NetResults Tracker Knowledge Base Article
Setting Up an Approval Step in Your Workflow
Article ID  409
Article Type  Procedures / Documentation
Product  NetResults Tracker
Oldest Version  5.0
Newest Version  Latest Release
Publication Date  06/07/2011
Last Updated  01/18/2017 11:58:44 AM
Warnings
None
Description
This article provides suggestions for configuring Tracker to handle approvals.

To configure an approval step in Tracker:

  1. Decide who will be approving the requests.

    If a single user is responsible for approving requests, configure a transition to assign the requests to that user, then skip to the next numbered step.

    If different users approve requests depending on a particular field (e.g. Product - User 1 approves requests for Product A, User 2 approves requests for Product B), use State Managers to assign requests to the appropriate user, then skip to the next numbered step.

    If you have a group of users and any one of those users can approve the request:

    Use the steps in the group assignment article to set up an "approval queue", then proceed to the next numbered step.

  2. Configure a user pulldown to capture which user approved the request:
    1. Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon
    2. Click on the Fields link
    3. Click on the Add Field button
    4. Select "Pulldown" as the Type and click Continue
    5. Enter a Label for the field (e.g. "Approver").

      Set "User Pulldown" to "Yes". Select a user group that contains the group of users that are allowed to approve the requests in the "User Group" pulldown. For the rest of the options, review the Field Types & Properties Help section. Click OK to save the field.

    6. Click on the Manage Forms for this Field button to add the field to the desired form(s)

  3. Configure a date field to capture when the request was approved:
    1. Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon
    2. Click on the Fields link
    3. Click on the Add Field button
    4. Select "Date" as the Type and click Continue
    5. Enter a Label for the field (e.g. Approval Date).

      Set "Initialize on Add & Submit" to "No". For the rest of the options, review the Field Types & Properties Help section. Click OK to save the field.

    6. Click on the Manage Forms for this Field button to add the field to the desired form(s)

  4. Create a transition to include the Approver pulldown and Approval Date fields:
    1. Login as Admin and click on the Admin icon
    2. Click on the Workflows link
    3. Click on the Manage link to the right of States
    4. Click on the state in which the approval step happens, then click on the Transitions button
    5. Click on the Add Transition button to add an "Approve" transition
    6. Configure the properties using the information in the Workflow Transitions Help section. Click OK to save the transition.
    7. Click on the Set Task Fields button
    8. Click on the Approver field in the Available Fields column, then click on the Add button
    9. Scroll down to set the Task Field properties. Set "Input Type" to "Invisible" and set "Initial Value" to "<Login User>", then click Update.
    10. Click on the Approval Date in the Available Fields column, then click on the Add button
    11. Scroll down to set the Task Field properties. Set "Input Type" to "Read Only", "Initialize" to "Yes" and "Initial Value" to "<Now>". Click Update to save the changes.
    When the transition is used, the user who approved the request as well as the date of approval will be saved in the record.

Workaround
None
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