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Review, Edit & Approve Requests (Issues)

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Level 2
Hello, I'm having some trouble setting up an approval process for my Marketing AC who just has a reviewer license. She wants to receive a notification that there's a request for her review, be able to view, make edits and then approve the request. Once she approves the request, it automatically pops up on my new design request report and gets converted into a project. This is what we're currently doing: 1. A new design request is submitted through our custom form. 2. Request appears on my new request report. 3. I post a status update to the AC, within the request, that her approval is needed. (I can't figure out how else to notify her) 4. AC has 2 day to review, make edits to the custom form information and changes the status to "In Progress" when approved. (I can't figure out a better way for her to make edits & approve requests) 5. "In Progress" request appear in another report telling me this is ready to be converted into a project. I created an Issues Approval process setup that worked BUT the AC wasn't able to go in and make edits to the requests, the custom form was locked and I wasn't able to grant her any access. Am I missing something? This feels so clunky and I feel like there's a better way to do this. Does anyone else have a similar setup? Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Martha Tolan Whole Foods Market, Inc
13 Replies

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Level 10
I am going to try to answer this, hoping I am right. Because she is only a Review license, she has very limited access. (It's not really a license, at least in my case, which may not be the same contract as others (?) Review licenses are free and so not really a license at all, more of an observer who can make requests but not be assigned to any tasks and definitely not change a Status). You need to give her a Worker license to do the things you want her to do. Jill Ackerman | Director, Direct Marketing Lindblad Expeditions 96 Morton Street | New York, NY 10014 Ph. 212.261.9080 | Fax. 212.265-3770 jilla@expeditions.com | "http://www.expeditions.com/"> www.expeditions.com

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Level 9
Users with the Review license DO have rights to edit Issues, so I don't think it's licensing problem. It's likely that she can't edit the Issue you've passed to her because the status is "Pending Approval". When an Issue is "Pending Approval" you can't do anything but "Accept" or "Reject" it. A better approach might be simply to assign those new design requests to her; she should receive an automated email notification from Workfront as a result. As the assignee, she'll have the rights to edit the Issue as she sees fit, then change the status so that you can see that she's done with her work and it's ready for the next step. I don't know how your workflow works, but you can probably set this particular type of request to auto-assign to this person, so that you don't have to do it. That would further improve the efficiency of the process. ~Eric Eric Manning Language Line Translation Solutions

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Level 10
I agree. The Approval process locks things (intentionally). I was going to suggest the same as Eric about assigning to the appropriate person. You can even create your own new Status or Statusi? that can be used to know where it is in the process. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

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Level 10
The Approval process no longer locks Custom forms. And actually, using an approval process is the perfect way for the Review user to get email notifications, if that's their goal. The system admin should be able to create an approval process where when the request is set to New, it cannot complete this status until the Review person has "approved". The Review person would get an email notification, and can use it to go to the request, review and change the custom form, and then click on "Approve". -skye

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Level 10
Is there a setting or something, because I'm still seeing the custom form being locked when it's waiting for approval. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

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Level 8
On a project and issue approval, my forms are locked as well and would love them to be editable.

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Level 10
And I happened to have checked a Task approval, so between the two of us we covered the main objects �� Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

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Level 10
oh, thanks for the reminder. Yes, there's a setting. The feature was released about six months ago, so I didn't remember the pain of having to set it. :) In the Set up area in the Approvals section, please click on Settings (upper right corner). Select the checkbox that says "Allow editing the custom form..." -skye

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Level 10
Ah brilliant! Found it. This is awesome! Thank You! Adding screen shots as it was slightly hidden. Vic Alejandro, PMP, CSM | IT Program Manager Denver Water | t: (303-628-7262) | c: (303-319-6473) "http://www.denverwater.org/"> http://www.denverwater.org INTEGRITY | VISION | PASSION | EXCELLENCE | RESPECT

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Level 8
Thank you for this!! This solves one of my annoyances with approvals, since there are some custom fields I need to fill out sometimes when approving projects. Adina

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Community Advisor
Well well well! That's a new setting on me, too: from the thread, exposing it as a global option has helped out a lot of folks. As with most such religious arguments, I suspect there was some soul searching (and debate) before taking that plunge. So! Full marks to Workfront for picking up on the valid arguments for and against! Regards, Doug P.S. I'd be fascinated to hear more from anyone from Workfront at liberty to recap how that decision came about Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

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Level 10
I see so much in this conversation to laugh about (not in a mean way but just... it's funny, you know?). This feature was released last year, and it was one of the most impactful releases to our team for 2017. It greatly enhanced our ability to work in a request where the custom form was used as a way to track some stages of our work. We more easily managed at least 1400 requests in 2017 because of this. I must have heard about it in a roadmap webinar at the end of 2016, because my meeting minutes from Jan 2017 show I announced it to the team as a roadmap item. (by the way, Doug: I think you can probably start here:

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Level 1
For more information about this feature and when it was released, take a look at the 17.1 (R1) release notes, here: https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/230906567#configure-objects-that-are-pending-approva... Luke Penrod Workfront