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Approval records are usually generated by the Contract Manager from the record that requires approval using Approval Workflows and their related Approval Templates, but can also be created ad hoc from the parent record by users with the appropriate privileges. After the Approval records have been created, they will sit in a status of Queued until the approvals are launched. When the status is changed to Pending Approval, the Approver or a member of the Approval Team can add notes about the approval or rejection in the Approval Notes field. Notes added to the Approval Notes field of Approval records are appended to the Approval Notes field under the Approvals tab of the parent record.

Use Cases

Read the following use cases to learn more about how to create related Approval records from the Contract, Document, and Change Request tables.

Use Case for Contract Approvals

Contract Approval records can be created in three ways:

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Users who click Permanently Rejected or Require Changes must enter Approval Notes explaining the decision. When the record is saved, the Approval Notes are appended to the All Contract Approval Notes field and are visible from any Approval record linked to that Contract. For more information on approvals for Contracts, see the Contract Management Table section.

Use Case for Document Approvals

Document Approval records can be created in two ways:

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The default Status for a new Document approval record is Pending Approval. Document Approval records are all created with a Step Number of one through conversion.  For more information on approvals for documents, see the Document Management Documents Table section.

Use Case for Change Request Approvals

Change Request Approval records can be created in two ways:

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If the approver marks the approval as Permanently Rejected, the linked Contract or Change Request is updated to a status of Rejected and the Requester and Contract or Change Management Team are notified. The user is required to resubmit the Contract or Change Request if it still required, albeit with the appropriate changes. All other approvals in the Contract or Change Request in a status of Queued or Pending Approval are updated to Not Needed. If an approval is updated from a status of Pending Approval to Not Needed as a result of a related approval's Permanently Rejected status, the Approver or Approval Team are notified that their approval is no longer necessary.

Automation

In the standard system demo, the Approvals table contains eight rules. These rules are accessed by expanding the Approvals table in the left pane, selecting Setup Approvals, and then selecting the Rules tab. They are listed based on approval type (Change Request, Document, Contract, other):

• Create: All Change Approval Creation Actions (web, API): This rule runs whenever a new Approval record is created for a Change Request record by a user or by another rule in the system. It consist of two If-Then-Else actions called I: Change Request Creation Actions and I: Assign Actions. I: Change Request Creation Actions automatically sets the values for Next Step Number, Concurrent Approvals, Lowest Step Number, and Next Approvals using Update Actions. These Update Actions contain saved searches that use global variables to ensure the values being used to populate the aforementioned fields are accurate. I: Assign Actions sets the value for Approval Team if the Approval Team field is left blank.
• Edit: All Change Approval Edit Actions (web, API): This rule runs whenever an Approval record for a Change Request record is edited by a user or by another rule in the system. It consists of a single If-Then-Else action called I: All Change Approval Edit Actions. This action ensures that when the record is edited, Approval Notes are copied to the parent record, and the values of the record are properly set. It can also send emails to Approvers.
• Create: All Document Approval Creation Actions (web, API): This rule runs whenever a new Approval record is created for a Document record by a user or by another rule in the system. It consists of a single If-Then-Else action that works more like a repository for four Update actions and an Email action. Similar to Create: All Change Approval Creation Actions (web, API), the Update Actions contain saved searches that use global variables to ensure the values being used to populate the Related To, Approval Team, Status, Concurrent Approvals, and Approval Title fields of the Document Approval record are accurate.
• Edit: All Document Approval Edit Actions (web, API): This rule runs whenever an Approval record for a Document record is edited by a user or by another rule in the system. It consists of a single If-Then-Else action called I: All Document Approval Edit Actions, which ensures that when the record is edited, Approval Notes are copied to the parent record, and the proper people get emailed if the Status changes.
• Create: All Contract Approval Create Actions (web, API): This rule runs whenever a new Approval record is created for a Contract record by a user or by another rule in the system. It consists of two If-Then-Else actions called I: Contract Approval Creation Actions and I: Set Approval Team to Contract Assigned Team if empty. I: Contract Approval Creation Actions automatically sets the values for Related To, Contract Title, zApproval Packet Files, Next Step Number, Concurrent Approvals, and Next Approvals. It also sets Approver ID or Approval Team, based on the value in the Assign Approval Based On field. I: Set Approval Team to Contract Assigned Team if empty sets the Approval Team if the Approval Team or Approver fields are blank.
• Edit: All Contract Approval Edit Actions (web, API): This rule runs whenever an Approval record for a Document record is edited by a user or by another rule in the system. It consists of a single If-Then-Else action called I: All Contract Approval Edit Actions. This action ensures that when the record is edited, Approval Notes are copied to the parent record, and the values of the record are properly set. It can also send emails to Approvers.
• Create: Notify if Needed for Contract Approvals (web, API): This rule runs whenever a new Approval record is created for a Contract record by a user or by another rule in the system. Because of the saved search, this rule only runs if the new record is created a valid Contract ID and a Status of Pending Approval. It contains an If-Then-Else action called Handle Approvals created in Pending Approval Status, which emails stakeholders about approving Contract records when necessary.
• Edit: Approval by Email (web): This rule runs whenever an Approval record for a Contract record is edited by a user. Because of the saved search, this rule only runs if the new record's Approved by Email field has just been changed to Yes, and if the Status is Pending Approval. It consists of two Update Actions called U: Set Approved by Email to No and U: Set Status to Approved, which are self-explanatory. 
• Create/Edit: Set Due Date to Working Day (web, API): This rule runs on approvals where the status is Pending Approval whenever a new Approval record is created or edited for a Contract record by a user or by another rule in the system. The logic sets the Due Date to the date the approval changed to Pending Approval + 2 business days. 

Ownership 

Approval records and Approval Template records are owned by the user who creates them. Specifically, a record is owned by the user whose Login matches the Creator Login field.