Publishing approvals

Approvals is an optional configuration that, when enabled, require Action Flows to first be approved by workbench members in approval groups you've chosen, before they can be published. If Approvals are not configured, then Action Flows can be published by any workbench member who has admin permissions on the card template resource.

To set up approvals, you need to do the following:

1. Create at least one approval group and assign workbench members to it.
2. Configure the approval process.

Any subsequent publishing of the new draft versions will be subject to the current approval requirements.

Create an approval group

Creating groups is explained in the Group section of the workbench permissions article.

You first need to create one or more roles that you can then assign to the group of approvers.

1. First add a role that gives permission to view card templates

Click the 'manage' button in the bottom left corner > Workbench members. Alternatively, open the command palette and type Workbench members. Select Roles, then click Create a new role.

From the sidebar menu click the Org option and choose Workbench members.

Name the role, and give it a clear description. For example:

• Title: Card Approvers
• Role description: Role access for card approvers to be able to see card templates

Give it access to the Card template resource, with View level of access.

Add a role that gives permission to view card templates and edit Action Flows.

2. Add the role to a group

Now create a workbench member group for each unique area of your business that needs to approve a card before publishing. For example, legal, data, and product teams.

Click the 'manage' button in the bottom left corner > Workbench members. Alternatively, open the command palette and type Workbench members. Select Groups, then select Create a new group.

Create one or more approver groups, assign them the approver role

Name the first group, and give it a clear description. For example:

• Title: Card Approvers — Legal
• Group description: A group for members of our legal team who can approve cards

Now give this group access to the Role created in stage one: the 'Card Approvers' role.

Configure approval permission to only some environments using Permissions

Repeat this step for each group of Workbench members who need to approve cards. For example, you may like to add a group called 'Card Approvers — Data' and 'Card Approvers — Product' also.

3. Add workbench members to group(s)

When inviting new members into the workbench, you’ll now be able to add them to any of the new approver groups.

If you already have workbench members in your environment, you can now add them to the appropriate group.

Click the 'manage' button in the sidebar menu, choose Workbench members, then in the Workbench members tab select the member you wish to edit, and then check the box next to the appropriate Group from step 2. See more at Preferences

Configure the approval process

Go to Configuration > Action Flows > Approvals. Alternatively, open the command palette and type Approvals. Toggle Require approvals on. This setting applies for the whole environment.

From the configuration area, select which group(s) must provide approvals

Next select all of the groups who are required to approve cards, and select ‘Update’.

The approvals configuration screen enables you to specify one or more groups that need to approve the card before it can be published. If you select multiple groups, each of these groups needs to approve the card template. If a workbench member belongs to multiple approval groups, they can select on behalf of which group(s) they are approving.

Prevent the requester approving

Beta feature

Prevent the requester approving is in beta and may be subject to change. Please contact us to provide feedback.

By default, a workbench member who belongs to an approval group can approve an Action Flow that they submitted themselves. Where someone holds both editing and approving permissions, this means they can take a draft all the way through to publishing without anyone else reviewing it.

Turning on Prevent the requester approving closes that gap. The member who submits an Action Flow for approval can no longer approve it, so a second person always signs it off. Like Require approvals, this setting applies to the whole environment.

To turn it on:

1. Go to Configuration > Action Flows > Approvals. Alternatively, open the command palette and type Approvals.
2. Make sure Require approvals is on and that you have selected at least one approval group.
3. Toggle Prevent the requester approving on.
4. Select Update.

The setting applies to everyone, including approval overrides

Approval overrides let a member approve on behalf of a group they do not belong to. They do not let anyone approve an Action Flow that they submitted themselves.

This is deliberate: an exception for override approvers would let a single person submit and sign off their own work, which is the situation this setting exists to prevent.

If a requester is the only member of a required approval group, that Action Flow cannot be approved by anyone in that group. To resolve it, either add another member to the group, ask a member with Approval Override permissions to record the approval, or cancel the request and have a colleague submit the draft instead. We recommend setting up approval overrides before turning this setting on, so you always have a way forward.

Approvals already recorded are re-checked

This setting is applied whenever approvals are evaluated, not only to Action Flows submitted after you turned it on.

If an Action Flow was already approved by the member who submitted it, that approval stops counting the moment you turn the setting on. The group returns to awaiting approval, the Approve tab shows the approval as Not counted, and the Action Flow cannot be published until a different member approves it. Turning the setting off again makes those approvals count once more.

Require approvals from distinct individuals

Beta feature

Require approvals from distinct individuals is in beta and may be subject to change. Please contact us to provide feedback.

Where you require approval from more than one group, a member who belongs to several of those groups can approve for all of them. One person can then satisfy every approval on their own, which defeats the reason for requiring several groups in the first place.

Turning on Require approvals from distinct individuals limits each member to one approval per Action Flow version. Once someone has approved for one group, the remaining groups wait for somebody else. Like Require approvals, this setting applies to the whole environment.

To turn it on:

1. Go to Configuration > Action Flows > Approvals. Alternatively, open the command palette and type Approvals.
2. Make sure Require approvals is on and that you have selected at least two approval groups.
3. Toggle Require approvals from distinct individuals on.
4. Select Update.

This setting is independent of Prevent the requester approving. Turn on both if you want every Action Flow to be prepared by one person and approved by two others.

Approvers choose which group they approve for

An approver who belongs to several required groups sees an approve option against each of those groups on the Approve tab, and picks one. Once they have approved, the other groups no longer offer them the option and the tab explains why.

There is no way to move a recorded approval from one group to another. If someone approves for the wrong group, an editor needs to cancel the approval request and submit the draft again, which clears the approvals recorded so far.

The setting applies to everyone, including approval overrides

Approval overrides let a member approve on behalf of a group they do not belong to. They do not let anyone provide more than one of the required approvals.

This is deliberate: an exception for override approvers would let a single person sign off an Action Flow on every group's behalf, which is the situation this setting exists to prevent.

If the required groups share all of their members, an Action Flow can reach a point where nobody left is able to approve it. To resolve it, either add another member to one of the groups, or ask a member with Approval Override permissions who has not already approved to record the outstanding approval. We recommend setting up approval overrides before turning this setting on, so you always have a way forward.

Approvals already recorded are re-checked

This setting is applied whenever approvals are evaluated, not only to Action Flows submitted after you turned it on.

If a member has already approved for several groups on the same Action Flow, only their earliest approval keeps counting once you turn the setting on. The later ones are shown as Not counted on the Approve tab, those groups return to awaiting approval, and the Action Flow cannot be published until somebody else approves them. Turning the setting off again makes those approvals count once more.

Set up approval override permissions

We recommend giving one or more key team members permission to approve card templates without having all necessary approvals in place, so cards can be approved in a time of extreme urgency.

This can be done by giving Admin permissions on the Approval Override permission.

To give approval-override permissions, add this to a role (or create a dedicated role)