Approvals Register

User Level: Intermediate

What is an Approval?

Approvals can be made form a Work Point, a Hold Point, a Checklist or a Non-Conformance Report. An approval is simply a document that is given to a client so that they can review the record it was made from and approve it so that work may continue. 

What is the purpose of the Approvals Register?

The approvals register is the hub for controlling and managing your approvals in a single location. It can do a variety of functions which are listed below.

Approval Requests Register Colour Coding

Items in the register colour coded to indicate progress:

• Grey – draft status (not published)
• Orange -requested  (published/emailed)
• Green – completed/closed out

Completion Definition

An Approval is considered COMPLETED if one of the following is true:

• it is approved or manually approved
• it is conditionally approved and closed out
• it is NCR’d and closed out
• it is rejected and closed out

Manually Approving from the Desktop

Even if you are not the addressee of the approval request there may be a situation where you have been given the go-ahead to approve it.  To do this you have to do a “manual approval”:

1. Double click on the item you need to approve from within the Approvals Register.  This will open approval details screen as described above.
2. From within the approval details screen click on the Manually Approve button at the bottom right of the screen.
3. You will then get a message confirming that the approval is not addressed to you but that you would like to approval manually.  Click OK.
4. The Approve/Respond screen will appear.  Type in any notes regarding the manual approval in the comments section and click OK.  Note: for a manual approval it is a requirement that you enter details in the comments field.
5. A response email will be generated.  This communicates to all related parties that this item has been manually approved.  If necessary you can also add additional content to the email – simply type the content within the message section of the email.  Press Send. 
   Note:  You can attached files to this email using green + button to the right of the Attachments field in the header section of the email.                                  

Approving/Responding from the Desktop

To approve/respond to an Approval Request:

1. From within the Spec & Conformance heading within the main menu, open the Approval Register
2. Double click on the item you need to approve from within the Approvals Register.  This will open the Approval Details screen
3. From within the Approval Details screen click on the Approve/Respond button at the bottom right of the screen.
4. The Approve/Respond screen will appear.  Select the appropriate status option from the drop down and add any notes in the comments field.  Press OK. 
5. A response email will be generated.  This communicates to all related parties that there has been a response to this approval request (i.e. it has been statused).  Press Send.  Note:  You can attached files to this email using green + button to the right of the Attachment field in the email header section.  

Approval/Respond Shortcut

You can directly access the Approve/Respond dialog from within the register by using the Context Menu shortcut:

1. From within the Approvals Register select the item for approval/response and right click to bring up the context menu.
2. From the options select Approve.  This will take you directly to the Manual Approval or Approval/Respond screen.  Complete approval as described above.                      

Closing Out

When an approval request is completed it may be closed out.

1. From within the Approval Register select the item to be closed out then right click to bring up the context menu. From the options select Close Out Approval. 
2. The Close Out dialog will appear.  Complete as required and click OK.  You will now see that the Compl? checkbox for that item will be checked.  Note: for a close out you are required to enter details in comments section.  

Reports

To generate a selection of reports including individual approvals, click on the Reports button at the bottom left of the Approvals Register screen and make your selection from the drop down options.  These will open in the report viewer – from here you can edit, convert to various formats and save/print/email.