HaloITSM Guides
Documentation to assist with the setup and configuration of the HaloITSM platform
Guides > Approval Processes
Approval Processes
| Field | Type | Description |
| Setup Processes | Button | This button opens up the menu for setting up Approval Processes. The fields in here are described below. |
| Process Rules | Button | This button opens up the menu for setting up Approval Process Rules. The fields in here are described below. |
| Change Advise Boards | Button | This button opens up the menu for setting up Change Advise Boards. The fields in here are described below. |
| Allow choice of CAB members when an approval step begins | Checkbox | When checked, whenever an Approval Step begins, there will be the choice to choose which CAB members are to be involved with the process. If not, all Members will be added. |
| Do not allow submission of approval process without any CAB members | Checkbox | Should the above and this be checked, it will be made compulsory to enter at least one CAB member into the list of Approvers for this process to proceed. |
| Show popup if no approvers can be found when an approval process starts | Checkbox | When checked, the Agent will be notified via popup that there are no CAB members available at that time. |
| Only inform users of acceptance in an approval process if it is the final step | Checkbox | When checked, Users will only be told that the Approval has succeeded if the final stage in the process has been successful. If not, they will be informed for each and every successful step. |
| Number of hours before the planned date to send an Email saying that a Change Request has not been approved yet. | Integer | Should an Approval Process still be pending approval, an email will be sent to the active CAB members this many hours before the planned date, as a reminder to complete the process. |
| Require Authentication when Approving/Rejecting Approval Processes | Checkbox | When checked, Agents or Users will not be able to complete an Approval if they are not Authenticated into the system. This means that this cannot be done either via the Self Service Portal or via an email link without logging in. |
| Show a box to add a comment when Approving/Rejecting an Approval Process | Checkbox | With this setting enabled, the approval screen will show the comment box when approving/ rejecting an approval process. |
| Require comments to be added when Rejecting an Approval Process | Checkbox | When checked, this will force a comment to be made when rejecting an Approval Process. |
| Require comments to be added when Approving an Approval Process | Checkbox | When checked, this will force a comment to be made when approving an Approval Process. |
| Log the approval response as an action even if there is no comment | Checkbox | When checked, the Approval response will be added to the Ticket's progress feed as an Action, even if there is no comment alongside the resposne. |
| Allow Users to delegate approvals | Checkbox | When checked, in the "My Account" > "Settings" section of the Self Service Portal where Users can choose to point Approvals to another User, should it come to them first. There is an option to have this indefinately, or to have it only during set time periods. |
| Show Ticket attachments on the Self Service Portal 'My Approvals' page | Checkbox | If checked, when viewing the My Approvals page via the Self Service Portal, any attachments to the related ticket will be shown alongside the pending Approval. |
| Enable Secure Approvals (token based) | Checkbox | When checked, Approvers must undergo a personal authentification step, whereby they are forced to both sign in again, and also to sign a form before submitting the approval. |
| Approvers must re-authorize for every approval | Checkbox | When checked, if one approval has been submitted that login session, then the Approver will be prompted to re-enter their credentials for each subsequent Approval they attempt to take part in. |
| Allow approvers to view Tickets in portal after approving | Checkbox | When checked, Approvers will be able to view the related ticket in the Self Service Portal afterwards, even if that ticket was not theirs to begin with. |
| Show Accept All and Reject All buttons on the My Approvals Page | Checkbox | When checked on, there will be accept all and reject all buttons located in the "My Approvals" area of the self service portal, this area can be added in as a menu button, which is a table found in Configuration > Self Service Portal. |
| Allow the requestor to be in CABs if not able to automatically approve | Checkbox |
Setup Processes
| Field | Type | Description |
| Name | Free Text | This will be the name of the Approval Process as it appears elsewhere in the system. |
| Freeze manual status changes and User update status changes whilst Tickets are awaiting approval | Checkbox | When checked, should a Ticket be undergoing this Approval Process, the Ticket in question will not be able to have it's Status changed manually, nor will User updates change the Status. |
| Sequence | Integer | This value will dictate the position that this Step is displayed in lists and, more importantly, the sequence in which the Steps must be completed. |
| Name | Free Text | This is the name of the Approval Process Step as it appears elsewhere in the system. |
| Approve By | Single Select | The selection made here will dictate who the approver(s) of this Step will be. |
| Agent / Change Advise Board / User / Email Address / Role / Site / Customer / Custom Field | Single Select / Free Text | The type of input is determined via the above selection, and the value will correspond to the individual or group to which the Approvers will be selected from. |
| Number of approvals needed | Integer | Should a list of Approvers be available, this number will be how many of these Approvers must approve the change before it is marked as accepted. |
| Rules | List | This will contain one or more rules which will determine who or what approves the change. These can be configured to provide a different Approver or group of Approvers dependant on certain criteria being met. Each can be given a precedence, i.e. priority, for matching first. Should no rules be matched, and the setting for Auto-approving in that case be toggled off, then the Approval Process will not be allowed to be begun. |
| Allow ad-hoc approvers to be added at this step | Checkbox | When checked, people can be added as Approvers, despite them not matching the above "Approve By" filter. |
| Auto-approve if no approvers are found | Checkbox | When checked, should no Approvers be available, either by chance, by no rules being matched, or no-one matching the search criteria, then the Approval Process will automatically be accepted. |
| Auto-approve if approver has already approved in a previous step | Checkbox | When checked, Approvers' votes will carry through from previous Approval Steps, and they will not be required to submit another vote. |
| Allow auto approval for processes launched by the approver. | Checkbox | When checked, should the Approver of an Approval Process launch the process themselves, the approval will go through straight away. |
| Auto-approve if approver is the end-user of the Ticket | Checkbox | When enabled, and the approver is the end-user of the Ticket i.e. "Approve By" is set to "Fixed User" and that approver user is the end-user of the ticket. The user will auto-approve when the approval process is started. |
| If a process would be auto approved due to an approver raising the process, continue to send Approval request emails | Checkbox | In the above scenario, when checked, emails will still be sent out to Approvers in order to request their input, despite the Approval being approved already. |
| If a process would be auto approved due to an approver raising the process, request approval from their line manager | Checkbox | In the above scenario, when checked, instead of the Approval going straight through, an Approval Request will be sent to the Approver in question's Line Manager. |
| Allow approvers to upload attachments | Checkbox | When checked, Approvers of a process will be able to upload attachments to the related ticket via the My Approvals section, despite potentially not having access to the ticket itself. |
| Approver is mandatory | Checkbox | When enabled, approvers will become mandatory. This will apply to the step's approvers unless using a CAB, as individual CAB members can be specified as mandatory in the CAB configuration. This allows the default approver to always be required, even if adding additional ad-hoc approvers to the step. Testing If you start the approval process configured in this way, and add an ad-hoc approver, the initial approver must approve for the step to be approved. |
| Send approval Emails to the approvers | Checkbox | When checked, alongside a new object requiring approval on the Agent or User's My Approvals page, the Approvers will also recieve an email detailing the request. |
| Email Template | Single Select | This will be the Email Template used for sending the above described Email. |
| Include all attachments visible to User in approval email. | Checkbox | When checked, should there be any attachments that are visible to the End-User of the associated ticket, then these attachments will also be sent with the Approval email. |
| Approval Reminder Template | Single Select | Select an approval reminder template |
| Number of working hours between reminder Emails | Float | After the initial Approval request email, reminder emails will be sent periodically after this many hours (recurring). |
| Status while awaiting Approval | Single Select | The relevant Ticket will be set to this chosen Status while the process is in the "Awaiting Approval" stage. |
| Status if Approval not needed | Single Select | The relevant Ticket will be set to this chosen Status should it be decided that Approval is not required. |
| Status if Accepted | Single Select | The relevant Ticket will be set to this chosen Status should the Approval be accepted. |
| Status if Rejected | Single Select | The relevant Ticket will be set to this chosen Status should the Approval be rejected. |
| Status if start date of Ticket has passed | Single Select | The relevant Ticket will be set to this chosen Status if that Ticket has a "Start Date" associated with it (usually projects / tasks) and the Approval Process still hasn't concluded. |
| Move to "Unassigned" if approved | Checkbox | When checked, the relevant Ticket will move to the Unassigned queue once the Approval is accepted. |
| Assign to the approver if approved | Checkbox | When checked, the relevant Ticket will be assigned to the Approver of the process once the Approval is accepted. |
| Assign to the approver whilst awaiting approval | Checkbox | When "A fixed Agent" is picked on the "Approve by" single select, this setting can be used to assign the ticket to the agent chosen, before it has been approved. |
| Hide approval actions from end-User | Checkbox | When checked, this will hide any Approval Actions from the End-User, so that they cannot keep track of the process until it is accepted or rejected. |
| Inform the Agent of the outcome | Checkbox | When checked, the assigned Agent to the relevant Ticket will be informed of the Approval Process result. |
| Notify Agent when step has been | Single Select | When the above is checked, this will allow you to choose in which cases the Agent recieves this notification. |
| Inform the User of the outcome | Checkbox | When checked, the End-User of the relevant Ticket will be informed of the Approval Process result. |
| Notify User when step has been | Single Select | When the above is checked, this will allow you to choose in which cases the End-User recieves this notification. |
| Accepted Email Template | Single Select | This will be the email template used in the above (if any) emails for informing Users or Agents of the Approval acceptance. |
| Rejected Email Template | Single Select | This will be the email template used in the above (if any) emails for informing Users or Agents of the Approval rejection. |
| Notification Rules | List | This will be a list of any configured notification rules for this Approval Step. These can match on certain fields' values including custom fields, and can be set to notify various individuals or groups associated with the Ticket and it's Approval Process. The rules can be set for acceptance or rejection, and can have individual email templates set for each case. |
| Field List | List | This list will contain any fields that you would like filling out (or at least visible) on this Approval Process Step. The visibility and entry requirements can be set on these on an Accept / Reject basis. Dynamic Field Visibility can also be set here. |
Process Rules
| Field | Type | Description |
| Rule Name | Free Text | This will be the name of the Approval Process Rule as it appears elsewhere in the system. |
| Precedence | Integer | This value will determine which Rule gets matched first, should multiple be matched at the same time, the higher precedented rule will be triggered. |
| Criteria | List | This entire list of criteria will need to be met for the rule to be triggered. The criteria are field-based and rely on the value of that field meeting certain conditions. |
| Approve By | Single Select | The selection made here will be the individual or group of Approvers used for Approval Processes that match this rule. |
| Agent / Change Advise Board / User / Email Address / Role / Site / Customer / Custom Field | Single Select / Free Text | The type of input is determined via the above selection, and the value will correspond to the individual or group to which the Approvers will be selected from. |
Change Advise Board
| Field | Type | Description |
| CAB Name | Free Text | This will be the name of the CAB as it appears elsewhere throughout the system. |
| All members must approve | Checkbox | When checked, all members of this Change Advise Board must approve the process for it to be marked as accepted. |
| Number of approvals needed | Integer | Should the above not be checked, this value will determine how many Approvals are needed to pass this as an accepted process. |
| Rejection threshold | Integer | Should the above not be checked, this value will determine the number of rejections that will mark this process as rejected. (This is regardless of approval count, assuming the required approvals count has not yet been met). |
| Members | List | This list will include all Members of this CAB. The displayed information includes their Name, their position, i.e.; Agent, Email or User. Members can be marked as mandatory approvers, in which case, the Approval Process will not be able to progress unless those Members have submitted a vote. A Role can also be assigned to the Members (configured below). |
| Roles | List | The CAB Roles here act as sub-groups which will have approval requirements of their own. Should a role be specified, then the associated requirements must be met for the approval to go through. For example, should there be a role with 2 mandatory approvers, then two approvers with that role must approve this process before it goes through. Approvers can be assigned these roles once they are created, and this will be displayed alongside their details on the CAB menu's Members list. |
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