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Approval Workflow

A common business process requires someone to make decisions at different stages of a ticket’s lifecycle. Approval workflows ensure that no ticket moves forward without the consent of the relevant stakeholders. For an effective approval process, tickets should include sufficient detail to enable informed decision-making.

Approval workflows function best when:

  • The workflow is triggered automatically when the ticket parameters meet the workflow conditions.
  • The system sends appropriate notifications instantly.
  • The system allows technicians to remind the stakeholders.
  • Negative flow scenarios are properly defined.
  • Workflows are flexible and do not depend on a single person.

Approval workflows are easy to create in the system and do much more than traditional paper-based sign-off. Technicians can create manual approval requests, while admins can create automated approval workflows. An automated workflow can be a simple condition-and-action statement or a more complex workflow with multiple conditions and a series of approvers.

Types of Approval Workflows​

Approval workflows are broadly categorized into two types:

  • Manual: Technicians can create manual approval requests. They can decide who will be the approver. It is useful when a request is not standard and requires additional inputs from the stakeholders. From an admin perspective, you can enable or disable permission to create manual workflows. When permitted, technicians can create approval requests from a ticket's details page.
  • Automatic: For standard processes, when a technician requests approval, the system can use a default approval workflow instead of requiring you to define one manually. From an admin perspective, you can define different conditions that lead to the selection of approval workflows.
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Approval workflows are optional. They come into the picture only when someone requests approval. This means technicians can work on and close tickets without requesting approval. You can also use custom rules to require technicians to obtain approval.