Working the approvals board

Approvals is where work waits for a decision. When something reaches a step that requires sign-off, it appears here for the people entitled to decide.

How to clear your approval queue

1. Go to Approvals.
2. Stay on the Open Approvals tab. This is what is still waiting.
3. Set the filter to show only items awaiting your decision. This is the usual starting point.
4. Open an item. Where it concerns a document, a preview opens so you can read the exact version under review.
5. Record your decision: Approve, Reject, Request changes, or leave it pending.
6. Move to the next item.

The two tabs

Open Approvals is what is still waiting on a decision. Completed Approvals is what has been decided, kept for the record rather than cleared away.

Filtering

• Mine limits the board to items awaiting your decision.
• Type narrows to a particular kind of approval.
• Status filters by the decision itself: pending, approved, rejected, or changes requested.

Filtering by status spans both tabs, because a decision status is more specific than the open and completed split.

Reading before you decide

Approvals concerning a document include a preview, so you can read the version under review without leaving the board.

The version you preview here is tracked separately from the version shown on the request screen. Opening a preview will not disturb what a colleague is looking at on the request itself.

What your decision does

Approve lets the work proceed. Reject stops it, and the decision stays on the record. Request changes sends it back with what needs to change, which is the right choice when the work is nearly right rather than wrong.

Leaving something pending is a legitimate option and is not the same as ignoring it. It records that you have not yet decided.

Every decision is written to the request's history with your name and the time, and is never edited afterwards.