Managing Approvals

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To manage approvals, go to Manage > Approvals.

Viewing

In the Approvals panel, you can view all the approvals in GoApprove.

Here’s what each column shows:

Column	Description
Approvals	The name of the approval.
Description	A brief description of the approval.
Owner	The person who created the approval.
Status	Whether the approval is On or Off.
Created	The date and time the approval was created.
Modified	The date and time of the last update.

You can customize the panel using the toolbar to select which columns are shown, adjust row spacing, sort each column, and rearrange columns by dragging them left or right.

Creating

In the Approvals panel, click the plus (+) icon to open the Create Approval panel.

Choose whether to:

• Use a template,
• Start from one of your existing approvals, or
• Create a new approval from scratch.

After choosing, give your approval a name and brief description, then click Create. This will open the Flow Builder.

Viewing details

To check, update, or patch an approval, you need to view its details.

In the Approvals panel, find the approval's Name. Either click directly on the Name or hover over it and click the "more" button     next to it. Select View from the menu that appears.

This will open the Approval Details panel for that approval.

The Approval Details panel is divided into three sections:

• Versions: Displays the different versions of the approvals and their status.
• People and Groups: Shows the manual activities and how they are assigned to people and groups.
• Details: Provides more in-depth information about the version currently selected in the Versions section.

In the Versions section, you can customize the display by choosing which columns to show and adjusting the row spacing using the toolbar.

The available columns in the Versions section are:

Column	Description
Version	The version number of the approval.
Status	Shows if the approval is On, Off, in Draft (for editing), or Ready (final draft completed).
Locked By	Shows if the version is locked and who locked it.
Created	The date and time the version was created.
Patch	Indicates if a patch is in progress and its number.
Patch Status	The current status of the patch (Draft or Active).

tip

You can sort each column, change column widths, and move columns left or right by dragging them.

Available actions

Click the "more" button     next to a specific version to see the available actions.

Here are the actions you can take for an approval version:

Option	Description	Notes
Turn On	Turn on the approval.	Available when the status is Ready or Off. Turning On a version will automatically turn Off any other version that is currently On.
Turn Off	Turn off the approval.	Available when the status is On.
View	Open the approval in the Flow Builder.
Create Draft	Create a new draft version ready for editing.
Edit Draft	Edit the draft version in the Flow Builder.
Discard Draft	Delete the draft and all changes.
Acquire Lock	Take control of the approval if someone else has locked it for editing.
Create Patch	Create a patch ready for editing.
Edit Patch	Edit the patch in the Flow Builder.
Discard Patch	Delete the patch and all changes.
Activate Patch	Apply the patch to the approval.

Updating

You can update an approval from the Approval Details panel.

Updating an approval means creating a new version and making changes to it. These changes will only apply when the new version is turned on. Existing approval runs will not use the updated version.

To update an approval, create a draft version using the Create Draft action. Then edit the draft by selecting Edit Draft to open the Flow Builder.

Learn how to update your approval by using the Flow Builder.

note

When updating an approval, choose a baseline version as the starting point for the new version. Usually, you'll select the latest version, but if you want to undo some recent changes, you can choose an earlier version instead.

Patching

You can patch an approval from the Approval Details panel.

Patching is for making changes to approval runs that have not yet completed. You can only make limited changes this way.

To patch an approval, create a patch using the Create Patch action. Then, edit the patch by selecting Edit Patch to open the Flow Builder.

Learn how to patch your approval by using the Flow Builder.

note

To patch an approval, choose the version you want to patch. You can only patch a version that has active approval runs:

• If the version is being turned off but still has active runs, you can patch it.
• If the version is on with active runs, you can patch it.
• If the version is on without active runs or turned off, you need to use update instead.

Starting and stopping

To start or stop an approval, go to the Approval Details panel.

You can Turn On or Turn Off a specific version of an approval. When you turn on a new version, any other version that is currently on will automatically turn off.

Hiding

To hide , open the Approval panel.

Select the approval you want to hide, then choose Hide from the … menu next to it. Use the panel filter to show or hide approvals.