Non-Conformance Report (NCR) Advanced Approval Workflow

The NCR Advanced Approval Workflow is for projects that require a more comprehensive approval workflow for their NCR that include an Internal Review Process and a Feedback Loop or Conditional Completion, in addition to the Standard Approval Review process. 

You'll find three videos explaining the three main parts of the workflow:

• Internal Review Process 
• Standard Approval Review
• Conditional Completion

At the end of this article, you can also download the NCR Advanced Approval Workflow template.

Related Links:

Create Basic Workflows for Approvals

Create Advanced Workflows for Approvals

Status and Actions 

Before you start watching the videos, it is important that you understand the components of an approval workflow namely Status and Actions. 

Note: If you don't know where to view the approval workflows, see the articles under Related Links at the top.

Status/Steps are represented by oblongs/rectangles - click on each step to view and edit its properties on the right panel

 Actions are represented by arrows - click on each arrow to view and edit its properties on the right panel.

Part 1 : Standard Approval Review 

Key Points For Part 1 : 

• Actions (the arrows) lead one status (the boxes) to the next.
• Completion Steps or End Points have no actions leading from them i.e. Rejected, Manually Approved and Released
•  The main differences amongst these three statuses ( Rejected, Manually Approved and Released)   are : a) who can perform the action and b) how is the approval treated once completed 
•  Rejected - Step Properties : Alert step (which will highlight it in red) identifying this approval requires urgent attention and action, and Complete indicating it is an endpoint and will not proceed further in the workflow.
• Manually Approved - Action Properties : Requires Comment so that the person actioning the approval needs to provide the details of external evidence or document references to support the manual approval. The Requestor can action the manual approval.   
• Action Properties - Action Permissions :

         - Should use mostly "Requestor can action" and/or "Addressee can action". 

         - "Users can action" limits the action to only the users selected in that field regardless who sends                 the approval and to whom it is addressed. Not widely used and may be applicable to confidential               Internal Review where only specific persons can action.    

         -  "Roles can action" will not send out any automatic notification as it targets every user in that                      role. The notification will have to be sent out manually. Not widely used, however, it is an option                in some specific scenarios e.g. Internal Review. 

Part 2 : Conditional Completion or Feedback Loop

Key Points For Part 2 : 

• Conditional Released (no resubmit) – Requires comment to state what the condition is, the requestor can then move it to “Released”
• Conditional Released ( resubmit) - Addressee has requested a resubmit when the condition is complete, and can be released when the condition completion is accepted. Alternatively, it can move to "Review Required" if the condition completion is not accepted.  
• Resubmit is basically a feedback loop that directs the approval for resubmission until the condition is met or the action is taken to rectify the issue.  
• Action Permissions for Conditional Completion are mostly  : Requestor can action and/or Addressee can action
• Do not use 'Users can action" or "Roles can action" to replace users who have left the project. You can bulk update the approval requestors via the Approval Register. Refer to Reassign an Approval to a new Requestor / Reassign an Approval to a new Requestor (D)  

Part 3: Internal Review or Pre-Approval Process

Key Points for Part 3: 

• Internal Review Request- Step Properties - Private, First Step
• Private - Until a non-private step is reached, the approval will not appear on the register for a collaborator. It is also hidden from users who have no permission to "Approval View Private" in their roles. 
• For privacy reasons, Internal Review Request can be made available to specific users only for action. This is one such situation when you can use the action permission "Users can action" and "Roles can action". 
• Please note that "Roles can action" will not send out any automatic notification as it targets every user in that role. You will need to send out the notification manually. "Users can action" will notify the users selected.   
• Updating the users in "User can action" will not change the requestor of existing approvals. You'll need to update via the approval register.  Refer to Reassign an Approval to a new Requestor / Reassign an Approval to a new Requestor (D)  

 

Full Approval Process Demo using the NCR Advanced Approval Workflow

Download the NCR Advanced Approval Workflow Template 

For your convenience, you can also the download the NCR Advanced Approval Workflow template (cpx. file) attached at the end of this article into your CivilPro and use that as a base template to customize to your requirements. 

Select the relevant project, and navigate to Other Setup, then Approval Workflows register. 

Go to Global Action and select Import Templates. Select the cpx file from the folder where you have downloaded.  

Tip: if you can't see the options under Global Action, select and unselect an item on the register.