How approval stages work
Multi-stage approval means a requisition must pass through more than one approval stage before it can be fully approved and sent to agencies. The company configuration controls:
Whether multi-stage approval is enabled at all.
How many stages are required.
The name shown for each stage in the UI and activity history.
Whether flexible approval (bypassing lower stages) is enabled.
When approval routing is enabled, the selected route supplies these settings for the individual requisition. The company-level requisition settings are shown as read-only and remain available as the fallback if routing is paused. End date amendment approvals use the assignment's stored route, or the active default route when no route is stored.
Typical flow
A typical multi-stage approval follows this sequence:
A requisition is created with the configured approval stages.
The first pending stage is shown as Awaiting approval.
An authorised approver reviews the requisition, then selects Actions at the top right and Approve requisition to approve the current stage.
If more stages remain, select the next-stage approver when prompted; route stages configured with specific users assign them automatically.
At the final stage, the approver selects the agencies to notify and completes approval.
Stage approvers
Each stage is approved by a user with the right approval access for that stage. Each requisition stores:
The configured stages and their names.
Which stages have already been approved, and by whom.
The users who can approve current or future stages.
Approvers who are over their project approval value limit are shown as disabled in approver selectors. This also applies when the hirer selecting an approver has rates hidden; the requisition value remains hidden.
Passing to the next approver
When an intermediate stage is approved, select a next-stage approver if prompted. If the next route stage uses specific users, the selector is hidden and those users are assigned automatically. The workflow then:
Records the stage approval and any comments.
Notifies the next approver by email and in-app notification.
Keeps the requisition in Awaiting approval until the remaining stages are complete.
Final approval
At the final approval stage, the approver selects the agencies to notify instead of selecting another approver. Once the final stage is approved, the requisition is marked as approved and eligible agencies are notified.
Flexible approval
When flexible approval is enabled, a higher-stage approver can collapse lower pending stages. In practice this means:
A higher-stage approver approving a lower-stage requisition marks every stage up to and including their stage as approved in one action.
The activity history records each stage that was approved as part of the same action.
If flexible approval is disabled, every stage must be approved individually in order.
What users see at each stage
Approval is accessed from Actions at the top right of the detail page, then Approve requisition. Availability depends on access, approval rules, value limits, and requisition status. The detail page and approval dialog show:
Configured stage names in the requisition progress stepper and beside stage approver labels in the overview.
Approved stages, with the approver who completed each one.
The current pending stage as Awaiting approval.
Not yet sent to an approver, when no approver has been assigned to a pending stage.
Agency selection in the final approval dialog, instead of a next-stage approver selection.