ApprovalFlow provides comprehensive document tracking and insightful reporting through several key sections. Active Documents displays all documents currently in progress within the approval workflow, while Completed Documents provides a historical archive of finalised approvals. For a complete overview, All Documents consolidates both active and completed documents into a single view.

The User Dashboard offers a personalised snapshot of your individual activity, showing your pending tasks, recently completed approvals, and key performance metrics.

To gain a broader perspective on overall system usage and efficiency, the Reporting Dashboard aggregates data across all users, providing valuable insights into document throughput, approval cycle times, and other crucial performance indicators.

ApprovalFlow includes the following screens:

• Login (with password retrieval process)
• Active documents
• Completed documents
• All documents
• User dashboard
• Reporting dashboard
• Users (Admin only)
• Products (Admin only)
• Settings | Account preferences (Admin only)
• Settings | General settings (Admin only)
• Billing (Admin only)

How to use ApprovalFlow

ApprovalFlow empowers organisations to achieve document compliance and streamline their approval processes. The platform provides a structured workflow where Originators upload PDF documents and define the review sequence. Approvers are then notified and can seamlessly review documents, adding their feedback and comments directly within the system.

Each Approver can select "Approve," "Approve with Changes," or "Resubmit," ensuring clear communication and efficient revisions. ApprovalFlow supports multi-stage approvals, accommodating complex review requirements.

Upon completion of all necessary revisions and approvals, the final document is uploaded, creating a definitive record.

To ensure compliance and facilitate audits, ApprovalFlow meticulously logs all annotations and maintains a detailed, time-stamped audit trail of every action taken on each document, providing a complete history of the approval process.

How to review documents in ApprovalFlow

The diagram illustrates the workflow to review and approve documents. Originators create a new document by adding basic information for the document, selecting approvers, uploading the document and the associated references and submitting the document.

The information is securely transferred to the data centre.

A sequential approval process is then initiated. Approvers have the option to select Approve, Approve with changes or Resubmit. When a reviewer selects the Resubmit option, a new version of the document will need to be uploaded. Once all approvers have selected Approve or Approve with changes, the document's final version can be uploaded.

The Active Documents page is your central hub for managing all documents currently in progress within the ApprovalFlow system. This page provides a clear overview of every document that is presently undergoing review, awaiting approval, or requiring your action. From here, you can quickly see the status of each document, identify your outstanding tasks, and keep your projects moving forward.

The Active documents screen enables users to:

• Use the tools to copy the table data
• Filter the table
• Search for keywords in the table
• View a list of active documents
• Access documents
• Add a new document

How to add a new document

To add a new document, select the green Add document button.

NOTE: Only originators can add a new document. Users who are profiled as approvers can only review and approve documents.

Basic steps to add a new document:

When the Add document button is selected, the document wizard is launched. The document wizard enables the originator to add basic information, add approvers and add documents and references.

The following steps are required to add a new document for review:

Steps to Add a Document

1. Access the Active documents screen from the menu.
2. Click on the Add Document button (The document wizard will be loaded).
3. Complete the fields on the information tab.
4. Add approvers in the approvers tab.
5. Add documents, references, and associated documents:
   • Drag and drop a valid PDF document from the file browser onto the designated area indicated by the label: "Drop files here".
   • Alternatively, select the dropzone to launch a file browser and navigate to a file on your computer.

The Document Details view, provides a comprehensive hub for all information related to a specific document in ApprovalFlow. This view is organised into four key panels to provide a complete and detailed overview.

The Information Panel displays essential details about the document itself, such as its title, description, and other relevant metadata.

The Approval Flow Panel outlines the designated approval workflow, listing all approvers and their current status, while also providing access to useful functions like delegation and skipping, if enabled.

The Documents Panel provides a centralised location to view and access all files associated with this review, including the primary document, any supporting references, and other related documents.

Finally, the Timeline Panel delivers a chronological audit trail, meticulously logging every user interaction and system event with precise time-and-date stamps, ensuring complete transparency and accountability throughout the document's lifecycle.

• View information about the document
• View attributes of a document
• View and manage reviewers
• View and access the primary document
• View and access references and associated documents
• View the timeline

Document details panels:

The information panel provides details related to the document.

The approval flow panel lists the approvers included in the review and provides access to delegation and skip functions.

The documents panel lists the primary documents, references and associated documents.

The timeline panel lists user interactions and system events with an exact time-and-date stamp for each event.

The Document Approval Panel is where reviewers provide their feedback and make crucial decisions on the document's progression. Within this panel, reviewers can add an optional comment to provide context or clarification regarding their decision. They are then presented with three distinct options: Approve, signifying the document is acceptable in its current form; Approve with Changes, indicating acceptance contingent upon specific revisions; or Resubmit, which returns the document to the originator for further work. When "Approve" or "Approve with Changes" is selected, the system automatically notifies the next reviewer in the workflow via email, prompting them to begin their review. Conversely, selecting "Resubmit" triggers a notification to the originator, indicating that revisions and a new version upload are required before the review process can continue. This panel ensures a clear, efficient, and trackable approval process.

Steps to approve a document

1. Access the Active documents screen from the navigation menu.
2. Use the Pencil icon in the actions column to access the details view for a document.
3. The document approval panel will be visible if it is the reviewer's turn to approve the document.
4. The reviewer selects one of the approval options: Approve, Approve with Changes, or Resubmit.

The Document Approval Workflow

The document approval panel enables the user to add a comment (optional) and select one of three options:

• Approve
• Approve with Changes
• Resubmit

When a reviewer selects Approve or Approve with Changes, the next reviewer is notified via the email notification system. It then becomes the next reviewer's turn to review and approve the document.

If a reviewer selects the Resubmit option, the document review is reverted to the originator. The originator is then required to make the appropriate corrections to the document before uploading the new version.

The Annotation View in ApprovalFlow is designed to enhance collaboration and efficiency during the document review process. This view allows you to interact directly with the document, adding comments, highlights, and other annotations to provide precise feedback. These tools facilitate clear communication between reviewers and originators, leading to quicker revisions and faster approvals.

How to add comments and annotations to a document

Use the tools available in the tools section to add annotations.

The following annotation tools are available:

• Place a comment icon and enter the comment in the comment box. NOTE: Double-click the icon to access the comment box
• Drag a text box using the text box tool and then enter text directly into the text box
• Draw lines with the line tool. The start and endpoint of the line tool can be manipulated
• Draw arrows pointing at key elements using the arrow tool. The start and endpoint of the arrow can be manipulated
• Drag an ellipse around an area on the PDF using the ellipse tool
• Drag a rectangle around an area on the PDF using the rectangle tool. Once all annotations have been added, the changes need to be saved using the save icon.

Rules:

• A user can edit and delete their own comments.
• A user can never remove another approver’s comments.
• All comments are viewable by approvers.

The following annotations are available:

• Select the Done button once all annotations have been added.
• Navigate between pages in the PDF document using the up and down arrows.
• Use the + and - buttons to zoom in and out of the PDF.
• Users can search for keywords by entering search terms in the search field.
• Use the hand tool to pan around the document.
• Add comments to the document with the comment tool.
• Draw a text box and then add text to the box.
• Add lines and arrows to the PDF.
• Add ellipses and rectangles to the PDF.
• User the marker tool to highlight sections in the document.

Using the global search function

The global search located on the top navigation bar enables users to search for any document in the system. A user can enter a search term in the search field and can then select the search icon or press enter. The search results will then display and the user can then navigate to any document listed in the search results.

Users can search for key words, document titles or document numbers.

Using the page-based search function

The Active documents, Completed documents and All documents pages have page-based search functions. This search function is useful to reduce the number of records displayed in the table.

Finalising a document review cycle

Once all reviewers have selected Approve or Approve with Changes it is possible to close a document review cycle. The panel below the timeline prompts the user to select: Close or New round of review.

When the user selects Close, the user will be required to upload the final version. The user needs to specify the expiry duration for the document. The document review cycle will then be automatically closed. The user also has the option to select New round of review. By selecting New round of review the user will be able to upload a new version of the document and can then submit the document for another round of review.

When should you select the New round of review option?

There may be instances where minor changes were added to the document after all the reviewers have already selected Approve or Approve with changes. It is up to the Originator to decide if the changes are significant enough to warrant another round of review.

The Completed Documents page is your comprehensive library of all finalised approvals within ApprovalFlow. This section provides powerful search and filtering capabilities, allowing you to quickly locate the specific document you need. Whether you need to retrieve a document for review, reference, or audit purposes, the Completed Documents page provides efficient access to your finalised work.

The "Withdraw" function in ApprovalFlow allows you to change the status of a submitted document to "Withdrawn" if it's no longer required for review or approval. This action removes the document from the active workflow, preventing further action from reviewers and approvers. Using the Withdraw function is the appropriate way to indicate that a document is obsolete and should no longer be considered for approval.

How to withdraw a document

The originator is in control of the document review cycle. This control enables the originator to withdraw and recall documents.

The document management functions are located at the bottom of the document detail view. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to access the Withdraw and Recall functions.

To withdraw the document, the originator needs to provide a reason and then select the Submit button. When the Submit button is selected, the document's status is changed to withdrawn, and the document is moved from active to completed documents.

The User Dashboard provides a personalised view of your activity and key metrics within ApprovalFlow. Here you'll find a summary of your pending approvals, recently completed documents, and other important information tailored to your role. Use this dashboard to quickly assess your workload and prioritise your tasks.

The user dashboard

The user dashboard provides utilisation metrics for the active user. The reporting metrics include:

• Cards listing the total number of documents, active documents, completed documents and the average number of documents per month.
• The Documents per month table lists the number of documents reviewed during each month.

The Actions Required Table provides a list of actions that the user needs to perform. The table is a useful reminder of which documents require the user's attention.