Approval Workflow

Approval workflows are an important attribute of any sophisticated ordering system, giving authorized approvers control over the content, quantity, cost, or accounting for items procured online. With these needs in mind PageDNA has developed a flexible and easy to use approval module, available on any ordering site.

How Approval Works

When approval is enabled on an ordering site, customer orders trigger an email to the designated approver, letting them know they need to perform an action for that particular order. The email includes a link to a web page that summarizes the order, shows a thumbnail for all items and allows approval or denial with comments. When an order is approved or denied, the requestor is notified of the action taken by email.

Each site can be configured independently to allow different approval actions ranging from the basics such as denying or approving an order, to allowing changes to quantities, imprint information, rush status, and billing codes. Approvers can even be allowed to forward orders on to another approver. The list of configuration options goes on. This configurability ensures PageDNA can handle even the most demanding customers' approval workflow requirements.

Intelligent Approval Email Reminder System

When an approver fails to respond, the approval system can be configured to send reminder emails on a scheduled basis. If the approver still does not respond, an optional trigger can be set to perform one of many available options. These options include: Auto-Approve or Auto-Deny order, forward order back to requester, forward order to designated Customer Service contact for the site, or forward order to a specified email address for attention. This system ensures that managers failing to respond are reminded, with a safety net in case the approver is out of the office, has over-selective spam filters, or points to a non-existent email address.

Configuration Flexibility

Approval workflows can take many twists and turns based on the particular needs of each customer. The PageDNA software accommodates many scenarios for assigning approvers and moreover determining which items require approval. Following are common configurations:

Single or Shared Single Approver

In this configuration there is a single approver for an entire site. This is a good option when approval is centralized. A simple variant of the Single approver is the Shared Single approver. In this model all orders go to two or more email addresses acting as an approval team - any designated recipient can approve the order depending on who responds first. This is a good option when sharing the workload between two or more people is desirable.

Approval Assigned by Address, Division or Product

When your customer's enterprise has many different addresses, configuring an approval workflow tied to the address database is often a good solution. In this configuration, the approver for an order is hard-coded in the address list database so the approval can be handled by location. Another option sometimes used on sites is the optional Divisions page, which can assign approval responsibility based upon internal division (ordering group) within a company. Note that the site can be configured to allow certain addresses or divisions to be ordered without requiring approval.

Approval Assigned by User Selection

When there are many approvers across a large user base, one way to handle this is to allow the requester the ability to specify their order approver while ordering. Where this is desired, the requester can select their manager from a drop-down list (preferred) or by typing an email address into a free-text input box. On Profile-enabled sites, approvers can be stored in a users' profile records - this field can be made editable only by administrators, or require approval before being changed.

Partial Approval by Dollar Amount

Some approval scenarios may require approval for orders over a certain dollar amount - PageDNA supports this requirement.

Partial Approval by Product

Some approval scenarios may have certain products flow directly to fulfillment while others require approval - this is a standard supported option.

Two-step Approval

Using a second approver is useful when the second approver is checking something specific and unrelated to the first approver. The second approver may be responsible for assigning a billing code, for instance. PageDNA supports two-step approval workflows when a single step will not suffice.

Custom Approval

If our standard features do not suffice, quotes are available for custom approval workflows. While you may not ever have needs requiring custom development, it is reassuring to know that our team can provide simple programming solutions to accommodate custom workflow requirements.

Self-Management Interface

PageDNA's Approval Setup and Management tool provides authorized internal administrators with powerful approval queue oversight and control. This "power user" view allows administrators to view and perform actions on any pending orders, and also allows re-assignment of orders from one approver to another.