What are Approval Workflows and How Do They Work?

Objective

To understand the basics of Approval Workflows.

Environment

While a policy proceeds through the Approval process in PolicyStat.

Answer

Approval Workflows are a sequence of steps wherein selected Approvers can either mark their approval or make edits to a policy while it pends for approval.
 

The topic of Approval Workflows is one of the Three Pillars of PolicyStat. For more on the Three Pillars concept or to view the other two Pillars, see What are the core concepts of PolicyStat?
 

All policies must complete the Approval Workflow process prior to becoming active and searchable.
 

Previous to PolicyStat, many clients documented approval processes through verbal, electronic, or physical methods. PolicyStat’s Approval Workflows help translate existing approval processes to defined, documented, and streamlined Workflows that maintain compliance with accreditation and/or regulatory bodies.

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All policies start in a draft format and pend for approval through an Approval Workflow. When the policy completes the Workflow, it becomes active and searchable. The graphic below displays the lifecycle process for a policy to move from draft to active within PolicyStat.

Policy Lifecycle

Sample Approval Workflow

Approve During an Approval Workflow

Once the Approver marks their approval, automatic routing moves the policy from one Approver (or committee) to the next in line.

For more on how to approve a pending policy as it progresses through a workflow, see How do I Approve a Pending Policy?

Reject/Edit During an Approval Workflow

If any Approver or Committee changes, edits, or rejects the policy, a new draft is created and the approval process restarts. This ensures Approvers view and approve only the latest version.

For more on how to reject or edit a pending policy, see How do I Edit a Pending Document?

What Happens Once All Approvers Have Approved?

By default, once the final Approver has marked their approval, the policy becomes Active. Any user can view the policy's content and search to locate the policy*.

However, an effective date can be scheduled for a date in the future. During this period, the policy will move to a status of "Scheduled" and will not yet be live and searchable. For more on scheduling an effective date, see How do I Schedule an Effective Date for a policy that needs to be on hold until a specific date?

Approval Workflow Process

A quick disclaimer that some terms may differ for your location, but the concepts are universal. Area may be known as Policy Area, Department, Category, or another term on your PolicyStat site.

Click here to download a printable PDF on Approval Workflows.
 

Additional Information:

If a user is assigned on step one in an approval workflow and is not an owner for documents using that workflow they will not see the Edit button and cannot start a new version or make modifications. 

Users who serve as Approvers along the workflow cannot edit the policy until it is their turn to approve in the workflow sequence. 

Approvers needing to edit prior to the workflow will need to have create and edit permissions for the Area assigned to the document.

Optional Approvals and Approval Simulations will not advance the workflow. Approval Simulations will still show up in the Approval Signatures section but Optional Approvals will only show in the History section of the policy.