Introduction
To get started, go to Self Service > Approval workflows.
Create or manage an approval workflow
Select the Create button on the Approval Workflows overview screen. Or, select an Edit link to manage an existing workflow.
General tab
The workflow's General tab contains the following fields:
- Name
The name of the new workflow. - Enabled
Enabled workflows are available for use in Self Service products. Disabled workflows are not. - Default
Set your new workflow as the default workflow which all new products will have pre-selected. Note that only one workflow at a time may be selected as the default, so when you enable this toggle, the current default workflow will be un-defaulted. - Send Default Emails
Whether HelloID will send email notifications and email reminders to approvers. Turning this toggle off is useful if you plan to include your own email actions inside a self service product.
Approval tab
On the Approval tab, configure how the request for a Self Service product is routed and approved. You are given the following options:
- Specify Approvers
A list of users or groups to whom a request will be sent for approval. More information is provided below in the Specify Approvers section. - Approval Order
The order in which approval requests are sent and handled. More information is provided below in the Approval Order section. - Show Anticipated Approvers
When this toggle is enabled, end users will see a Next Approvers section when requesting a product using the Open button on the Self Service Products tab of the end user dashboard. This section shows who will be required to approve the request. Note that approvers are listed in order from left to right, if the workflow's approval order is set to All users must approve in sequence.
- Requesting User Should Approve
If the requesting user is themselves on the approvers list for the product they've requested, require the user to submit their own approval. - Approve Comment Required
Require users approving a request to write a comment as part of their approval. - Deny Comment Required
Require users denying a request to write a comment as part of their denial. - Automatic Action Enabled
Configure a request to be automatically approved or denied if a given time period passes without a sufficient approver response as required by the workflow.
Specify Approvers
Static Approvers
With the Specify Approvers toggle turned on, you may statically define which users or groups are responsible for approving requests using this workflow.
- To add a specific HelloID user or group, search for them by name.
- Select the name of the user or group you wish to add to the approvers list.
Note that when a group has been added to the approvers list, only a single user in the group must submit their approval.
Dynamic Approvers
Members of the approvers list may also be dynamic. Examples of dynamic users and groups include the Resource Owner of the product or the Manager of the requesting user.
Additionally, you may construct your own Custom Filter based on HelloID user attributes. A custom filter works essentially the same as a group, except the approver list is generated based on specified user attribute values.
- To add the product owner or the requesting user's manager to the approvers list, select the Resource Owner or Manager buttons, respectively.
- To add a custom filter, first select the Custom filter button. This will bring up a new dialog box.
- On the dialog box, select the attribute that you wish to filter by in the User Attribute drop down. In this example, we will use the department attribute.
- In the Value drop down, either select a static value, or dynamically use the value from the requesting user's own attributes by selecting the Switch to match with requester's value link. To return to using a static value, select the Switch back to static value link.
- You may add additional filters by selecting the Add filter button. For example, you can filter by title, as shown in this example:
- On the right-hand side of the dialog box, you can preview which users would be approvers under the filter's current scope, if the user selected in the drop down were the requester.
- Select the Save button to add the filter.
- Hover over the newly-added filter to preview users that match the filter criteria, just as you could inside the custom filter configuration.
As with groups, only a single user in a custom filter's scope must submit their approval.
Approval Order
You may configure the order in which approvers receive notice and must submit their approval. You have the following options:
- All users must approve
Every user on the approvers list must submit their approval to grant the request, but in no particular order. - All users must approve in sequence
Every user on the approvers list must submit their approval to grant the request, in the order specified in the list. You may rearrange the approvers by dragging-and-dropping them in the list.
- Any user must approve
Only a single approver must submit their approval in order to grant the request.
Reminder tab
Turn on the Reminder Enabled toggle and specify a Reminder Timeout to have HelloID send email reminders to the next person on the approvers list, if that person has not responded to the request within the defined timeout period. This is useful to prevent Self Service requests from being buried within users' email inboxes.
Finishing up
Select the Save button once you have configured your approval workflow to your liking. Your new workflow is visible on the Approval Workflows overview, and is also available in the Workflow dropdown when creating or editing a Self Service product. Learn more about Self Service products here.
