Approval Task

When you send a document for approval, the user you send it to receives an approval task with the document attached. The name of the task is the subject specified when sending the document for approval (fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Approval task

An approval task form has five tabs:

Approval – this tab contains two sections.

The Documents section allows you to:

view the document page;
download the document version sent for approval;
edit the document via ELMA Agent (if installed); This feature is available while the document is pending approval, or if settings in Administration – Document Management – General Settings of "Document Management" Section – Document Task Settings allow editing documents after approval
add a new document version (fig. 2).

The Approval Sheet section, with the current approval sheet (fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Approval tab

Preview – this tab allows previewing the current document version without downloading it to your PC. If the document version extension does not support the preview function, this tab is not displayed (fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Preview tab

About Task – this tab contains information about the task: end date, author, executor, creation date and status (fig. 4).

Fig. 4. About Task tab

History – standard tab for task pages. To learn more, see the respective Help page.

Sub-Tasks – this tab displays all the sub-tasks created in this approval task. This tab is displayed only if at least one sub-task has been created.

Time Report – this tab displays all the time reports submitted on this task. This tab is displayed only if at least one time report item has been submitted.

Document – this tab shows the document page. To edit the document page, click open in a new window (fig. 5)

Fig. 5. Document tab

Top menu buttons

The top menu of the approval task page includes the following buttons:

	Approve the document and complete the task. When you click this button, a form opens, where you can add a comment and click Save. Depending on the settings the Comment field may be a required one. The comment will be added to the document page. The Approved status will be displayed next to the user name in the approval sheet
	Reject the document and complete the task. When you click this button, a form opens, where you can add a comment and click Save. Depending on the settings the Comment field may be a required one. The comment will be added to the document page. The Rejected status will be displayed next to the user name in the approval sheet
	Click this button to start the task execution. In the opened dialog box you can add a comment or upload a file.
	Create Sub-Task – create a sub-task. Reassign – reassign the task to another user. If the user to whom the task is reassigned is already in the approval sheet, the duplicated user can be deleted from the approval sheet and the reassigned task will be deleted from their task list. Alternatively, the user can remain in the approval sheet and will receive two or more identical tasks. The approval sheet may include this user two or more times. Besides, when the executor of an approval task reassigns it, the approval sheet will display not only the name of the new executor, but also the first executor (in parentheses). Reschedule – reschedule the end date of the task. The task author and executor will receive a notification about it. Ask Question – ask a question on the task. Add Comment – allows adding a comment to the task. Add Time Report – allows adding a time report on this task. Observer List – allows adding observers to the task Download attachments - you can download the files attached to the task (including the files attached in a comment).

Creating sub-tasks

To create a sub-task, click Actions and select Create Sub-Task. In the opened dialog box (fig. 8) specify the following parameters:

Select sub-task type – select the type of the new sub-task. You can select Acquaintance Task or User Task. When you create acquaintance sub-tasks, they are added to a separate acquaintance sheet;

With the specific settings, subtasks cannot be created for the users who are already in the approval sheet. In this case, the following notification will be displayed on the parent task page (fig. 6):

Fig. 6. Notification that a user is already in the approval sheet

If it is not forbidden to duplicate users in the approval sheet, for these users approval sub-tasks can be created. In this case, 2 approval tasks will be assigned to the executor and he/she will be duplicated in the approval sheet.
Require digital signature – specify whether to require digital signature when completing the acquaintance sub-task. If you select Yes, the Sign attributes with digital signature box will be checked in the sub-task completion form, and the user will not be able to uncheck it (fig. 7). The availability of this option is defined by the system administrator in Administration – Document Management – General Settings of "Document Management" section – Digital Signature Settings – General Settings.
by checking the boxes, select the fields to move to the sub-task. Click Select All or Deselect All to check or uncheck all the boxes respectively.

Click OK.

Fig. 7. Selecting fields to move to the sub-task

Fig. 8. Approval task completion form

After that, the form for creating a task will open, featuring the selected fields.

Note, that when creating a sub-task, you cannot change the document version. The document version from the parent task is automatically attached to the sub-task. If the document version has been changed before the sub-task was created, the version that was originally sent for approval will be attached to the sub-task.

After filling in all the required fields, click Save or Send in the toolbar, depending on the sub-task type you have selected. The task will be assigned to the executor. Note, that the sub-task due date is limited by the due date of the parent task.

All the created sub-tasks are displayed on the Sub-Tasks tab of the approval task (fig. 8) and on the Tasks tab of the document page.

Fig. 9. Approval task. Sub-Tasks tab

When you attempt to complete a task with active user sub-tasks or acquaintance sub-tasks, a warning dialog box will open notifying you that there are active sub-tasks (fig. 9). If you click Yes, active sub-tasks will remain in the system.

Fig. 10. Warning dialog box for user and acquaintance sub-tasks

When you attempt to complete a task with active approval sub-tasks, a warning dialog box will open notifying you that there are active sub-tasks (fig. 10). If you click Yes, active sub-tasks will be completed and removed from the approval sheet.

Fig. 11. Warning dialog box for approval sub-tasks

The sub-task approval sheet has indentation in the Executor column, visualizing the sub-task hierarchy (fig. 11). Note, that nesting of sub-tasks is not limited.

Fig. 12. Approval sheet with sub-task hierarchy