Approval Management Solution

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The Approval Management solution enables you to manage approval processes across different domains in your organization.

Overview

The Approval Management solution supports the following typical approval types:

  • Financial approvals: Expense and budget approvals
  • Work and resource approvals: Timesheet approvals, leave or vacation approvals, and resource allocation approvals
  • Project and portfolio approvals: New project or initiative approvals and change request approvals
  • Governance and compliance approvals: Solution or architecture approvals and exception approvals
  • Operational approvals: Access or permissions approvals, procurement workflow approvals, and incident approvals

By default, Targetprocess offers solutions to support approvals for Portfolio Epics and Timesheets. You can manually configure approvals for other entities as .required.

Solution Components

The Approval Management solution is included in the following components:

  • Approvals for Portfolio Epics
  • Approvals for Timesheets

How approvals work

The approval process includes the following stages:

  1. Submission: You submit a request for approval on an item, such as a timesheet, solution document, or purchase order.
  2. Routing: The system routes the approval to the appropriate approvers.
  3. Decision: Approvers approve, reject, or escalate the request.
  4. Audit and tracking: The system records approval actions and maintains a history of approvals.

Approval workflows can use either sequential or parallel routing.

Configure approval settings

During installation, configure the following settings:
  • Entity types that require approvals
  • Workflow type (sequential or parallel)
  • Approver roles for each entity type

After configuration, users can submit entities for approval. The system generates and tracks approval records automatically.

For more information, see Install and Configure Approval Management Solution

Workflow components

Approver roles

Every approval record includes an Approver Role field. The system populates this field based on the roles configured during installation. Different entity types can use different approver roles.

Examples:
Entity type Approver roles
Portfolio Epic Account Manager, Product Owner, Solution Owner
Timesheet Team Lead, Project Manager, Payroll Specialist
Position Request Line Approver, HR, Finance

Users are assigned through the native Assignments section using the Approver role. Ensure that this role is available on the Approval entity.

Approval flow types

There are two flow types supported in the solution: Sequential and Parallel.

Different flow types can be applied to different entities Portfolio Epic, Timesheet, etc.

Sequential flow type
In a sequential workflow, the system creates approval requests one at a time. Each approval must be completed before the next approval is created.
  • If an approver approves the request, the system generates the next approval step.
  • If an approver rejects the request, the workflow stops.

The process continues until all required approvals are completed or a rejection occurs.

  • Approved: The next approval step is created and assigned to the subsequent role in the workflow.
  • Not Approved: The process stops, and no further approval steps are generated.

The workflow proceeds sequentially, step by step, until all approver roles are completed or any approver rejects the request.

Parallel flow type

In a parallel workflow, the system creates all approval requests at the same time. Approvers can review and act on requests independently.

Edit a workflow

If editing is enabled, users can modify workflow settings before submitting the request. Use the edit icon in the approval chart to update:
  • Approval type
  • Approver roles

Both approval type and approver roles can be adjusted in this manner before approval is submitted.

Escalate an approval

Enable escalation to allow an approver to route a request to a higher-level approver. When escalation is enabled, the Escalate option becomes available in the approval outcome field.

When an approver selects Escalate:

  1. The system displays an escalation section.
  2. A higher-level approver can be assigned.
  3. The request can be escalated up to two times.
After the final review, the Final Approval Outcome field displays either:
  • Approved
  • Not Approved
Note: The solution does not automatically assign users to approval records. Assign approvers manually.

Notifications

When an approval is assigned, the system:
  • Mentions the assigned user in a comment
  • Sends a notification that includes approval details and a link to the item requiring review

Start an approval workflow

Select Submit for Approval to start the workflow. The system creates approval requests based on the configured workflow. If the entity uses external approvals only, the system sends the request to the external system instead of creating internal approval records.

The Approval Status field updates automatically as the workflow progresses.

Status Description
Pending Submission The item has not been submitted for approval.
Pending Approval Internal approvals are in progress.
Pending External Approval The system is waiting for an external approval decision.
Approved All required approvals have been granted.
Not Approved One or more approvals have been rejected.

Example: Portfolio Epic Approval Process

  1. From the left navigation menu, click Portfolio Epic Approvals.
  2. Click +Add to create a new Portfolio Epic record.
  3. Enter Name.
  4. Select a Portfolio from the dropdown menu.

  5. Select Submit for Approval when the Portfolio Epic is ready for review.

    The system creates the required approval workflow and approval roles.

  6. After submission, the approval workflow becomes active and the required approval roles are initialized.

Adding an Approver
To assign an approver to a specific approval step:
  1. Navigate to the Approval panel of the Portfolio Epic.
  2. Locate the approval card corresponding to the required role (for example, Account Manager).
  3. Identify the highlighted reference number (for example, #2256) displayed within the approval card.
  4. Click the highlighted number.

    This action opens the approval record details.

  5. Click +Approver to add or assign the required approver user.

After the approver is assigned, the approval step becomes actionable and can proceed with approval operations (Approve, Reject, or Escalate).

Approval Actions
  1. Click the ellipsis menu in the Approver card.
  2. Select the following:
    • Approve: Mark the approval as completed successfully
    • Reject: Decline the approval (if configured)
    • Escalate: Forward approval to higher authority

    Provide a reason/comment during approval action.