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AurionAI

Workflow approvals

4 min readBy Emmanuel Yazbeck

A workflow can stop and wait for a person to approve or reject the next step. The Pending Approvals page lists the requests that you can decide. The run continues as soon as the request is decided.

Availability: Helpdesk and AI Voice + Helpdesk profiles. Administrators only.

Prerequisites

  • You have the Owner or Admin role. Other users see Access Denied.
  • Your organization uses the Helpdesk or the AI Voice + Helpdesk profile.
  • A published workflow has an Approval node. Read Build workflows.

Set up an approval step

  1. Open the workflow and add an Approval node from the palette.
  2. Select the node. In Approver, choose Any Agent, Specific Agents, Team Lead or Manager. With Specific Agents, select the people in Select Agents.
  3. Choose the Approval Mode:
    • Single (any one approver): All approvers see the request at once; the first person to approve or reject decides.
    • Sequential (ordered chain): Approvers are asked one at a time, in the order below. The last approval approves; any rejection ends it and later people are never asked.
    • Parallel (quorum): All approvers see the request at once. It is approved when the quorum is reached, and rejected only when the quorum can no longer be reached.
  4. Set Timeout (hours) (default 24) and On Timeout: Expire (fail workflow), Auto-approve, Auto-reject or Escalate to next level.
  5. Optional: write Instructions for Approver.
  6. Save and publish the workflow.

Who can decide

AurionAI accepts a decision from a person that the request names:

  • Specific Agents: the people you selected. They also get a notification in AurionAI and an email with a link to decide. The other approver types send no notification.
  • Sequential (ordered chain): only the person whose turn it is.
  • Team Lead: users who are lead of a team.
  • Any Agent: users with the Agent role.
  • Manager: users with the Supervisor role.

Users with the Owner or Admin role can also decide every request in Single (any one approver) mode, whoever it names. A Sequential (ordered chain) or Parallel (quorum) request counts only the people it names.

The Pending Approvals page is under Configuration, so only administrators can open it. It shows an administrator every Single (any one approver) request, and a Sequential (ordered chain) or Parallel (quorum) request only when it names them. Agents and supervisors cannot open this page, so in Single (any one approver) mode an administrator decides the requests for Any Agent, Team Lead and Manager. In Sequential (ordered chain) or Parallel (quorum) mode, nobody can decide a request for these approver types: use Single (any one approver) mode, or choose Specific Agents.

Decide a request

  1. Open Configuration, then Workflows.
  2. Select Pending Approvals.
  3. Read the request: the step or workflow name, when it was requested, the due time, the Required approver and the Instructions. To see the workflow, select View Workflow.
  4. Optional: type a comment in Optional comment....
  5. Select Approve or Reject.

The request leaves the list. When no request is left, the page shows No pending approvals.

The Pending Approvals page.

Result

AurionAI resumes the run with your decision. With Sequential (ordered chain) or Parallel (quorum), the request stays open until the chain or the quorum decides. To see the result, open the workflow in Monitor mode. Read Build workflows.

If something goes wrong

  • The list is empty, but a run waits for approval. The request uses Sequential (ordered chain) or Parallel (quorum) mode and does not name you. Check the approver settings of the node.
  • "Caller is not a designated approver". The request uses Sequential (ordered chain) or Parallel (quorum) mode and does not name you, or it is not your turn in a sequential chain.
  • "Approval request has expired". The timeout passed. The On Timeout setting decided the result.
  • "Approval request not found or already decided". Someone else decided first. Select Refresh.
  • "You have already voted on this approval request. Each approver may vote once." In Parallel (quorum) mode, you already voted. Wait for the other approvers.

Still stuck? Submit a request or .