How Do You Create an Approval Process?

Creating an approval process using workflow automation.

To create an approval process you need to follow the steps listed below. To automate your approval process, you can use workflow automation software to build approval tasks and assign approvers.

Steps for Creating an Approval Process

1. Identify potential requesters.
2. Document required information needed to make approval judgment.
3. Design the request form to capture all relevant information.
4. Determine potential exceptions and handling procedures.
5. Identify required approvers (individuals or groups).
6. If a group approval is required, determine if everyone in the group must approve.
7. Identify backup approvers.
8. Identify escalation parameters and actions.
9. Determine appropriate alert and reminder frequency.
10. Launch approval process.

Example

This approval process for managing capital expense approvals was created using Integrify's approval software and includes several levels of approval and notifications. In this view of the process, the requester can see the current status of their request, the approval history, and the next approvals in the sequence. This transparency is critical to delivering a quality user experience.

All the data related to the request and any actions taken can be seen in the "Request Detail" screen, which provides a complete information audit trail.

Additional Resources for Creating an Approval Process

• Approval Task: Approval by Email
• Approval Management
• Approval Workflow
• Document Approval Software
• Contract Approval Process

Automating Approvals

Automating the approval process, rather than relying on manual actions like emails, spreadsheets, databases, etc., provides a streamlined, efficient, and fully auditable method for approval management. Here are some resources to help you discover the benefits of approval automation:

• Approval Management
• Why You Need an Automated Approval Process
• Industrial Strength Approval Management (eBook)

If you'd like to learn more or see a demonstration of our approval management software, schedule a demonstration anytime.

"Industrial Strength" Approval Management

Your approval system needs to be able to scale to your most complex request, yet keep things simple enough for business users to build a straightforward approval workflow when needed.