Approval workflow
You can set up an automated internal Workflow to send documents to designated approvers before sending them to your recipients.
Availability: Business and Enterprise plans
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Video overview:
Note:
Account owner, Admins or Managers within a workspace can manage Workflow, and act as document Approvers (if selected as an Approver.)How to use Approval Workflow
The approval Workflow feature is enabled and managed on the template level.
- Open a template, click the context menu > Setup Workflow. Use the toggle to enable the Approval option on this template:
- To add an approver, simply start typing their name or email address in the popup.
- To add a group of approvers, click “+Add Approver Group”, give it a name and add your approvers.
- Click “Save” once finished.
Note:
A member of an Approver Group approves the document on behalf of the group.You can set up Approval order and add the same approver multiple times if you need them to check the document on several stages.
Note:
You cannot reuse the same Approver Group on other templates, you’ll have to re-create it.Edit/Delete Workflow and Approvers
To review, edit or delete your workflow setup, go to your template, then click the context menu > Setup Workflow.
Click “Approval settings” to manage your Approvers and click the bin icon to delete an individual approver or an entire group:
Use the toggle to switch off Approval on your template:
Note:
You cannot switch on/off Approvals on a document.
What happens if an Approver is deleted from a workspace?
The Approver should be removed from the Workflow prior to being removed from the workspace. If not, the Approver will remain in the Approval Workflow and documents will remain stuck in the approval process. Email support@pandadoc.com if your document is stuck.
Sending documents for Approval
- Once a document is created, the document creator will send it for approval before it is sent to the recipient:
- The document status will change to “To Approve” and the Approver will receive the notification email. They can open the document and will have two options: Approve or Reject.
They can also provide an accompanying comment for the document creator
- Once the Approver rejects or approves the document, the document creator will receive an email notification along with the comment (if applicable).
The document status will be Approved or Rejected. If Approved, the document can be sent.
Note:
Either Approver or document author can send the document once it’s approved.
If rejected, the document must be edited and resent for Approval.
Latest Activity in Document Info demonstrates Approval events.
Conditional approvals
Availability: Enterprise plan
Our conditional approvals feature allows you to automate your document approval workflow. Approvers will receive a document only if conditions that have been set in the template are met. If a condition is not met, the document will automatically move to approved status.
You can set a condition for:
- Document value
- Line item discount
- Total discount
- Line item discount total
How to set up Conditional approvals
To set up conditions for your approval workflow, start by opening your template, then follow these steps:
- Choose the vertical ellipses menu at the top of the page, then choose Workflow in the dropdown
- On the Approved tile, turn on the toggle to access approval settings
- Add individual approvers or an approver group
- Click the +Add condition button, then add one or more conditions
- Click Save
Tip:
You can set up different conditions for individual approvers separately, or you can leave certain approvers without conditions if they need to approve every document.
Tip:
Set an approval order if you’d like the document to go to only one approver at a time.
Note:
Since the conditional approval currency is controlled by the document value currency, if you change the document value currency, the conditional approval currency will sync with it.Tracking approvals
Audit trail and the Latest activity tile each track a document’s approval status, such as when an approval is automatically bypassed or a document has been approved.
