Approve form submissions
Hold each submission until the right people approve it, so nothing it creates is saved before then.
Some forms need a yes before anything happens: a grant request, a purchase, a volunteer application. Turn on approval and each submission waits, in order, for the steps you set. Nothing the submission creates is saved until the last step approves it. Different people can go through different approvals: field volunteers through one, staff through another.
Before you start: setting up approval needs permission to edit forms and to manage approvals. Approvers need permission to view form submissions; being named on a step is what lets them decide it.
Turn on approval
Open the form
Go to Automations > Forms, open your form and select the Settings tab.
Require approval
Under Approval, turn on Require approval.
Choose who it applies to
A form starts with one process. Under Applies to, pick the roles, groups or people it covers. Leave it empty to cover everyone, including people who send the form through a shared link or the portal.
Add the steps
Each step has a name and its approvers: roles, groups or people. Under Who must approve, choose Any one approver, Everyone listed (one approval from each person, group and role named; one person counts once, even if they're in two of the groups) or A number of people. Add up to 10 steps, in the order they decide. A step after the first can run only when a condition holds, such as Amount requested is greater than 10,000 for a finance step.
Choose which submissions need it (optional)
Under Only when, add a condition on the form's questions, such as Amount requested is greater than 500. Leave it empty to hold every submission the process covers.
Add more processes (optional)
Select Add process for another group of people, and use the arrows to put the processes in order. The first process that covers the person sending it, and whose condition holds, runs. Someone no process covers goes straight through.
Save
Select Save. Submissions that arrive from now on wait for approval.
A change to the steps never affects a submission already waiting: it keeps the steps it started with. Turning approval off leaves waiting submissions waiting until someone decides them.
With People who approve go straight through on, someone who could approve a step themselves skips that step when they send the form. On a step that needs several approvals, their approval counts instead and the others are still needed. Steps for other people still run. A step that only the sender could approve is decided by your administrators. It's on for new forms; forms that had approval before it existed keep it off until you turn it on.
Decide a submission
Find what waits for you
Automations > Forms shows Awaiting my approval above your forms when something waits for your decision. Select a name to open it.
Read it
The Approval card shows each step and what was decided so far, with any notes.
Decide
Select Approve, Request changes or Reject. Requesting changes and rejecting need a note, so the submitter knows why. On a step that needs several approvals, yours is recorded and the step shows how many it has; it moves on when enough people approve. One rejection ends the step.
When the last step approves, the submission's records are created and it's marked as approved. They're created from the answers as they were checked when it was sent, with what its sender was allowed to create then: approving never lets a submission create more than its sender could. If one of the form's other records can't be saved, it's marked Needs attention, and you can fix the cause and select Re-run mapping as usual.
If the records can't be saved at all, the submission isn't approved: it keeps waiting, and you can reject it or ask for changes.
Change or withdraw a waiting submission
While a submission waits it's locked: only the person who sent it and administrators can change its answers or withdraw it. Approvers decide; they don't edit.
Open the submission
Select it under Awaiting my approval, or in the form's Submissions tab.
Edit
Select Edit. The form opens with its answers, as it was when it was sent. Change what's needed and select Save changes.
A change starts the approval again from the first step, because the earlier approvals were of answers that no longer stand. Steps with a condition are checked again against the new answers. The approval card lists each change. People who can review form submissions, administrators, the person who sent it and whoever decides it now can select Answers before to see what it replaced.
- To stop edits on a form, turn off Allow edits under Approval in its Settings.
- Someone who can't see every answer on the submission can't edit it: an edit replaces every answer, so a person who can see them all makes the change.
- Nobody approves a change they made themselves.
- Select Withdraw to take it out of approval for good. Nothing it would have created is saved.
When changes are requested
A submission you ask changes for waits for its sender to change it. Once changed, it waits for approval again from the first step. You can still reject it while it waits.
A submission that waits 90 days without a decision is withdrawn automatically. Its answers then follow the form's rules for how long answers are kept.
Who can decide
- An approver of the current step who can view form submissions.
- Never the person who sent the submission (administrators excepted).
- Nobody approves two steps of the same submission, or one step twice.
If a step has no approver left (the person left your organization, or the role or group is empty), your administrators can decide it. The history shows when that happened.
Approvers' notes are shown to the person who sent the submission, to people who can review form submissions, to administrators, and to whoever decides it now. Others see that a note was left.
Automations that run When submitted run as soon as a submission arrives, before it's approved. To act only on approved submissions, start the automation When it is approved instead.
A submission waiting for approval counts toward the form's limit on submissions. Its answers follow the form's rules for how long answers are kept once it's decided. Erasing its answers also erases the approval notes on it.
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