Knowledge Base Approval Chain
Chapter 4 of 5

The Approval Chain & Actions

Once a step is submitted, the assigned approver must take action to progress or correct the workflow. Let's learn about approvals, rejections, delegation, and expiration.

Approvals CRUD Operations & Inbox Filters

The Approvals Inbox holds all requests pending your authorization. Below are the available CRUD buttons and filter options:

Action / Filter Interface Element Who Can Use? Description & Function
Create (C) System Auto-Generated System Trigger Generated automatically when a staff member submits a step for review.
Read (R) Accordion expand arrow All Roles Expands row to view historical comments trail, step name, and request path.
Update (U) Respond button Assigned Approver Saves decision (Approve/Reject) and changes request state to complete or reverted.
Delete / Expire (D) Expire button Admin Only Manually expires/de-links stale requests. Prevents duplicate tasks.
Inbox Search Search by Customer / ID All Roles Performs real-time queries to find approvals by customer name or step name.
Approval Status Filter Status Toggle buttons All Roles Switches lists to show only PENDING, APPROVED, REJECTED, or EXPIRED items.

1. Approving a Step

When you are assigned as the Approver for the current active step, the workflow will appear in your Approvals Inbox. To approve:

  1. Open the approval request from the table.
  2. Review the fields filled by the staff.
  3. Add any comments under Approval Comments.
  4. Select the Next Step's Approver (if this is not the final step).
  5. Click Approve. The system will advance the instance to the next step.

Approver Inbox:

Approver Inbox Dashboard

Response Slide-Over Panel:

Decision Response Panel

2. Rejecting & Reverting a Step

If there is a mistake in the data or document checks fail, you should reject the step:

  • Click Reject in the response modal.
  • Reversion Logic: When a step (e.g. Step 4) is rejected, the workflow automatically rolls back to the previous step (e.g. Step 3) so the staff can correct the mistakes.
  • The status of Step 3 goes back to "In Progress" and its approval request is re-opened.

Why Rejections Revert Steps

Reverting allows the previous actor to correct their inputs. The system keeps all original rejection comments in the Approval Chain Trail so everyone knows why the request was sent back.

Rejection Sendback Step Auto-Routing

3. Delegating or Transferring a Step

If you are unavailable or if a request needs review by a different specialist, you can use the Transfer option:

  • Click Transfer Request.
  • Select the new Approver from the dropdown.
  • Enter the reason for transferring (e.g., "Assigned to regional supervisor for clearance").
  • The system will automatically expire your pending request and generate a new pending request for the new approver.

4. Manual Expiration (De-linking Requests)

If an approval request is no longer valid (for example, if the service contract was cancelled or if the approval was submitted by mistake):

  • Administrators can click the Expire button in the approvals list.
  • This marks the approval request as Expired, removing it from active inbox lists but keeping its logs in the Approval Chain Trail for audit purposes.
  • The active step instance is safely de-linked from the expired request, allowing a new request to be created or the step to be re-assigned.

Backend Cronjobs & Triggers Logic

  • SLA Expiry Cronjob: A background job executes every hour to inspect active pending requests. If a request is open longer than the template's specified SLA (e.g. 7 days), the cronjob transitions the status to EXPIRED and dispatches an escalation email alert.
  • Step Transition Triggers: When a step is marked APPROVED, a database trigger creates an archive history log, queries the next sequential step config, and generates a new pending approval task.
  • Reversion & Clean-Up Triggers: When a step is marked REJECTED, a trigger automatically sets the current step status to REJECTED, sets the previous step status to IN_PROGRESS, and cancels/expires all other concurrent pending approvals.

Table Filter Reference

The approvals table provides comprehensive filters to quickly narrow down requests. You can combine multiple search criteria at once:

  • Status: Filter by Pending, Approved, Rejected, Expired, or All.
  • Customer: Scopes approvals to a specific customer profile.
  • Requestor / Approver / Agent: Filters by the specific user roles involved in the transaction.
  • Sent Status: Displays only items sent by you or received by you.