Enabling approvals

In the Approvals tab, you can determine whether approvals are required for proposed changes to your organization and how they’re handled.

Enable approvals for scenarios

When you enable approvals for scenarios, scenarios go through an additional review and approval process before they can be merged to your Primary organization.

Instead of moving directly from an Open status to a Merged status, scenarios go through review and can be merged only when they have a status of Approved. Learn more.

You select approvers who review and approve all submitted scenarios and specific people to notify once the scenario is approved so they can merge the scenario. A scenario is considered approved once all approvers have given their approval.

To enable approvals for scenarios:

1. In the Settings menu (gear icon), select Org settings.
2. Navigate to the Approvals tab.
3. Turn on the Enable approvals setting.
4. Configure the First approver.
   • When an approval request is submitted, it is first sent to this individual.
   • To add a specific person as the First approver, select Person in the Approver type dropdown. Then, in the Add approver field, enter the name of the person you want to add as an approver.
   • To define the approver based on their relationship to the requester, select either Manager of requester or Second-level manager of requester from the Approver type dropdown. 
     • Selecting these options automatically sends the approval request to the manager or manager’s manager of the original requester without having to define a specific individual.
5. Configure the Second approver.
   • This person receives the approval request after the First approver has given their approval.
   • You can add a specific person or define the Second approver based on their relationship to the requester.
   • To skip a Second approver, select None from the Approver type dropdown.
6. Configure the Third approver.
   • This person receives the approval request after the Second approver has given their approval.
   • You can add a specific person or define the Third approver based on their relationship to the requester.
   • To skip a Third approver, select None from the Approver type dropdown.
7. Select people to be notified once the scenario has been approved. ChartHop recommends this step so you can keep track of approved scenarios.
   • This should be someone who has the ability to merge the scenarios to Primary (only users with the Owner or Org editor role).
   • Only the people you select will be notified that a scenario has been approved. However, all individuals with the ability to merge to Primary (based on permissions) can still merge the scenario.
8. Select Save settings.

Select a fallback approver

You have the ability to select a Fallback approver to step in when regular approvers are unavailable. A fallback approver is used when the intended approver does not exist, such as in the following cases:

• A person who was an approver has left the company, but the approval settings were not updated.
• The approver type was set to be the manager of the requester, but the requester does not have a manager.
• Logic for a dynamic approver resulted in an issue or error.

To select a Fallback approver:

1. In the Settings menu (gear icon), select Org settings.
2. Navigate to the Approvals tab.
3. In the Fallback approver dropdown, enter the name of the person you want to select as your Fallback approver.
4. Select Save settings.

Disable approvals for scenarios

When you turn off the Enable approvals setting, approvals requirements are removed for scenarios. You can merge scenarios to primary without review and approval as long as you have the Owner or Org editor roles.

Any scenarios that have not been merged (with a status of In Review, Rejected or Approved) revert back to the Open status. Learn more.