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Approval Workflows (The "How")

📍 How to get here:

  1. Click on the Settings gear icon in your navigation menu.
  2. Select Organization Settings.
  3. Look at the left sidebar for the Notifications & Workflows section.

Now that you have your Personas (the Who) and your Module States (the What), the Approval Workflows tab ties them together using a powerful, drag-and-drop visual graph designer!

The List View​

When you first open the Approval Workflows tab, you will see the List View. This is your dashboard for managing all the workflows across your organization.

Workflow List View

How workflows are organized​

Workflows are grouped by Module (e.g., People Management, Employee Expense Management, Timesheet Management). Each module section shows all the workflows that have been created for it.

Workflow Module Cards

Workflow Cards​

Each workflow appears as a card with the following information:

  • Status Badges:
    • ACTIVE (green): This workflow is currently live and processing documents.
    • LOCKED (amber): This workflow has active approval requests in progress. You can only View the designer — editing and deletion are blocked until all in-flight requests are resolved.
    • Inactive: The workflow exists but is not processing any new documents.
  • Step Count: Shows how many approval steps the workflow contains (e.g., "4 Steps").
  • Actions on each card:
    • Edit/View Designer — Opens the visual graph designer for this workflow.
    • Duplicate — Creates a full copy of the workflow (including all steps) in an Inactive state, so you can safely iterate on a new version without affecting the live one.
    • Activate / Deactivate — Toggle whether the workflow is live.
    • Delete — Remove the workflow entirely (blocked if it has active instances).

Workflow Lifecycle & Safety Locks​

Because workflows govern active documents, the system enforces strict referential integrity to prevent data corruption.

  • The "Active Instances" Lock: If you attempt to delete a workflow that currently has documents pending approval inside it, the system will actively block the deletion. A LockDialog will appear, warning you that the workflow cannot be destroyed while documents are in-transit. You must either wait for those documents to clear or manually cancel them before deletion is permitted.
  • Safe Iteration (Duplication): Because active workflows are locked, the recommended way to update a live workflow is to click Duplicate. This clones the entire workflow (and its graph) in an inactive state. You can edit the clone safely, save it as "V2", and then swap the active states.

Creating a new workflow​

  • Click + CREATE WORKFLOW at the top to create a workflow for any module.
  • Click + NEW WORKFLOW next to a specific module header to create one pre-locked to that module.

Saving Your Work​

After building your workflow graph in the designer:

  1. Click the 💾 SAVE CANVAS button in the top-right corner.
  2. The system saves:
    • The visual graph layout (node positions and connections).
    • All step configurations (personas, SLA rules, conditions).
    • All transition mappings (which action leads where).
  3. You will be returned to the List View with a success toast.

💡 Quick Tip: You can duplicate an active workflow to create a V2 before deactivating V1. This gives you a safe way to iterate without disrupting in-flight approvals!