How a step is approved and when reviewers are skipped

Everyone in an approval step is asked at once, also when the step holds several groups. The step's rules decide when the expense moves on, and the people who have not answered by then are skipped, with their review notification cleared.

When an expense reaches a step in an approval flow, everyone in that step's group, or in each of its groups when the step holds several, is asked to review it at the same time. The step's rules decide how many of them have to approve before the expense moves on. This article explains the rules, what happens to the people who have not answered once a rule is met, and why that is not a missed review.

Everyone in a step is asked at once

When an expense reaches a step, everyone in the step's groups becomes a reviewer together. Each of them:

• gets a Please review [name]'s expense report notification (or benefit purchase), tagged Awaiting your review, and
• gets an email with a link to the review.

They all see the same expense and can open it in any order. People in later steps are not asked yet. They are asked when the expense reaches their step.

The step's rule decides when it is done

HR sets a rule for each step on the Flows tab of Approval settings:

• Any 1 of [number] approves: the first approval completes the step.
• All [number] approve: every reviewer in the step has to approve.
• At least [number]: that many approvals complete the step. If fewer people are left in the step than that, for example because a reviewer was removed from the expense, approvals from everyone who is left are enough.

A Manager step is always one person, who approves alone.

When the rule is met, the expense moves to the next step, or is approved if that was the last step. If a reviewer who had not answered is removed from the expense, the step is checked again, so the approvals already given can now be enough. A step with no approval at all is never complete.

Steps with several groups

A step can hold several groups, asked at the same time. Each group has its own rule from the list above, and the step has one more rule across its groups:

• All must approve: the step is done once every group has met its own rule.
• Any one can approve: the step is done as soon as one group has met its own rule.

A group that has met its rule is done, even while the step still waits on another group. The people in that group who have not answered yet are skipped straight away.

If the same person is in two groups of one step, they approve once, and their approval counts for both groups.

If HR added an approver to the step by hand, with Add approver to this step on the expense, that person has to approve as well before the step is done.

The rest of the step is skipped

Once the rule is met, the people in the same step who have not answered yet no longer need to. Their review is marked as skipped instead of being left waiting. With All [number] approve on a step of its own, nobody is skipped, because everyone has already answered.

In a step with several groups, the same happens for each group: once a group has met its rule, the rest of that group is skipped, and once the whole step is done, everyone still waiting in it is skipped. On the expense's Approval card, a group that was no longer needed reads, for example, "HR: not needed, request withdrawn".

This only affects the step that was just completed. Reviewers in later steps are not touched.

Skipped reviewers have their notification cleared

A reviewer who is skipped does not have to do anything. Their review notification for that expense is cleared for them:

• The Awaiting your review tag disappears, since there is nothing left to do.
• If it was still unread, it stays in the count next to Notifications until they read it, like any other notification.

The notification is not deleted. It can still be found among their notifications, it just no longer asks for action. They also stop getting review reminders for that expense.

This is expected, not a missed review

Skipping is by design. Once a step has the approvals its rule asks for, keeping the others active would only point people at work that is already done.

Troubleshooting

• A reviewer's notification lost its tag before they looked at it. Colleagues in the same step approved first and the step's rule was met, so the rest of the step was skipped. Nothing was missed.
• One person approved but the expense is still waiting. The step needs more approvals (All or At least), the step has several groups and another group still has to approve, or the flow has more steps and the expense has moved on to the next one.
• A reviewer in two groups approved only once. That is enough. One approval counts for every group they are in at that step.
• We want every reviewer in a group to approve. Set the step's rule to All [number] approve on the Flows tab.
• We want two different groups to sign off. Add each group as its own step, so the expense passes through them in turn. Or put both groups in one step with All must approve, so they are asked at the same time and can approve in any order.