A Digital Approval Workflow means your team can efficiently review, approve, reject and track requests. Instead of leaving things to chance with a mix of emails, paper forms and chasing people for responses, you can easily manage your approvals, responsibilities and keep everything in order.
To make sure it runs smoothly, you'll need to think about your requirements, who is approving and what tools are best for the job.
A checklist will help your team plan, implement and manage your Digital Approval Workflow.
1. Purpose
Before considering any software to use or the stages of your approval workflow, you'll want to know what you're trying to achieve. This will help you avoid any extra steps in your process and make sure your system is working well.
Checklist:
- What tasks need to be approved?
- What is the main aim of your approval? Are you looking to speed things up, improve accuracy or keep things compliant?
- Who are the employees, managers and departments involved?
- What are the common issues with your current approval process?
- How will you know if it's successful?
- What requests require extra attention?
For example, a marketing team may need approvals for blogs, adverts, social media and campaign budgets. Each request may need their own approval process.
Knowing the purpose and the people involved will help your team create a workflow that aligns with business needs. +1 eLearning Industry
2. Roles
Every approval workflow should clearly state who is submitting, reviewing and approving the request. This will avoid confusion and double checking.
Checklist:
- Who is the owner of the process?
- Who can submit approval requests?
- Who will be reviewing and approving?
- What roles do each person have within the process?
- What level of access do they have to view, edit and approve documents?
- Who are the backup approvers?
For example, a purchase request may be submitted by an employee, reviewed by the department manager and approved by the finance team. Everyone should know their role within the process.
3. Submit Requests
A Digital Approval Workflow should make it easy for employees to submit fully completed requests. Having standardized forms will also help avoid missing information.
Checklist:
- Centralise where requests can be submitted.
- Create standard forms for regular approvals.
- Make sure there are all the necessary fields included. For example type of request, description, amount and deadline.
- Mandatory fields should be included for essential information.
- Include a place to attach relevant documents.
- Include clear guidance on how to complete the form.
- Clarify what will happen if the request is incomplete.
For example, a standardized purchase request may have fields for product name, quantity, estimated cost, supplier and reason for purchase. This will give the approver all the information they need to make a decision.
4. Approval Process
Depending on the request, you may need different people to approve. Some requests may only need one manager to approve whilst others may need finance, legal, compliance or senior management to review.
Checklist:
- Map out the full approval process.
- Decide if you'd like approvals to be sequential or parallel.
- Set rules for approvals. Depending on the request, department, value or risk.
- What requests require extra review?
- Clearly state what happens if a request is rejected.
- What rules do you have for exceptional requests?
- Avoid any unnecessary approvals.
For example, a small expense may only need approval from the department manager. Whereas a large purchase may also need finance and senior management approval.
5. Choose the Right Digital Approval Tool
Ensure the platform you choose will meet your teams approval needs. It should be easy to use, secure, flexible and allow for future growth.
Checklist:
- Is it easy to use?
- Does it include the required approvals?
- Can you customize the forms and rules?
- Can users access it on mobile?
- Is it secure?
- Does it keep a record of approvals?
- Can it integrate with other business tools?
- Can it handle increased volumes of requests?
- Compare the price, support and maintenance.
6. Set Timeframes, Alerts and Escalation
If people aren't aware they need to take action, approval requests can be delayed. By setting timeframes and alerts your team can ensure requests are moving along.
Checklist:
- Set a timeframe for each approval.
- Notify when a request has been submitted.
- Notify approvers when they've been assigned.
- Send reminders for pending approvals.
- Set rules for escalating requests.
- Have a backup approver.
- Create a process for urgent requests.
For example, if a manager doesn't review a purchase request within 2 working days they may receive a reminder. If it still hasn't been approved it can be escalated.
7. Document Control
Many approval processes will include documents that will need editing. Without good version control, people could be reviewing old documents.
Checklist:
- Store documents in one place.
- Keep a record of different versions.
- Show who has made changes and amendments.
- Ensure reviewers have access to the most up to date version.
- Record comments.
- Limit editing.
- Keep a history of approvals, rejections and amendments
8. Data Protection
Your Digital Approval Workflow may include financial information, employee information, contracts and other sensitive documents. You should ensure only those who need to have access and keep a record of important actions.
Checklist:
- Secure logins and authentication.
- Role based access.
- Limit access to sensitive documents.
- Keep a record of who submitted, reviewed and approved.
- Keep a record of dates, decisions, comments and amendments.
- Set rules for keeping and deleting documents.
- Regularly check security and compliance.
Having a clear audit trail will help your organization understand how decisions have been made.
9. Integration
A Digital Approval Workflow will be more useful if it can integrate with the tools your employees are already using. This will help reduce double entry.
Checklist:
- Identify what tools are currently being used.
- Does the approval tool integrate with the tools you need?
- Integrate with relevant document storage.
- Consider integrating with finance, HR, procurement or project management software.
- Reduce double entry.
- Test that information is transferred correctly.
- Identify who will deal with any integration issues.
10. Test Your Workflow
Testing your workflow will help you identify any missing steps, incorrect rules, access issues or other problems.
Checklist:
- Test with sample approval requests.
- Ensure requests go to the right approver.
- Test approval, rejection and amendment options.
- Test alerts.
- Test escalation for overdue requests.
- Ensure access is working.
- Test document uploads and version history.
- Test any unusual scenarios.
- Get feedback from employees.
For example, you could test an incomplete purchase request to ensure the system highlights this and sends it back to the requester.
11. Training
Even if you have a great digital system in place, if your employees don't know how to use it, it won't be successful. Training will help your users follow the correct process.
Checklist:
- Explain why a new workflow is being put in place.
- Show how to submit and review requests.
- Show approvers how to approve, reject or request amendments.
- Explain timeframes and escalation.
- Provide guidance on uploading documents and version control.
- Provide support for common technical issues.
- Get feedback.
The training should be practical and relevant to the role of the user. Requesters should know how to complete their requests with all the information whilst approvers should know how to review requests and record decisions.
12. Review Performance
Once you've launched your workflow you should regularly review how it is performing. This will help you identify any delays, recurring errors and ways to improve.
Checklist:
- Track the average approval time.
- Track the number of pending requests.
- Review how many approvals are overdue and how often they're being escalated.
- Identify any stages where requests tend to be delayed.
- Track the number of rejections and resubmissions.
- Get feedback from requesters and approvers.
- Review any automation and integration issues.
- Update approval rules if business needs change.
Some useful KPIs to track include how long approvals take, approval rate, number of pending requests and how many requests are sent back.
Examples of Digital Approval Workflows
The checklist can be tailored to different departments as each team will have different requests to approve.
Team Example Approval Process Key Considerations:
- Marketing Draft content > Editor > Marketing Manager > Publish Version control, feedback and timeframes.
- Finance Expense request > Department Manager > Finance team Budget limits, supporting documents and audit trail.
- Human Resources Leave request > Reporting Manager > HR confirmation Employee records, permissions and timely alerts.
- Procurement Purchase request > Department Head > Finance > Final approval Purchase limits, supplier details and authorization.
- Legal Contract submission > Legal reviewer > Senior approval Confidentiality, document history and compliance.
For example, a marketing team may use a Digital Approval Workflow to submit a blog draft using a standardized form. The content will be reviewed by an editor, checked by the marketing manager and then the final approved version can be moved onto publication. If amendments are required it will be sent back to the writer with feedback.
Conclusion
A successful Digital Approval Workflow will need clear approval rules, roles, standardized forms, secure documents and reliable communications.
Heloixcan be seen as part of this wider approach to improving your digital processes. When planning your approval workflows you should first identify what your operational needs are and then look at what solutions would be best for your team. This should consider usability, flexibility, integration and visibility.
Using a checklist will help organizations plan for implementation, identify any potential issues and ensure everything is managed at every stage. Regular testing, training and monitoring will ensure your workflow remains effective as your business needs change.
Following a team checklist will help organizations reduce any unnecessary delays, increase accountability and create a more organized process.
References
- The Ultimate Checklist for Setting Up a Remote Approval Workflow - eLearning Industry
- A Useful Workflow Approval Platform Checklist - Perivan
- How Do Teams Workflow Approvals Actually Work? A Step-by-Step Breakdown - ONES
- Digital Workflow Management Checklist for Shared Services - Neotechie
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