Delegating, reassigning, and responding to approval requests

Overview of approvals

The following image gives you a brief overview of the users involved in the approval process and their respective actions:

If approvals are configured, service requests are sent for approvals, and the approver can approve, reject, delegate, or reassign the request, or put it on hold. The requester and the approver get notifications about any changes made to an approval request.

Difference between reassigning and delegating a request

You can reassign a request or delegate a request depending on your requirement.

Supported applications for approvals

Only the service requests submitted from the following applications can go through an approval process:

Respond to approval requests from email notifications

Respond to the approval requests via email notification without having to navigate to the end-user console. This capability provides the following benefits:

• Reduces the number of steps for responding to approval requests, making the approval process more convenient and user-friendly for the approver.
• Saves the approver's time, resulting in a faster turnaround for the requests.

You can perform the following actions while responding to the approval notification email:

• Approve
• Reject
• Hold
• Justify your approval actions by adding comments. The justification is added as a public comment on the request. Approval response comments that are in rich text format are not supported.
  To learn more about adding comments on the service request, see Adding-comments-to-service-requests-via-email-notification.
  

Approval responses are communicated back to the approver via email for any actions performed, such as Approve, Reject, or Hold.

For more information regarding the approval notifications and templates, see Out-of-the-box-notification-events-templates-and-processes.

To respond to an approval request

1. Log in to BMC Helix Digital Workplace.

2. Use any of the following views to take appropriate action on a request:

   Type of view	UI details
   Active events	Important: The following image shows an older version of BMC Helix Digital Workplace. Although there might be minor changes in the user interface, the overall functionality remains the same. Important: Click to access options other than Approve or Reject.
   Service request details
   Notification list
   Email notification	Act on the approval requests instantly via email notifications. For more information, see Respond to approval requests from email notifications.

   If you reassign a request, it is updated with the new approver name. Additionally, the request disappears from the list of your active events and you cannot access that request.

A service request that needs an approval, displays the following approval-specific information in addition to the Approve and Reject options:

• Priority—Displayed if the request is Low or Urgent.
• On Hold—Displayed only if the administrator has enabled the on hold functionality.
• Reassign—Displayed only if the administrator has enabled the reassign functionality. The reassign functionality is not available for alternate approvers.

The following video (4:14) shows how to approve business requests.

 https://youtu.be/dw-J9aiZlTU

To delegate an approval request

Before you create a new delegation rule and add alternate approvers, review the existing list of rules and approvers. If the existing list suffices your requirement, use the details to delegate your requests. Otherwise, update the existing list or create a new rule and add approvers. 

Perform the following steps:

1. Log in to BMC Helix Digital Workplace.
2. Select Settings > Approval Settings.
3. In the Alternate Approvers section, click Manage approvers.

4. Perform the following actions:

   Task	Action	Steps
   1	Review an existing delegation rule and an approver list	In the Manage alternate approvers dialog box, review the list of existing delegation rules and alternate approvers. While reviewing the approver details, consider the following points: The approval delegation starts and ends in accordance with the original approver's time zone. Covering value shows if the delegation rule covers all approval processes or specific processes. Unlike  BMC Helix ITSM,BMC Helix Digital Workplace covers all approval processes. If end users need to create a delegation rule that covers specific approval processes, they must create it in BMC Helix ITSM   .
   2	Create a delegation rule and add an approver	Click Add approver. In the Add an alternate approver window, search for and select a user you want to add as an alternate approver. Specify values for Start date and time of the delegation. Important Do not select a past date as the start date for the delegation rule. Specify values for End date and time  of the delegation. Click Save.
   3	Update a delegation rule and an approver list	To change an alternate approver, perform the following steps:  Select Actions > Edit alternate approver.  In the Add an alternate approver window, search and select a user you want to add as an alternate approver for this delegation. To change the date and time, select Edit date and time, change the values, and click Save.
   4	Cancel a delegation rule	To cancel a delegation rule, click Cancel alternate approver, and confirm the action.

List of notifications sent to alternate approvers

Alternate approvers receive different types of notifications such as email, push, and in-app notifications depending on the notification type that is enabled.

Notifications are sent in the following situations:

• When the original approver creates a new delegation rule and delegates the potential requests to an alternate approver.
• When the original approver modifies the date or the time period of an active delegation rule.
• When the original approver cancels an active delegation rule.
• When the original approver changes the alternate approver in an active delegation rule.
  In this situation, both alternate approvers (first alternate approver and second alternate approver) receive notifications.

Distinguish between the view of an original approval and a delegated approval

An approver can distinguish between their original approvals and delegated approvals. In an approval request, if the Status section displays Acting as:, it indicates that the request is delegated to another approver.

The following image highlights the Acting as: field in a request:

Limitations of a delegated approval view for BMC Helix Business Workflows cases

Alternate approvers who work on service requests that correspond to BMC Helix Business Workflows cases cannot view the following case details:

• Public comments on the case
• Requester's question and answers on the case

However, you can contact your administrator to configure the approval details that you want to display in a service request.

Troubleshooting

The following table lists common issues and solutions for responding to approval requests via email: