Sequential Approval that is not so sequential

#1 · April 29, 2021, 10:54 am

Hello All,

I am transition existing workflows from the Nintex World. Their workflows are designed quite different than Nitro where each workflow has an instance that executes until complete.

I have a requirement to provide an approval workflow that may contains 6 approvers. The catch is not only are all 6 approvers NOT required, approval levels can be skipped.

The Nitro Form contains all six fields for the user to fill out.

Scenario #1:

Manager
Department Head
HR Manager
CEO
President
HR VP

Scenario #2

HR Manager
CEO
HR VP

Attempted to do this with an Advanced Approvals. If the first approver in the sequence is not defined, the item is marked as "Request Approved: No valid approver definition found for first level.".

I do not have rules for what will be the first approver level in each sequence

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Bob

#2 · April 29, 2021, 11:32 am

Going through the online docs. Found this.

$usercollection([value/placeholder],[value/placeholder])

This function gets the collection of users from different fields that can be mapped to a multi user column.

When configured in a WF Variable action, the collection of users returned can be used to create an item for each user.

Let's see where this gets me.

#3 · May 3, 2021, 4:52 pm

This didn't work. Still tinkering.

#4 · May 3, 2021, 7:04 pm

Got it working by adding 6 columns to List1, a custom action to check each approver field whether it is empty or not. If not empty add an item to List2 while setting the column values. Upon the item being "submitted", use a workflow to identify who is the current assignee in the chain.

Cheers!

#5 · May 4, 2021, 6:30 am

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the update, this is an interesting approach. Please send us a screenshot of custom action that creates items in List2 and related details. We will review it and let you know our comments.

#6 · May 4, 2021, 8:30 am

this is an interesting approach

You have me wondering if this is going to cause problems or not.

As stated in my original post, I am transitioning Nintex workflows (which resemble a flow chart). This particular workflow checks which approvers are defined versus using a set list or sequence of approval. Attached is a screenshot.

Uploaded files:

#7 · May 4, 2021, 8:38 am

I renamed the custom action to "Assign Approvers" versus Collect Approvers. Here are the results of the execution.

Uploaded files:

#8 · May 5, 2021, 7:22 am

Hi Bob,

We understand that all tasks are created at same time and it is a 'parallel' approval. We were earlier under the impression that tasks should be created one after the other. This configuration looks good to us.

#9 · May 5, 2021, 7:57 am

This is not a parallel approval. Yes, all the tasks are created at the same time but are not "called upon" until its turn. I have no way of knowing what approver levels are required until the user fills out the form and submits. As noted in the initial post, "I do not have rules for what will be the first approver level in each sequence". The users may define approvers 1,2,3 or 2,5,6. Depending on the approvers that are defined, I have to create approval requests for each in series.

I appreciate any direction or tips.

Bob

#10 · May 25, 2021, 6:29 am

Hi Bob,

Please refer attached document for configuring dynamic approval process. We will be adding some more details and creating an FAQ on this soon, but this document has enough details to configure the approval process as per your requirement.

Uploaded files:

Dynamic-approval-process.pdf

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