Review changes in PowerTable approval workflow

In this article, you learn how the approval workflow operates from both the author and approver perspectives. The author is the user who submits changes, while the approver reviews and approves those changes.

Important

This feature is in preview.

The approval process

The approval review process includes these main steps:

1. As an author, make changes and select Submit for review.

2. Enter the description of the changes, the due date, and the priority.

3. Select Submit.

Next, approvers navigate to the Approvals section to review the summary and detailed information about the submitted change requests.

The Approvals section has two tabs:

• My Requests (requests raised by you)

• Pending Requests (requests you need to approve)

Note

In some scenarios, a user might act as both an author and an approver based on the configured rules for specific sections or departments. In this case, the user can switch between these tabs to view both submitted requests and pending approvals.

My Requests tab

This tab displays an overview of the requests and changes that are waiting for approval.

It contains the following categories:

• Pending Review: Displays all open requests that are waiting for approval.

• Overdue: Shows open requests that are past their approval due date.

• Action Required: Displays requests where the approver suggested changes that require your action.

• Closed: Displays requests that are approved or closed.

You can switch between these tabs to view requests by status. Once a request is approved or closed, it moves to the Closed tab.

Use the search box to find specific requests.

Detailed view of your request

To understand each change request in detail, select View Details.

It displays details such as the request ID, description (if provided), approver information, date and time raised, approval due date, request owner, priority, and current status.

Select Edit Details to change any of these details.

Add comments

Add comments to provide more context for the approver.

1. Select the cell to enable the Comment icon.

2. Add a comment and then post it. The comments are updated automatically, and approvers can see them when they open the requests.

3. You can also add assignees and start a comment thread. To add assignees, select Assign to user and select the assignee, or you can directly use an @mention and add their names in the comments.

The task status is automatically set to Open, and an email notification is sent to the assignees. They can reply to the thread to start a conversation.

View comments

Select View Comments to view all the added comments at once.

Edit data

1. Select Edit to modify the data in the submitted changes. You can add new changes or undo or modify existing ones.

2. After editing, select Save to submit them.

View history

Select View History to view the history of edits or user actions.

Close request

Use Close Request to withdraw your submitted request and move it from the Open section to the Closed section.

Re-submit For Review

If the approver requests changes during the review, you can apply the suggested updates or skip them and add a comment. After making the changes or adding your comment, select Re-submit for Review to submit the request again.

Pending Requests tab

If you're an approver, this tab displays all pending requests submitted by other users for your review and approval.

Similar to the My Requests tab, you can use the search option to find specific requests. Use the Requested By filter to filter requests based on users.

Select Approve to instantly approve a request.

Detailed view of a request

Select Details for any request to view detailed information.

The approver can review all changes in the selected request. Updated values are highlighted in blue, and deleted rows appear in red.

Explore the request details with these actions:

1. Select View Comments to see all comments.

2. Select View History to view the action history for the request.

3. Finally, select Approve to approve the request or Reject to reject it.

Request changes or adjustments

Approvers can request modifications to a submitted request. Select Request Changes to suggest modifications.

Select Request Changes and add a comment describing the suggested change. Comments help the author understand the required modifications. Select Submit to send the request.

The author receives an email notification, reviews the suggestions, makes the required changes, and resubmits the request for approval.

Both the author and the approver receive email notifications for suggested changes and resubmissions, enabling faster collaboration through a conversation thread.

Disable approval workflow

To disable approvals, select the Manage Approvals button, turn off Enable Approvals, and select Proceed.

Note

When the approval workflow is disabled, all active requests are removed. Any new changes to the table can be committed directly by selecting Save to Database.