 2 - Approve a Submitted Record

From Within the Record

1. Open the record you want to approve by selecting the menu icon (three dots) and selecting details. The record must have a status of Submitted.

   

2. Click the Approve icon at the bottom of the screen

   

3. Enter any comments before approving the record. 
4. Click Save.
5. The record is now approved. The Approve icon will display as green, signifying at a glance that the record has been approved. 

From the Browse Page/List View

1. Navigate to the browse page of the relevant sub-module
2. Click on the menu icon (three dots) at the side of the record you wish to approve
3. Select 'Approve' from the list

From the Approval Manager

The Approval Manager provides a centralised view of all records requiring approval action across all modules.

From the Approval Manager you can approve a record, reject a record, go to the record, run a filter on all the records, and archive a record. 

1. Navigate to the Approval Manager.

   

2. Locate the record you want to approve. The Approval Manager uses default colour coding to display record status at a glance. Submitted records display in Orange. 

3. Click on the cog wheel menu icon and select the Approve action against the relevant record.

   

4. Enter any comments and click Save.

Option 3 - Reject a Submitted Record

If a record requires further changes before it can be approved, the approver can reject the record and return it to the submitter.  Follow the same steps as above but select reject instead of approve. The status is changed back to In Progress. The record is sent back to the assignee and will need to be reviewed again based on comments received. That user (or another) can then edit the record and save changes, re-submit to the approver, or archive the record. 

Note: For full step-by-step instructions on rejecting a record, see the related article: How to Reject a Record from the Approval Process.

What Happens After Approval

Once approved, this is the end of the process. The record can then optionally be archived.  Learn more about Archiving through our knolwedge base article: How to Archive a Record.

Automating Approvals with Workflow Rules

Approval can be automated using the Workflow Rules manager. The Set Status outcome of Workflow Rules allows you to create a rule which automatically sets a record to the Approved status. For example, if a low severity near miss is reported in the Incident Record module, a rule can be created to automatically approve the record as soon as it is created, removing the need for manual approval.  Learn more through the How to Create Workflow Rules knowledge base article.

AI Metadata

• Product Area: Record Management, Approval Workflow, Approval Manager
• User Role: Approvers (users with the Approve or Force Approve Role Permission); users with both Submit and Approve permissions; Assure Administrators configuring module approval settings and system settings
• Tags: Approve Record, Reject Record, Submit and Approve, Submitted Record, Approval Workflow, Approval Manager, Record Status, Approved, Rejected, Force Approve, Simultaneous Submit Approve, Approval Process, Module Setup
• Version/Region: All Assure versions; all regions
• Important Synonyms: Approval Manager = Approvals screen; Approval Workflow = Approval Process; Record Status = Workflow Stage; Approve icon = Approve button; Submitted = Submitted for Approval; Submit and Approve = Simultaneous Submit and Approve
• Suggested Embedding Keywords: approve submitted record Assure, reject record Assure, submit and approve Assure, how to approve a record Assure, Assure approval workflow approve, Approval Manager Assure, record submitted for approval, approve icon Assure, force approve Assure, record approved status, simultaneous submit approve Assure, reject record approval process Assure
• Relevant Modules and Cross-Module Implications: Approving and rejecting records is a platform-wide feature in Assure, available across all modules where the Approval Workflow has been enabled (for example, Incident Record, Risk Assessment, Audit, Equipment Register). Whether the approval process is active for a specific module is controlled individually through Module Setup Settings. The Approval Manager aggregates submitted records from all modules into a single centralised view. The simultaneous Submit and Approve option must be enabled at the system level via System Settings. Approval can also be automated via Workflow Rules using the Set Status outcome.