As an administrator it is possible to make changes to how Approvals behave. Navigate to -> Configuration -> Approval -> Configuration


Fig 1 - Approval Configuration form


The usage of each of the approval settings is described in the table below:


Setting

Usage

Enable Approval by entity type?Select which entity you would like Approvals to be active for by checking the box's.  If you do not wish to use Approvals, then leave all three checkbox's blank.

Switching approvals off for an entity will not delete any of the existing Approval information. These records will be restored as they were before when Approvals are switched back on for that entity.

If an Approval request has been sent out via email and then Approvals for this entity is switched off, any links used via the email will display an error saying Approvals is disabled for the entity. If switched back on, the email links will work again as normal.

If you try to switch off Approvals for an entity where one of its fields has been used in a Approval Report or an Approval View, an error will display saying you should remove these references first.

You must also remove any reference to the entity if used in the Approval template.

For example:

If you have pulled out the Contract Document Title into an Approval View then you must remove it before Contract Document Approvals can be switched off.

If you have created an Approval Report and have included the Contract Document Title you must remove it before Contract Document Approvals can be switched off.

If you have pulled out the Contract Document Title into the Approval template you must remove it before Contract Document Approvals can be switched off.

Allow user to build approval chain at submission?If set to 'Yes' then when a user submits a contract for approval the user will be presented with an option that allows them to create an approval chain of their own choosing.
This is useful if you don’t have any approval rules set up (or very few). The setting facilitates flexible approval.
Allow Self Approval…If set to 'Yes', this option will allow a user to self-approve a contract if either:
  • The user is an admin user
  • There are no rules set up that affect the submitted contract.
If set to 'No' No option for self-approval is given
Only Approved Contracts.....If set to 'Yes' then only contracts that have a status of 'Approved' can use the Electronic Signature functionality
Allow users to choose their Supervisor as approverIf set to 'Yes', this option gives the submitter the ability to submit a contract for approval via the 'supervisor' hierarchy.

Note: If the user submitting has no supervisor configured then the although it will still be shown to the user it will be greyed and can not be used

For more information about how to configure the supervisor for a user click 
here
Allow submitter to change approval chain after submissionThis option can enable or disable the ability of the user that originally submits a contract for approval to subsequently edit the list of approvers.
At all times, admin users will have the ability to alter the approval chain after submission

Note: Approvers can never be edited once they have approved or rejected a contract
Allow "in progress" entities to be edited

By Default, this setting will be set to “No” so any existing Approvals are unaffected – an in progress contract approval cannot be edited.


If you set the option to “Yes”, any in-progress Contracts can be edited by the either the Approval submitter or the person who is currently assigned to review/approve the contract. As before, any users not part of the Approval request will be locked out and unable to make changes. For parallel Approvals this will result in all people that are part of the Approval request being able to edit the Contract at once.


Note: If an Approver assigned is 'Read Only' then they will not be able to make edits to the Contract, only to Approve or Reject.

Auto change Approval status to pending when.This option controls what happens to an approved contract, if the contract is subsequently amended.
  • Tick the “Contract header modified” if you wish the contract to be moved from approved/rejected to a Pending state if any of the fields on the contract header are changed
  • Tick the “Contract sub-entities modified” if you wish the contract to be moved from approved/rejected to a Pending state if any of the associated data to a contract is changed (for example, reminders, documents, linked people, KPIs).
Approval Portal EnabledIf set to 'Yes' then when the Approval email is received and actioned, the user will be presented with a portal detailing summary information about the contract to enable them to make a decision to Approve or Reject.

There is also an option to 'Review' the contract, if selected, this option will open up the users intelligentcontract account open at that contract
Approve or reject from email link requires user to login
 
When a user is next to action (i.e. approve or reject) a contract, they will receive an email. The email contains links to [Review] the contract.

If this option is set to No, when a user clicks on [Review], they will not be required to login to their intelligentcontract account in order to review the summary data and then subsequently confirm their approval or rejection.

By requiring a user to login before accepting or rejecting a contract will ensure that, even if emails are intercepted by a 3rd party, they will not gain access to be able to see summary data and/or be able to maliciously approve or reject a contract on behalf of a user.

By not requiring a user to login you are making the system of approval by email much simpler for your users
Confirmation requiredIf set to 'Yes' the then when the User approves the contract then they are prompted with Confirmation settings for completion
  • Tick the 'Approval Confirmation' checkbox to apply the Confirmation settings when Approvals are confirmed
  • Tick the 'Reject and Cancel Confirmation' checkbox to apply the Confirmation settings when Approvals are Rejected or Cancelled

Please note that if both checkbox's are ticked then generic Confirmation title and dialog text must be used to apply to Approve, Reject and Cancel actions
Confirmation dialog titleField to appropriately name the Confirmation screen
Confirmation dialog textField to enter Approval Confirmation text, such as a disclaimer
User must check confirmation boxIf set to 'Yes' then a tickbox will be displayed in the screen that must be checked to confirm the approval
Days to wait before sending Approval notification againThis option allows you set the number of days before the system will send a reminder to a user that has not yet approved or rejected a contract assigned to them.
This can be set a minimum of 1 day. i.e. send a approval notification each day that an approval transaction is outstanding.
Number of hours between Approval notifications sent to usersThis setting controls the number of hours that must elapse before the submitter of a contract can request that a notification be sent to the user that is currently assigned to approve or reject the contract they submitted.

Only the person that submitted the contract (or an administrator) can request to send additional approval notifications.