Files and documents attached to app items can be sent for information and for approval. When you work with app items, you can send one document at a time or form packages of documents and send them for information or for approval during business processes. Read more about it in the Create Document Package article.
This article describes how to send one app item for information or approval from its page. Read more in Actions with files.
Send for information
Consider the following example. A company stores all regulations, policies, and guidelines in one app. Sometimes employees need to view these documents (for example, when a new employee is hired). In some cases, employees also need to confirm that they are informed about a document’s contents.
In ELMA365, you can easily send an app item to a user so that they can view or read it. The system can create a list of informed users that includes all employees who have read the document.
Note that it is a certain version of the document that is sent for information or for approval. If a new version is added before the task is completed, the process is interrupted. All participants get notifications informing them about it, and the list of informed users or approval sheet is archived with the Canceled status.
To send an app item for information, do the following:
- At the top of an app item’s page, click the
icon and select For information.
- In the window that opens, enter the necessary information.
- Recipients. You can specify multiple users who need to view the document. To do that, click the magnifying glass icon and select users from the list or start typing a name in the search bar.
- Assign a task and create a list of informed users. The specified users will get the task to view the document that will be available on their My tasks page; on the right side panel of the document, you will see the Informed users section. By default, this option is enabled. If you uncheck the box, the specified users will simply get a notification with a link to the document in their Activity stream. The list of informed users won’t be generated.
- View before. You can set a deadline for viewing the document by specifying the date and time in this field.
- Comment. Enter additional information about the file or the task.
- Click the Send button.
If the list of informed users is generated, it is shown on the right side panel on the document’s page. In the Informed users section, you can see all employees who got the task to view the file. The question mark icon next to a user’s name means they haven’t completed the task yet.
You can download the list of informed users in the .xslx format. To do that, click the 
icon to the right of the list’s status.
If, while this process is running, someone edits the document, the list of informed users will be archived. It's behavior is similar to archived approval sheets. However, you cannot unarchive an archived list of informed users.
Send for approval
Sending for approval is useful if your company’s policies state that a superior approves a document before it is released or sent to a client. For example, before sending an invoice to a customer, the sales rep gets the invoice approved by the Head of Sales. All information about approvers and their final decisions is added to the invoice’s page.
To send the invoice for approval, open the item’s page. In the top right corner, click the icon and select For approval.
You can send a document to one or several approvers. If there is only one approver, simply select the employee’s name in the list and click Send.
When selecting multiple approvers, you need to define the logic of the approval procedure.
- Select the Approval type:
- Parallel. The document/app item is simultaneously sent to all employees specified in the Approvers field. Select this type if the sequence of approval is not important.
- Sequential. The system sends the document/app item to the first approver. Once he or she makes a decision, the document/app item is sent to the next person. The process does not go further until the first approver either approves or rejects the document/app item.
начало внимание
The system sends the app item to approvers in the same order as you selected the employees in the Approvers field.
конец внимание
- Decide how the system should operate after the first rejection:
- Interrupt. If the submitted document/app item is rejected, the process will be interrupted. The decision shown on the document’s/item’s page will be Rejected.
- Continue. Even if one of the approvers rejects the document/app item, the process will not be interrupted and the document will be sent to the next approver. The document’s/items page will still feature the Rejected decision.
After setting up the logic, specify the approval due date and click Send.
ELMA365 will automatically assign a task to approve the document/app item to all the employees specified as approvers. A new section named Approval sheets will appear on the right pane of the item page. Here you will see the list of employees who are in charge of reviewing the item and their decisions. Until an approver makes a decision to approve or reject a document, the question mark icon will be displayed next to their name.
When the approval process ends, you will see the final decision on the document’s/app item’s page.
Read more about viewing decisions and working with them in the Approval sheets article.
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