Setting up approval flow

Setting up approval flow

Feature availability

 

 

Plan

 

 

Free

Express

Professional

Approval Flow

❌

❌

✅

 

You can set up an approval process for articles within your knowledge base. You can assign specific manual admins or contributors as approvers and make sure articles within the manuals go through the approval flow before they get published.

Why do we need Approvals?

Approval flow helps in streamlining the content creation and review processes. It helps in setting up clear approval steps through which unauthorized changes can be prevented and also resources can be maintained up-to-date.  

How to set an Approval Flow?

Start by enabling the approval flow at the manual level and then choosing the approvers. Once you've enabled Approval Flow for a particular manual, all the articles within the manual will have to undergo the approval flow process before getting published.

To set up Approval Flow:

  1. Navigate to the manual and click on Manual Options ().

  2. Go to Approval Flow and choose General Settings.

  1. Toggle the button to enable.

 

Adding approvers

Users with admin and contributor privileges in the manual can be assigned as approvers. When setting up approval flow for a particular article within the manual, you can choose who should approve your article from the assigned manual level approvers. You can choose between the options 'Everyone should approve' and 'Anyone can approve'
Notes
 Authors or contributors of the manual must manually designate approvers.There will be no approvers assigned by default.

To add approvers at the manual level:

  1. Click on the Add approvers button next to Manage Approvers.

  1. Type in the names or email addresses of the users whom you want to add as approvers and click Add.

Info
You can add up to 5 users per manual as approvers

Assigning approvers at the article level

You can choose approvers from among the manual approvers for each article that you create within the manual.

To assign approvers at the article level:

  1. Navigate to the article editor and click on the Send for Approval button.

  1. Type in the names or email addresses of the users whom you want to add as approvers and click Send.

Notes
Assigned approver of the manual can self- assign as an approver of articles within the manual.

Choosing when an article can be marked as approved

There are two main options for when an article can be marked as approved: when any one of the approvers approves, or only when all the approvers approve.

Everyone should approve:This approach requires all approvers to give their approval before an article can be marked as approved. This ensures that the article has been thoroughly reviewed and approved by all the assigned approvers.Choosing this option means that the article will only be considered approved once all the approvers have given their approval. Even if one approver suggests changes while the others approve, the article will still be in the stage of suggested changes.

Any one can approve:The article can be marked as approved as soon as one approver gives their approval. This option can be considered when there are many articles that need to be approved in a short amount of time.

Managing approvers

Replacing an approver

Replacing an approver can be considered when an assigned approver leaves the organization, takes extended leave, or there are changes in their roles and responsibilities. In such situations, another person may have to take up the role in order to ensure that the approval process runs smoothly. All the articles that were assigned to the previous approver will automatically be assigned to the new approver.

To replace an approver:

  1. Go to the Manual options.

  2. Select Approval Flow and choose General Settings.

  1. Click on the More options icon next to the approver that you want to replace.

  2. Click Replace.

 

  1. Type in the name or email address of the new approver and click Replace.

To remove an approver:

When you remove an approver from an article that has other approvers, the approver will no longer be part of the approval flow process, but the process will continue. If you remove the sole approver of an article, all the articles that awaits action from them will be aborted.These articles will be saved as drafts.

  1. Go to the Manual options.

  2. Select Approval Flow and choose General Settings.

  3. Click on the More options icon next to the approver that you want to remove.

  4. Click Remove.

Sending an article for approval

To send an article for approval:

Method 1

  1. Click on the Article Options icon.

  2. Then, choose Send for Approval.

  1. Choose the approvers, add a note and then click Send.

 

Method 2

  1. Click on the Send for Approval button from the article editor.

   2. Choose the approvers, add a note, and then click Send.

 

Approvers will receive in-app notifications and emails notifications when you send an article for approval.

How to view the article's current state?

You can view the status of your article next to the article editor button.The status will be displayed under Approval Status.

How to view the flow history?

You can view the flow history of an article by following more than one way.
Method 1
To view a summary of the flow:
Click on the current state label.

For more detailed status history, click View full history.

Method 2

  1. Go to Article Options.

  2. Click on View Approval History.

Viewing articles in flow

You can see the list of your articles that are still in flow.
To viewing articles in flow:

  1. Navigate to the manual and click on Manual Options ().

  2. Go to Approval Flow and choose Articles in Flow.

How to abort Approval Flow?

You can abort a running approval flow for an article by following any of the following methods.
Method 1

  1. To abort the flow, click on the current state label.

  2. Click on Abort Approval Flow.

Method 2

  1. Go to Article Options.

  2. Select Abort Approval Flow.

To abort approval flow for a manual:

  1. Navigate to the manual and click on Manual Options ().

  2. Go to Approval Flow and choose General Settings.

  3. Toggle the button to disable .

What happens when a flow is aborted?

Aborting Article Approval will remove the article from the approval process. The article will be saved as a draft. In order to publish the article in the manual, the article will have to complete the approval flow process.
 


    • Related Articles

    • Setting up your domain

      IMPORTANT: Only the Administrator of your Innovation Cloud Startup environment have access to the System settings options. To configure system details: 1. Click on your name in the upper right corner of the screen and from the drop-down menu choose ...

    • Approve ideas In Idea Folder

      IMPORTANT: Only the Administrator of the Innovation Cloud Startup can approve ideas in Idea Folders. Within Innovation Cloud PRO solution, the Administrator and the Approver can approve ideas in Idea Folders. Approvers can locate the ideas that are ...

    • Actions on idea

      The action buttons enable you to change the status of an idea, to progress and develop an idea, and finally to make the decision on implementation of the idea. When the idea is created and improved through collaboration, the only action Idea ...

    • cloud support PDF

      How to install Windows 11 in a virtual machine or template NOTICE: Please see the requirements for this process below. Hive Fabric Version 8.5.2 or later This process has been tested Windows 11 24H2, other versions may have different install options. ...

    • cloud support PDF

      How to install Windows 11 in a virtual machine or template NOTICE: Please see the requirements for this process below. Hive Fabric Version 8.5.2 or later This process has been tested Windows 11 24H2, other versions may have different install options. ...