Submitting Requests for Actions that Require Approval
If you are responsible for sending a record into an approval process, you are considered the requestor in the approval process. For example, if you click Post in an invoice record, and the invoice must be approved before it posts, then you are the requestor who triggered an approval process for that invoice.
The following flowchart shows the life cycle of a request from the requestor's point of view. Click areas of the flowchart for more information.
As a requestor, you can easily track both your active requests and the requests that are completed (approved or rejected). You also have the ability to cancel an approval request once it is sent. To receive emails about the status of your requests for approval, you can set approval process email notifications.
You can view the status of the records for which you have requested some kind of approval in the following ways:
- Select Requests from the All drop-down list on the tab bar to open My Requests. If your home page has a My Requests portal pane, you can also click one of the links that summarizes the status of your requests to open My Requests.
- Open the record of a request, which displays the status on its toolbar. From that record, you can click the Workflow page for a list of active requests and completed requests.
Viewing Your Active Requests
The requests for approval that you submitted are summarized on the My Requests page. Requests that are not approved or rejected yet appear in the Active Requests section.
To view your active requests
- From the All tab, open the Requests page.
The Active Requests page provides you with a summary of the status of each request. - If necessary, click Show Filter to enter search criteria, and click Search to display only certain types of requests for a record type.
Note: You can also open a record and click the Workflow page to track the approval schedule of a request.
Active Requests Section of My Requests Page
Field/Button |
Description |
---|---|
Search |
This drop-down list filters the list of results on this page. Choose a specific record type from the drop-down list so that only records of that type appear in the list of results. After making your selections, click Search to filter the results. If a search filter appears, enter search criteria and click Search again. |
Show Filter/Hide Filter |
This link shows or hides the search criteria that you can use to find a certain type of request for a record type. |
Search Filter Note: The search filter only appears if one is specified for the record type you select. |
|
Field |
The name of the field you want to search. |
Operator |
The option that describes the criteria that you want to use to further narrow your results. See Operators for more information. |
Value |
The value you enter that the search uses to return specific results. |
Search |
The button that you click to execute the search. |
Clear Values |
The link that you click to remove all values from the search |
Reset to Default |
The link that you click to reset all operators and values to the default fields. |
Active Requests table Note: Different fields may appear depending on your system settings. |
Record In the record page, you can view the approval status. Depending on how the approval rule is defined, you may not be able to edit the record while it is pending approval. Request Submitted Expected Completion Date Depending on how the approval process is defined in the approval rule by administrators, and what happens during the approval process, the expected completion date could change to a later date. Days Remaining Stop For example, if there are three stops in the approval route, and the approvers in the first stop already approved the request, then the approval is in stop 2 of 3. |
Cancel |
Click to cancel the selected request or requests. For details, see Canceling Approval Requests. Caution: Be careful not to click this button when you want to close the My Requests page. You may accidentally cancel any selected approval requests. |
Viewing Your Completed Requests
The requests for approval that are completed are summarized on the My Requests page. You can view the approved or rejected requests in the Completed Requests section. This section also lists requests that you canceled.
The Completed Requests section (the Completed Requests Section of My Requests Page image) provides you with a summary of each approved, rejected, and canceled request. The Action column indicates the final status of the request.
To view your completed requests
- From the Tools tab, open the My Requests page. The My Requests page opens.
- Click the Completed Requests page.
- In the Search drop-down list, select which requests you want to view, depending on how they were completed or resolved:
- All Requests Completed—Requests that have been approved, canceled, or rejected.
- Requests Approved—Requests that were fully approved by the approvers in the route as well as requests that were automatically approved when the route expired.
- Requests Canceled—Requests that you canceled.
- Requests Rejected—Requests that were rejected by an approver in the route, returned to you by the Process Manager, or automatically rejected when the route expired.
- Using the Completed Date From and Completed Date To date fields, select the date range for completion that you want to view.
- Click Search.
The list of your completed requests displays.
Note: You can also open a record and click the Workflow page to track the approval history of a request.Completed Requests Section of My Requests Page
Field/Button |
Description |
|
---|---|---|
Search |
This drop-down list filters the list of results on this page by the reasons for request completion. After making your selections, click Search to filter the results. |
|
Completed Date From |
The date that specifies the earliest completion date to appear in the search results. Select the to specify a date. |
|
Completed Date To |
The date that specifies the latest completion date to appear in the search results. Select the to specify a date. |
|
Completed Requests table
|
Record Request Submitted Completed Duration Action |
Canceling Approval Requests
You can cancel an approval request if you need to make a modification in the record before sending it for approval. You can cancel an approval request only if you submitted the request. You can cancel a request from these locations:
- In the record itself (such as an invoice), from the record toolbar.
An approval status section is displayed in a record only when you have submitted an approval request. Approvers, reviewers, and Process Managers also see this section in the record, but it is displayed with slightly different information. - On the My Requests page.
To cancel an approval request in the individual record page
- Select Requests from the All drop-down list on the tab bar. The My Requests page is displayed.
- Click the Active Requests link (see the Active Requests Section of My Requests Page image).
- Click the Record hyperlink of the request that you want to cancel. The record opens with the General page displayed.
- In the record toolbar, click Cancel Request. (Note that only you, the requestor, will see this button in the toolbar. Other users cannot see it.)
- In the confirmation message that is displayed, click Yes.
The system automatically makes a date and time entry when the request was canceled and updates the status of the request to "canceled" on the Workflow page.
The approval request is removed from approvers' work lists.
Note: A cancellation email will only be sent to the user who put the record into workflow. - If necessary, make any needed modifications and resubmit your request for approval.
To cancel approval requests on the My Requests page
- Go to the My Requests page using the hyperlinks in the My Requests portal pane, or by selecting My Requests from the All drop-down list on the tab bar.
- The My Requests page is displayed.
- Click the Active Requests link (see the Active Requests Section of My Requests Page image).
- Select the check-box next to each request that you want to cancel.
- Click Cancel.
The selected requests are canceled and removed from approvers' work lists.