Help ELMA ECM+

Sending a Document for Approval

This operation allows sending a document for approval to any user/users, and they can either approve or reject it. An approval task with the document attached is created.

To send a document for approval:

1. Open the page of the document that you want to send for approval.

2. Click Send and select Send for Approval (fig. 1). A form for sending the document for approval will open (fig. 2).

Fig. 1. Send for approval

Fig. 2. Form for sending a document for approval

The form has two tabs: Send for Approval and Document.

The Document tab contains the document page.

The Send for Approval tab allows selecting users, approval type, document version, and adding a note.

The Send for Approval tab includes the following fields:

Subject* – approval task name.

The name of the sent document is added to the field automatically. You can change the subject, if necessary. This field is required.

To* – the list of users who have to approve the document. Apart from separate approvers, you can add custom user lists. This field is required. The selected users will be displayed below the field (fig. 3).

Fig. 3. Selecting users for the document approval

By clicking on the cross icon next to a user you can remove the user from the list or clear the entire list of selected users. When you click on this button, a dialog box opens (fig. 4), where you need to select a further action:

Yes - remove the selected item;
Delete All - clear the list of selected users
No - cancel and return to selecting users

Fig. 4. Warning dialog box

The selected users will receive the document approval task.

If several users are selected, the Approval Type field will be added.

Approval Type – select the approval type.

There are two approval types in ELMA: serial and parallel.
Serial approval – document approval tasks are assigned to each user in the order the users were added in the To field.
Parallel approval – document approval tasks are assigned to all the selected users at the same time. The field contains two drop down lists (fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Approval Type field

In the first list you can select the approval type (fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Selecting approval type

In the second list, you can select the behavior in case one of the approvers rejects the document (fig. 7).
Continue approval – approval will continue, approval tasks will remain active for all the selected users.
Interrupt the approval procedure and inform all the approvers – approval will be interrupted, all the approval tasks will be closed. All the users will receive a corresponding notification. The Cancelled status will be set in the approval sheet for all the users, who have not completed their approval tasks.
Interrupt the approval procedure, inform everyone who has not approved yet – approval will be interrupted, all the approval tasks will be closed. Users, who have not completed their approval task, will receive a notification. The Cancelled status will be set in the approval sheet for all the users who have not completed their approval tasks.
Interrupt the approval procedure without informing – approval will be interrupted, all the approval tasks will be closed. Users will not receive a notification about approval interruption. The Cancelled status will be set in the approval sheet for all the users who have not completed their approval tasks.

Fig. 7. "If one approver rejected the document" drop down list

Approve Before* – end date of the approval task. You can also specify the exact time, if necessary. To do so, check the Specify time box (fig. 8) and select the time. This field is required.

Fig. 8. Selecting end time

Document Versions* – select the document version to send for approval. By default, the current version is added. To change it, click Select Version (fig. 9). You can select only one document version.

Fig. 9. Selecting a document version

Click on the document name to open its page (fig. 10, area 1).

Click on the file name of the selected document version to download it to your computer or open in browser (fig. 10, area 2).

Click Edit to edit the selected document version (fig. 10, area 3) in ELMA Agent.

Fig. 10. Working with document versions

Note – in this field you can specify additional information on the document or the approval task.

Sending a document for approval

The top menu of this page includes the following buttons

Send the document for approval.

Set time report limit for the approval task. Clicking this button adds the Time Report Limit field to the form

3. To send the document for approval, click Send. If the recipients do not have access to the document, the system will offer you to assign access.

When you send a document for approval:

1. Document approval tasks are created for each selected user.

2. The Approval tab is added to the document page.

3. The General Information tab displays the current approval tasks (fig. 11).

Fig. 11. Current tasks

Sending a Document for Approval

Sending a document for approval