Assignments and approvals

Who a matter goes to

At every stage a matter has an owner: the person who is to do something with it now. The owner is determined in one of several ways. Sometimes it is set in advance, for example always the supervisor. Sometimes it is the person who started the matter. And sometimes the person is indicated when passing it on.

That is why at some transitions you will see a person-choice field: it is you who decides whom the matter goes to at the next stage. The list is narrowed to the people who at this stage have the right to get a task.

Approval and rejection

The most common kind of transition is a decision: Approve or Reject. A few things are worth knowing.

• Some decisions require a comment. A rejection usually asks for a justification, so the person submitting knows what to fix. Without a comment the transition will not perform.
• An approval moves the matter on, to the next stage or to a close.
• A rejection usually turns the matter back, for example for correction by the submitter, if the process provides for it.

Example. A supervisor opens a leave request, clicks Reject, and the system asks for a reason. They type "clash with a colleague's leave", the request returns to the employee with that comment, rather than disappearing without a word.

Handing over a task

If a matter reached the wrong person, it can be handed over, provided the process allows it. You hand the task over to an indicated person, and from that moment they are the owner.

Handing over differs from a transition. A transition moves the matter to a different stage; handing over leaves it at the same stage, only changing the responsible person.

Absence

For the duration of leave or illness, a substitution is set up. The absent person's tasks are then redirected automatically to the substitute, and the history keeps who acted on whose behalf. Nothing needs to be reassigned by hand.

No transition button

The absence of a transition button means the move at this stage belongs to someone else, for example the approver. This is not a fault. If a matter is stuck because the owner is absent and there is no substitution, report it to the administrator or the person running the process.