How Do I Create an Approval Step?

Overview

• How do I create a new workflow?

• What steps can be added to a Workflow?

• What is an Approval Step? How do I create one?

• What is Step Label?

• How do I choose an approver?

• How do I compose the Approval email and subject line?

• What are Advanced Group Response Options?

How Do I Create a New Workflow?

In Kuali Build, creating a new Form in your App will automatically launch a new Workflow. 

What steps can be added to a Workflow?

• Approval - approval or rejection of a course, program, form, etc. Approvals typically pause all other steps in a workflow until a decision has beed made.
• Acknowledge - allows a user or role to acknowledge a form's submission. Unlike an approval, an acknowledgement does not pause the workflow until the submission has been reviewed. The workflow process will continue on with any subsequent steps.
• Notification - a configurable email sent to a selected user
• Branch - proposal routing based off conditions from the form
• Integration - allows you to select from a list of pre-configured integrations if any were created during implementation. 

What is an Approval Step? How do I create one?

• Click on the Approval step from the top left side of the Workflow screen.
• Drag and drop the step in the desired location. 
• Determine the settings for the step in the configuration panel that pops up on the right side of the screen.
• Your workflow step will save automatically by Kuali Build. No need to click a Save button.

What is Step Label?

By default the Approval Step you just created is called "Approval." This typically isn't a problem with a basic workflow configuration, but for more complex workflows it can get pretty confusing to have multiple steps named "Approval." 

The Step Label allows you to customize the name of this particular step so it more accurately represents this part of the process. This will help you keep your workflow organized as you are building out your process, but it can also help provide clarity for reviewers who need to approve multiple times during the process.

The Step Label appears in the Approval Notification that is emailed to the reviewer to help them identify where they are in the workflow process.

The Step Label is "Advisor Approval" in this example.

  

How do I choose an approver?

Once you have created an approval, the Approval panel will open on the right-hand side of the screen. From there, you can choose from a list of individuals to approve the form. Each option is discussed below. 

Person(s) in a role of a group, or the group's hierarchy, on the form

This will allow you to choose a person in a specific role from any group that was mentioned on your form.

Once this option is selected an additional field will load below that will ask you to specify the field on the form that lists the group.

You will then be prompted to select the role from that particular group that should approve the form submission. In this case role could refer to 1 person (e.g. Department Chair), or it could refer to a previously created role (or small group) that includes multiple people (e.g. Curriculum Committee). 

Once you determine who the approver will be, an additional field will pop up called Response Options. From there you can decide if a response from 1 person in that group is sufficient or if a certain percentage of users need to respond.

Person(s) in a role of any specific group

This will allow you to choose a person in a specific role from any of the groups that were pre-populated in Kuali Build during your implementation.

Once this option is selected an additional field will load below that will ask you to specify the role and the group.

In this case role could refer to 1 person (e.g. Department Chair), or it could refer to a previously created role (or small group) that includes multiple people (e.g. Curriculum Committee). 

Once you determine who the approver will be, an additional field will pop up called Response Options. From there you can decide if a response from 1 person in that group is sufficient or if a certain percentage of users need to respond.

A person specified on the form

This will allow you to choose a person listed in a field on the form. 

Once this option is selected an additional field will load below that will ask you to specify the field on the form where that person is listed. Additionally, you can select the submitter of the form by choosing "Submitter (meta.submittedBy)" from the drop down.

Any specific person 

This will allow you to choose any person from any of the groups that were pre-populated in Kuali Build during your implementation.

Once this option is selected you will be asked to specify the user.

How do I compose the Approval email and subject line?

The Customize Email Notification setting enables you to include a custom message in the notification that is sent to the assigned approvers.

• The Email Subject field allows you to customize the subject line of the approval notification email that will be sent to the approvers.
  • The Add Variable button allows you to populate and personalize the subject line with information from the form. In the example below, the subject line alerts the approver that they are approving the travel request of a specific individual. “Submitter - Display Name” in the subject line will be replaced with the form submitter’s name in the approval email.
• The Email Body field allows you to add a custom message to the approval email. By default, the approval notification will include the name of the form, the name of the approval workflow step referenced in the email, and the action requested of the email recipient. In this case the action requested is “Approval.”
  • The Add Variable button allows you to populate and personalize the email with information from the form. In the example below, the “Submitter - Display Name” placeholder will be populated with the form submitter’s name.
• Note: The Rich Text and Signature gadgets are not supported variables in custom notifications. Kuali Build intentionally does this to prevent your custom notifications from looking like spam emails to your end users.

What are Advanced Group Response Options?

At times you may have a need for multiple individuals to approve a form on a given workflow step. By default, a response from one person is sufficient on an approval step, and they determine whether or not the workflow process continues. Enabling the Advanced Group Response Options setting will allow you to determine what percentage of the participants need to respond before the workflow process can advance. You are also able to determine what percentage of those responses must be approvals.

 

What happens if a form gets denied?

For more information on how to create a Denial Step, see Creating a Denial Workflow.