Approvals overview

HighQ's native approvals capabilities allow you to configure approval workflows using a combination of approval templates and the workflow rule builder to trigger a single or multiple approvals driven off a number of triggers. This includes any relevant contract/file metadata, whilst providing you with a full audit trail. 

This article assumes some prior level of knowledge of the HighQ system.

Approval templates are available at no additional cost but the premium module, Workflow, is required in order to be able to set up data driven approvals

Use cases

• Contract Lifecycle Management
• Document Management
• Transaction Management
• Legal Intake/Self Serve

Benefits

• Security - be sure any File and associated metadata are approved before users are able to take further action 
• Visibility - system level audit trail
• Time saving - workflow process automation
• Flexibility - approvals are agnostic of document type, metadata and who submitted it - even anonymous users outside of the HighQ platform
• Adapts to your business - configurable approval workflows to fit your organisation's people and processes
   

How do Approvals in HighQ work?

There are different options depending on what type of Approvals you require:

• 'Flat' approvals - any new File that enters a site needs to go through an Approval. For this you will need one Approval Template configured, which you can apply via site admin > Files
• 'Data driven' approvals - a File may need to go through an Approval depending on certain metadata associated with it. This could be output (Contract Express) metadata or custom File metadata etc.
• 'Ad hoc' on demand approvals - a user manually sends a File for Approval
   

Configuring and using Approvals

Open site Admin then Approvals > Approval templates. In the Approval templates screen, click Add template and set up your Approval Template:

Next, enable approvals in site Admin > Files:

If all files added to the site require approval, you must also select the applicable Approval template from the drop-down list.

Use the Workflow rule builder to set up a data-driven approval workflow. Select the relevant trigger (i.e. the triggering iSheet) and apply conditions as necessary. Nested logic in workflow trigger enhancements allows complex conditions to be set up, including combining Contract Express output metadata with custom file metadata. 

In the Actions tab, click Send for Approval and select the relevant Approval template:

If you need to trigger an approval template upon the completion of another approval template (i.e. 'chaining' approvals), this is also set up in the Workflow rule builder.

Your condition needs to check the status of the previous approval:

It may be that approvals further down the line have additional conditions. E.g. a finance team should only approve IF the same conditionality as step 1 Legal approval PLUS if the contract value is greater than [X]. In this case, add conditions as required:

There are no limits as to how many approvals you can chain together in this way.

You can track and visualise Approvals with the 'Approvals' data visualisation, or the File Status for iSheet charts configured it use a File metadata iSheet.

Example of an Approval workflow - Contract Express data-driven approval

A new Contract Express NDA is generated via the Contract Express questionnaire.

IF the disclosing period is 1 year or more (output metadata) OR the reason for disclosure is 'other purpose' (output metadata) AND contract value is greater than [X] (custom file metadata)

THEN trigger 3-step Approval: step 1 = Legal team

Below is an example of how this would be built in the Workflow Engine:

Rule 1 - Triggers tab

Rule 1 - Actions tab

However, if your organisation's entity is, for example, North America, the approval then needs to go to Finance and General Counsel. This cannot be achieved simply by using steps in one Approval template, so Workflow conditions are required here.

Rule 2 - Triggers tab

Rule 2 - Actions tab

Rule 3 - Triggers tab (final step approval)

Rule 3  - Actions tab

Best practice guidance/top tips

Below is a list of best practice guidance and some top tips

• In the workflow rule builder, where you are leveraging a combination of metadata fields from both the output iSheet and file metadata iSheet to trigger approvals, you must select the output iSheet as the trigger 
• You must enable Approvals in Site Admin for the Files module to allow workflow rules that use Approval Templates
• Data-driven approvals actioned by the workflow rule builder - you need to select 'iSheet record' (either output or file metadata) to view the action 'send for approval'. For example, you cannot create a rule if the trigger is 'when file added to folder' and then send for approval. Instead, set the trigger to detect a new record in the file metadata iSheet, with no extra conditions
• A file can only be sent to one approval template at a time. If you have one workflow rule where 'output iSheet is added' then 'send for approval', and another where 'file metadata iSheet is added' then 'send for approval', then only one rule is triggered as these are competing rules
• If you use output iSheet is 'updated', remember that the best practice is to use 'changes to' in your conditions
• To apply approvals to iSheet attachments, you need to configure the attachment iSheet column to save the attachment to a custom folder location
• If you apply Approvals to Public Access documents, please note that to prevent the end user from viewing or downloading the document, you need to use a site-wide approval template
• When you export and then import a site template, the site administrator should check and validate Approval templates (particularly assigned Approvers) before that site is activated
• To create parallel approvals (i.e. approvals that happen concurrently), assign different groups/individuals as Approvers in the same step of the Approval template

• When a site is exported as a template, named Approvers (i.e. specific users) are not included in the template. The dependency report highlights this during the export; when the template is imported you must to validate the approvers before approvals work