How are the approvers assigned to tasks?

Important: If you use Visma.net Approval in combination with Visma Document Center, then the workflow is determined in Visma Document Center. This means that the information below does not apply to documents coming from Visma Document Center.

Using Visma.net Approval, you have the possibility to find approvers for your documents in different ways.

This FAQ aims to explain how Visma.net Approval adapts the workflow (approvers) when a document is edited by an approver, and when the 4-eyes principle is activated.

Workflow configuration

The first thing you need to do is to create a workflow configuration where you determine how approvers should be selected.

For example, you can always have the same person approving each step, regardless of the content of the document. Or you can find approvers based on the content of the document, using cost units, project units, managers or organisation units. Which of these options are available to you depends on the type of document and from which service it is sent.

In Set up workflows you can read more about the workflow configuration and the different ways of finding an approver.

For the remainder of this FAQ, we will assume that a workflow configuration is created with at least:

  • 4-eyes approval activated
  • Editing is allowed on all steps
  • Re-approve changes is set to always on all steps
    It is important to note that the re-approve setting applies to the step that should be re-approved in case of changes in a subsequent step. In other words, if re-approval is activated for step 1 and not for step 2 and step 3, an edit done in step 3 will require re-approval from step 1 and not from step 2.

Example configuration

To best explain how the approvers can change during approval, we will use an example where approvers are found based on their role in the cost units. The same mechanics apply when using another way of finding approvers.

Example:

  • You have two cost unit types: Department and Business unit.

  • You have two departments: R&D and Marketing.

  • You have three business units: Alpha, Beta, and Charlie.

You make the following cost unit combinations with approver:

Cost unit type 1 Cost unit type 2    
Department Business unit Approver Role
R&D Beta Alice Department manager
R&D Any Henry Department manager
Marketing Charlie Odin Department manager
Any Alpha Susan Unit manager

Step 1: Department manager approves

You send a document with cost units R&D - Charlie. It will go to Henry.
But if you send a document with cost units R&D - Beta, it will go to Alice. In other words, Henry approves anything under R&D that is not Beta.

Step 2: Unit manager approves

You send a document regardless of the department and with cost unit Alpha. It will go to Susan.

Scenario's

Click the scenario to see which approvers are asked to approve the document and why. We will build on the same initial workflow.

Given the example data, you send a document with the following data:

  • Department: R&D
  • Business unit: Alpha
Step 1 Step 2
Henry Susan

Henry is the department manager for R&D (as long as the business unit is not Beta) and Susan is the unit manager for business unit Alpha, regardless of the department.

Given the first scenario, if Henry edits the document without changing the cost units, the workflow will remain the same. There is no re-approval needed as no one had seen the document before Henry.

Step 1 Step 2
Henry Susan

If Henry in the first step changes the cost units to:

  • Department: R&D
  • Business unit: Charlie

Then Susan will be removed from the workflow and the new approver, Carina, will be added.

Step 1 Step 2
Henry Carina

Given the first scenario, if Henry approves and Susan edits the document without changing the cost units, then Henry will be asked to re-approve the changes Susan performed.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
Henry Susan Henry

If Susan in step 2 realises the document does not belong to her business unit, and she changes the cost units to:

  • Department: R&D
  • Business unit: Charlie

Then the new approver, Carina, will be added, and Henry will be asked to approve the document again. Both Susan and Carina are registered as approvers on step 2.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
Henry

Susan

Carina

 Henry

Given the first scenario, if Henry forwards the document to Knut and Knut edits the document (without changing the cost units), then Henry as original approver will be requested to approve the document again. The reason that Henry is asked to approve Knut's changes is because Henry is still responsible for approval of the document.

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3
Henry

Knut

Henry

 Susan

4-eyes approval

If you require documents to be approved by at least two different persons, then you can activate the 4-eyes approval option in the workflow configuration. With this option active, a so-called fallback step is added at the end of the workflow. You need to define a list of at least 2 approvers that will be asked to approve any document not seen by 2 approvers.

In the example below, we have created a fallback step with Knut, Odin and Henry as fallback approvers.

The fallback step is always visible in the workflow graph until the document is fully approved. If the fallback step was not needed, then this fallback step is deleted from the graph.

Given that you send a document with the following data:

  • Department: R&D
  • Business unit: Alpha

Then the workflow graph will show both steps and the fallback step whilst the document is not fully approved yet.

Step 1 Step 2 Fallback step
Henry

Susan

Knut

Henry

Odin

Once Henry and Susan approve the document, the document is considered approved and the fallback step is not needed. The final graph looks like this:

Step 1 Step 2
Henry

Susan

If during a holiday period Henry acts as a substitute for Susan, then Henry will end up being the only approver in both step 1 and 2 and the fallback step will be triggered.

As Henry has already approved, he is removed from the fallback step, which means that Knut and Odin receive the document for approval. Only one of them needs to approve. The final result looks like this:

Step 1 Step 2 Fallback step
Henry

Henry

Knut or Odin

Continuing on the previous scenario, Henry is still substituting Susan. But this time, Knut, the fallback approver, edits the document. In this case, Odin will need to approve the change made by Knut to ensure the 4-eyes principle. Any steps requiring re-approval will also need to be re-approved again. In our case we re-approve both step 1 and 2, and then the full workflow graph at the end looks like this:

Step 1 Step 2 Fallback step Fallback step Step 1 Step 2
Henry

Henry

Knut

 Odin Henry Henry

The reason Henry approves both step 1 and 2 before and after the edit by Knut is because he is substituting for Susan. Odin is asked to approve so that the total amount of approvers after Knut's edit is 2.