How Do I Create a Denial Step?

What is a Denial Step?

You have already learned how to create an Approval Step (see Creating an Approval Step). But what happens in Kuali Build if the approver does not approve the request? 

You guessed it!

You can create a Denial Step, which tells Kuali Build what to do with a form once an approver has rejected it.

How do I create a Denial Step?

• A denial step can only be created when an Approval Step has first been created (see Creating an Approval Step). 
• With the Approval panel open scroll down to the Denial section and What happens if it gets denied? You have 2 options:
  • Custom steps (add them in the denial section) - There are a few use cases for using custom steps. You may consider using custom steps if the form needs to be escalated to another individual once it has been denied. You may wish to send a notification to the form submitter that their request has been denied. (See more information later in this document on how to do that.)
    • Hint: A notification is not automatically sent to the submitter if their request has not been approved. If you would like a user to be notified of the denial, you must create a Notification step in the workflow.
  • Do nothing - If selected nothing will happen once the form is denied.
• Under "Then" you have the option to Stop the Workflow or Continue the Workflow:
  • Stop the Workflow - This will stop the workflow and no additional steps will be taken.
  • Continue the Workflow - Select this option if any additional steps need to happen after the form has been denied. 
• Your workflow step will save automatically by Kuali Build. No need to click a Save button.
  

Please note, if a document gets denied at a stop and you have 'Stop the Workflow' configured the document status will go to 'Denied'.  Also, if the stop is the final or only stop in the workflow and it gets denied is will go to status of 'Denied'.  Lastly, if you have it configured to 'Continue the Workflow' and the stop gets denied but there are future workflow stops then it will take the status of the last action (i.e. Approved or Denied).

How do I create Custom Steps and continue to the workflow?

Once the Approval and Denial steps have been created, you have the ability to add some custom steps and continue the workflow. While there are several use cases for this, here is just one example.

You have a form where students can request to change their major. The first approver is the student's advisor, and the second approver is the department chair of the program the student is requesting to join. 

You may wish for the advisor to make their recommendation through the Kuali Build Approval process, but ultimately the department chair has the final say. In this case you want the workflow process to continue despite a denial from the advisor. 

Here's how you do this:

• Fill out the fields in the Approval panel. Make sure you select Custom steps and Continue Workflow under the Denial section.
• Your workflow step will save automatically by Kuali Build. No need to click a Save button.
• Once you have created your step, and you will see this in the Workflow panel:  
• Notice that "Advisor" is listed as the Approver on this step. We want to add the step for the Department Chair's approval if the request is denied by the advisor.
• To do that click on the Approval step from the top left side of the Workflow screen, and drag and drop the step in the light gray box under If Denied.
• Complete the fields in the Approval panel (see Creating an Approval Step) so that the approval will route to the Department Chair. 
• The Department Chair's approval or denial will stop our workflow, but we still want the student to be notified of the denial. Under Denial in the Department Chair Approval box select: 
  • Custom Steps - This will allow us to send the notification to the submitter.
  • Stop Workflow - This will stop our workflow path and not require additional approvals.  
    • Notice that "Advisor" is listed in the outside box as the 1st approver. Department Chair is listed at the top of the inner box to indicate that they are the 2nd approver and the next step in the workflow if the Advisor denies the form. 
• To create the notification if the Department Chair rejects the form, click on the Notification step from the top left side of the Workflow screen, and drag and drop the step in the light gray box under If Denied below the Department Chair Approval.
  

Hints and Use Cases

Custom Steps and Stop the Workflow

Choose Custom Steps and Stop the Workflow if no other approval-type actions should occur, but you would like to send a notification of the form rejection to the submitter. In the example below, once the department chair denies the request, the submitter will receive the Denial Notification.

      

Custom Steps and Continue the Workflow

Choose Custom Steps and Continue the Workflow if additional steps should be taken after the denial and the rest of the workflow should be continued. This option works well if you would like to create an escalation path for the request so that someone else can see it before stopping the workflow entirely. However, this option would not be the best if you simply want to send a notification of the denial. See the example below.

In this example the Denial Notification will be sent, but because we selected "Continue the Workflow," the user will also receive the Approval Notification, which is probably not our intention.

Do Nothing and Continue the Workflow

Choose Do Nothing and Continue to the Workflow if the remainder of the workflow should continue regardless of the denial. In the example below, if the Department Chair denies the request, the rest of the workflow will continue, and the student will receive the Approval Notification. This may not be our intention, so we need to review our workflow.

Do Nothing and Stop the Workflow

Choose Do Nothing and Stop the Workflow if no action should be taken and the workflow stopped. In this example no additional steps will be taken, and a notification will not be sent.

What if the approver wants to send the form back to a previous step in the workflow?

At times in larger workflows, an approver may want to send the form back to an earlier step in the workflow rather than reject it all together. This is not something that is configured from the Workflow screen. Rather, the approver will see this option on the approval page when they go to approve. See How Do I Approve a Form?