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Stage Actions and Status Transitions

The buttons an approver sees at a stage are set on the stage's Form Stage Actions screen. What each button does to the request decides which status it shows next, and the decline and cancellation notifications decide who else hears about it.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → Forms:

  • Process Inspector — open the process, then the pencil beside The approver on a stage to reach Form Stage Actions
  • User Input Views — Additional E-mails/Notifications on the view, for decline and cancellation notices

The four buttons

  • Approve Request: always available. Moves the request to the next stage, or completes it at the last stage. Set its Button Text.
  • Decline Request: switch on to offer it. Ends the request as declined.
  • Transfer to Stage: switch on, then tick the Allowed Stages and give each its own button text (it defaults to Transfer to and the stage name). Sends the request to that stage instead of the next one, earlier or later.
  • Request More Information: switch on, set the button text and choose File Attachments. Sends the request back to the requester with a question; see Stage Information Request Reminders.

Approve, decline and transfer can each ask the approver extra questions when pressed, such as a reason for declining. Those answers are stored against the decision, not on the record. They reach the requester's e-mails only through ##AMDATA/APPROVEFIELDS## and ##AMDATA/DECLINEFIELDS## (the automatically written e-mails include them); transfer answers reach no e-mail. Press Save Stage Actions when done.

On a stage whose Stage Action is Verify Identity or Require Compliance, the buttons are withheld until the check is satisfied, whatever is configured here.

Statuses a request can have

The request list's Current Stage column and its tabs read the latest event on each request:

  • A stage name: waiting for that stage's decision. Active Requests and the per-stage tabs count these.
  • Waiting for Information: sent back to the requester.
  • Declined: an approver declined it.
  • Cancelled: the requester cancelled it.
  • Timed Out: a stage time-out declined it. Reported separately from Declined.
  • Completed: approved at the last stage, or completed there by a time-out.

What the requester can do

The requester's tracking link (in the automatic confirmation and progress e-mails) shows the progress bar and, until the last stage is approved, a Cancel Request button. After a decline, if the view allows re-applying, it offers Apply again with my details pre-filled, which opens a fresh form with their previous answers. The tracking page does not make that offer after a shortlisting decline, because the window has closed, although an automatically written declined e-mail still carries the link.

What an approver sees afterwards

Each stage link works once. Opened again it says what happened, for example You have already approved this request, This request has timed out and can no longer be actioned or This request has been declined in a previous stage.

Telling earlier approvers

Additional E-mails/Notifications opens Form Stage Decline/Cancellation Notifications: a grid with earlier stages down the side and later stages across the top. Tick a cell to e-mail the approver of the earlier stage when the request is declined at the later one, or cancelled by the requester. An approver who said yes at stage 2 then learns that stage 4 said no. Press the save button under the grid.

What goes wrong

  • No way out but Approve. If Decline is off and there is no time-out, a request that should not proceed can only be approved or left. Switch Decline on for any stage that judges anything.
  • Transfer to a stage that was renumbered sends the request somewhere unintended. Re-check Allowed Stages after renumbering.
  • Looking for a decline reason on the record. It is not there; it is on the progress page under the stage's Decline Fields.

Worked example

A change request has stages Technical Review (2), Change Board (3) and Scheduling (4). At stage 3 the architect enables Decline with a reason field, and Transfer to Stage allowing Technical Review, with the button text Send back for rework. In the notifications grid they tick stage 2 under stage 3, so the technical reviewer hears when the board declines. The requester's declined e-mail uses ##AMDATA/DECLINEFIELDS## to quote the board's reason.

Recommendations

  • Name buttons after the decision, not the mechanism.
  • Ask for a reason on every decline.
  • Notify earlier approvers of late declines; it saves them chasing.
  • Check each stage's buttons in the Process Inspector's The approver panel.