The mobile app lets you take part in an approval process from your phone: you can submit a record for approval, decide the step that is waiting for you, hand a step to someone else, recall a request you submitted and read the full trail of earlier requests. The approval process itself (its steps, approvers, entry condition and what each decision writes to the record) is set up on the web, as described in Approval processes. The mobile app works with the same requests, so an approval started on the web can be decided on a phone and the other way round.
Overview
You work with approvals in up to three places on mobile:
| Place | What it is | What you can do there |
|---|---|---|
| Approval panel | A panel on a record's screen, added to the record's mobile layout by your administrator. | Submit for approval, read the step timeline, approve, reject or re-assign the pending step, recall a pending request, open past requests. |
| Submit for approval bar | A button pinned to the bottom of a Draft record's screen. It appears only when the record can enter an approval process. | Submit the record without opening the panel. |
| Approvals inbox | A list on an app page, added by your administrator, usually limited to one kind of request. | Approve or reject each waiting request straight from the list. |
The panel and the inbox only appear where your administrator has placed them. A record whose layout has no approval panel can still be in an approval process; you then act on it from the web or from an inbox page.
When to use it
- You are away from a desk and a request is waiting for your decision, for example an attendance regularization from your team or an order that needs sign-off.
- You have created a record in the field and the next step is to send it for approval.
- You submitted something too early and need to withdraw it to make changes.
- You need to see who decided a request, when, and with what remark.
How xMatix handles it
- Approvals need a connection. Decisions are sent to the server immediately and are never queued on the phone. When you are offline the panel shows Not available offline, the inbox shows Approvals need a connection., and the Submit for approval bar is hidden. The rest of the record keeps working offline.
- The server decides who may act. The panel and the inbox ask the server which process applies, whether the record qualifies, and who the current approver is. If you are not allowed to take an action, the server refuses it and the app shows its message.
- One open request per record. A record can have only one pending approval request at a time, whichever process it belongs to.
- Every decision updates the record. After an action, the panel refreshes itself and the record around it, so any status or field the process changes (for example a status that becomes Approved) appears without reopening the record.
- Remarks are optional on the panel. Every action in the panel lets you add a remark, but none requires one. In the inbox, rejecting asks for a reason, which is required unless your administrator has turned that off.
Prerequisites
- An active approval process for the record type, set up by your administrator.
- For the panel: an Approval Panel on the record's mobile layout. The panel works on a saved record; it shows nothing while you are still creating the record.
- For the inbox: an Approvals inbox placed on a page of your app.
- A working connection.
- The right relationship to the request:
- Submitting needs you to be one of the process's allowed submitters (anyone with access to the record, the record owner, or members of a chosen role or team).
- Approving, rejecting and re-assigning need you to be the current step's approver, the person the step was re-assigned to, or an approval administrator.
- Recalling needs you to be the person who submitted the request (unless the process does not let submitters recall), or an approval administrator.
Procedure
Step 1 — Find the approval panel on the record
Open the record and scroll to the approval panel. Its heading is the title your administrator gave it, or Approval request when none was set. What you see depends on the record's state:
- No open request, and the record qualifies. A card reads This record is eligible for approval. Submit to start the process. with a Submit for Approval button.
- A request is open. The heading shows the date the request was submitted, followed by the step timeline.
- Only closed requests. The Past requests list shows them. If the record still qualifies, the submit card appears again above them.
- Nothing at all. The panel hides itself when the record type has no active approval process, or the record does not qualify and has never had a request.
While it loads, the panel shows its heading with a placeholder underneath. If it shows Failed to load approval status (or another error in red), tap the cross to dismiss it and reopen the record.
Step 2 — Submit the record for approval
You can submit from the panel or, on a Draft record, from the bar at the bottom of the screen.
From the panel:
- Check the record's values first. Once submitted, the record may be locked for editing until the request is decided, depending on how the process is set up.
- Tap Submit for Approval. A sheet titled Submit for Approval opens.
- Optionally enter a remark under Comments (for example what you are asking for and where the supporting evidence is).
- Tap Submit.
You see Submitted for approval. The panel switches to the timeline: the first card is your submission (with Submitted to: and the approver's name when the step has one approver), followed by the first step, marked Pending. If no step card has appeared yet, the panel shows Approval submitted. Waiting for review.
From the Submit for approval bar:
- On a Draft record, tap Submit for approval at the bottom of the screen.
- Confirm with Submit in the Submit for approval? dialog.
You see Submitted for approval. This route sends no remark. If the server refuses the submission, you see Couldn't submit for approval; open the approval panel and submit from there to see the reason.
Step 3 — Read the timeline
The timeline runs from top to bottom: first the submission, then one card per step. Each card shows the person, the date and time of their action, a coloured status (Submitted, Pending, Approved or Rejected) and the first line of their remark.
- Tap the submission card to open Submission: Submitted By, Status, Submitted On, Submitted To and the full remark.
- Tap a completed step to open Approval Step: Approver, Status, Action On and the full remark.
- The Pending card names the current approver and has an arrow. Tapping it opens the review sheet (Step 4).
Step 4 — Approve, reject or re-assign the pending step
- Tap the Pending card. The Review Approval Request sheet opens with three choices: Approve (selected by default), Reject and Re-assign.
- Choose one:
- Approve — optionally add a remark under Remarks.
- Reject — optionally add a remark explaining what needs to change.
- Re-assign — tap Assign to, search for and select the person who should decide this step, then optionally add a remark. Only active users are offered.
- Tap Submit.
You see Approved, Rejected or Reassigned, and the timeline updates:
- Approve completes the step and moves the request to the next step, or approves the request when this was the last step. On a step that needs every approver to agree, the request stays on the same step until all of them have approved.
- Reject usually closes the request as Rejected. When the step is set up to send rejections back, the request returns to the last step that was approved and stays Pending there.
- Re-assign leaves the step Pending and makes the chosen person its approver. From then on, only that person (or an approval administrator) can decide or re-assign the step.
Step 5 — Recall a request you submitted
While your request is Pending, a Recall button appears next to the panel heading.
- Tap Recall. The Recall Request sheet opens.
- Optionally enter a remark under Comments.
- Tap Confirm.
You see Recalled. The request closes with the status Recalled and moves to Past requests. Whatever the process does on recall (for example returning the record to Draft) is applied to the record, and you can submit again once you have made your changes.
Step 6 — Review past requests
Under the timeline, PAST REQUESTS lists every closed request for the record: approved, rejected, recalled and reverted. Each card shows the deciding action and who took it (for example Approved by …), the date, the status and the remark, with earlier actions on that request one line each.
Tap a card to open Past Request: Submitted By, Status, Submitted On, who took the last action and when, Completed On, the remark, and a History list with every action on that request in full.
Step 7 — Approve requests from component lines
On some records your administrator lets the panel also show pending approvals on the record's lines (for example the lines of a purchase order). They appear under a heading with the collection's name and a count. Each row shows the line's name, the step number and the current approver.
- When a row has an arrow, you are its approver. Tap it to open Review followed by the line's name, and approve, reject or re-assign it as in Step 4.
- A row without an arrow is waiting for someone else. It is shown for information only.
Step 8 — Clear requests from the Approvals inbox
If your app has an Approvals inbox page:
- Open the page. The inbox lists the requests waiting for your decision, newest first, with a count on the title or on the first tab.
- Read a card: the submitter's name, the process name and when it was submitted, then the record fields your administrator chose (for example Date, Check-In Time, Check-Out Time and Reason).
- Decide:
- Tap Approve. The request is approved straight away, without a remark.
- Tap Reject, enter the reason in Reason for rejecting, and tap Reject request. Tap Cancel to change your mind.
- The card leaves the list as soon as the decision is saved. When the inbox fills the page, pull down to refresh it.
The inbox shows only approve and reject. To re-assign a request or read its full history, open the record and use its approval panel.
Business rules
- Which process applies. When an entity has several active processes, the first one in process order whose entry condition the record meets is used. If none matches, the record is not eligible.
- One pending request. Submitting a record that already has a pending request is refused.
- Entry condition errors. When a process's entry condition cannot be evaluated for the record, the submission is refused with a message asking for the condition to be checked.
- Approvers chosen by the submitter. The mobile panel has no approver picker. A process with a step whose approver is chosen by the submitter cannot be submitted from mobile; submit it from the web.
- Maker-checker. When the process requires a separate approver, the person who submitted a request cannot approve it.
- No double approvals. You cannot approve the same step twice in one pass.
- Re-assignment. Only the current approver or an approval administrator can re-assign a step. The re-assignment lasts until the step is completed or the request is sent back.
- Recall. Only a Pending request can be recalled, by its submitter (unless the process turns submitter recall off) or by an approval administrator.
- Revert. The mobile panel does not offer Revert. An approved request appears under Past requests, with no button to walk it back.
- Record lock. When the process locks the record on submission, the record cannot be edited while the request is pending, except by approval administrators and, if the process allows it, the current approver.
- Field updates and notifications. Submit, each step decision, final approval, rejection and recall run the field updates, tasks, business rules and email notifications the process defines, exactly as they do on the web.
- Records shown as final. Once a record's status becomes a final one such as Approved, the mobile record screen shows its values without edit pencils.
Example
A field representative misses the morning check-in because their phone's battery died. They raise an attendance regularization for the day with check-in at 9:10 AM, check-out at 6:05 PM, and the reason "Phone switched off, was at the distributor from 9".
Their manager is on a market visit. The manager's app has an Approvals inbox page set to attendance regularizations. The card shows the representative's name, Attendance Regularization · 05 Oct, 9:30 AM, the date, both times and the reason. The manager taps Approve, and the card disappears.
The next week the representative submits another regularization but enters the wrong date. They open the request, tap Recall on its approval panel, add the remark "Wrong date", and tap Confirm. The request moves to Past requests as Recalled. They correct the date and submit again from the panel.
Training
Practice exercise
In a sandbox, with two test users (a submitter and an approver) and an active one-step approval process whose entity has the Approval Panel on its mobile layout:
- As the submitter, create a record that meets the entry condition, open it on mobile and submit it with the remark "Training test 1".
- Check that the timeline shows your submission and a Pending step naming the approver.
- Tap Recall, add a remark and confirm. Check that the request appears under Past requests as Recalled.
- Submit again. Sign in as the approver, open the record, tap the Pending card, choose Reject with a remark, and submit.
- As the submitter, open Past requests and tap the rejected request.
Expected result: two past requests, one Recalled and one Rejected. The rejected request's History lists Submitted, then Rejected with the approver's remark.
Quick reference
- Approvals need a connection; offline the panel says Not available offline.
- The panel appears only where your administrator has placed it, on a saved record.
- Tap the Pending card to review; Approve is selected by default.
- Remarks are optional on the panel; inbox rejections ask for a reason.
- Recall is next to the heading while your request is pending.
- Re-assign hands the step to one named, active user.
- Past requests keep every recall, rejection and approval, with the full history.
- Processes whose approver is chosen by the submitter must be submitted from the web.
Permissions
| Action | Who can do it |
|---|---|
| See the panel and its history | Anyone who can open the record. |
| Submit for approval | The process's allowed submitters. Others see no submit card, and a submission from another route is refused with You are not permitted to submit this record for approval. |
| Approve, reject | The current step's approver, the person it was re-assigned to, or an approval administrator. |
| Re-assign | The current approver or an approval administrator. |
| Recall | The submitter (unless the process turns submitter recall off) or an approval administrator. The Recall button only appears for them. |
| Use the Approvals inbox | Anyone who can open the page. It lists only the requests they can decide. |
An approval administrator is a user with the Manage approval processes capability. They can act on any pending step and always recall, which helps when a request is stuck with someone who is unavailable.
Configuration
Administrators set up three things for mobile approvals.
The approval process. Steps, approvers, entry condition, maker-checker, record lock, submitter recall, send-back on rejection, timeouts, field updates and email notifications are all configured on the web under Setup → Process Studio → Approvals. See Approval processes. Two choices matter especially for mobile users:
- A step whose approver is chosen by the submitter cannot be submitted from mobile.
- The Submit for approval bar uses the record's status: it appears only on records whose status is Draft.
The Approval Panel on a mobile layout. Open the entity's mobile layout in the mobile designer (see Configuring the mobile app) and add the Approval Panel widget to the record's detail or form layout. Its properties are:
| Property | What it does |
|---|---|
| Title | The panel heading. Empty shows Approval request. |
| Entity (override) | Show approvals for a different entity than the record's own. Normally left empty. |
| Record id (override) | Show approvals for a different record. Normally left empty. |
The mobile panel also honours two Approval Panel properties from the web layout designer when the layout it renders carries them: Show New Request Button (off hides the submit card, so requests started by a rule, action or workflow show only their trail) and Related Collections (lists pending approvals on the chosen child collections, as in Step 7).
The Approvals inbox on an app page. Add the Approvals inbox widget to an app page in the mobile designer, then add the page to the app's navigation. Its properties are:
| Property | What it does |
|---|---|
| Title | The heading when no tabs are shown. Empty shows Approvals. |
| Entity | Only requests on this entity. Empty lists every entity the user approves. |
| Approval process | Only requests from the process with this label. Empty lists every process on the entity. |
| Card fields | The record fields printed on each card, in order. Needs Entity. |
| Reason required to reject | On by default. When on, a rejection cannot be sent with a blank reason. The reason becomes the rejection remark in the history. |
| Empty message | Shown when nothing is waiting. Empty shows Nothing waiting for your approval. |
| Transfer tabs | On by default. Adds Outlet Transfer and Visit Transfer tabs beside the queue. These tabs list no requests; they always show No requests. Turn this off unless your users expect those tabs. |
| First tab label | The name of the queue's tab when the transfer tabs are shown. Empty shows Attendance. |
Common problems
The panel says "Not available offline"
Approval information is read from the server, and you are offline. Everything else on the record still works. Reconnect and reopen the record.
I can't find the approval panel on the record
The record type has no active approval process, the record does not meet the process's entry condition and has never had a request, the panel is not on this record's mobile layout, or the record is not saved yet. Ask your administrator to check the process and the layout.
Tapping Submit shows "This approval process requires you to choose an approver."
One of the process's steps lets the submitter choose the approver, and the mobile app has no approver picker. Submit the record from the web.
Submit shows "Record does not meet the entry condition for any active approval process."
The record's values do not match the process's entry condition, for example the amount is below the approval threshold. Check the values with your administrator; the record may not need approval at all.
Submit shows "A pending approval request already exists for this record."
Someone has already submitted the record. Refresh the record to see the open request in the timeline.
Approving shows "The current user is not an authorised approver for this step."
The step is waiting for someone else, or it was re-assigned to another person. Check the name on the Pending card. If that person is unavailable, ask them or an approval administrator to re-assign the step.
Approving shows "Maker-checker: the submitter cannot approve their own request; a separate approver is required."
The process requires a separate approver and you submitted this request. Another approver has to decide it.
Recall shows "This approval process does not allow the submitter to recall a request."
The process has submitter recall turned off. Ask an approval administrator to recall it, or ask the approver to reject it.
I need to undo an approval, but there is no Revert button
The mobile approval panel does not offer Revert. Ask your administrator how approved requests are reversed in your organization.
I can't edit the record after submitting it
The process locks the record while the request is pending. Recall the request, make your changes and submit again.
The re-assign list is empty or shows "Could not load users"
The user list did not load. Tap Assign to again to retry. Only active users are offered.
The inbox says "Could not load approvals. Pull down to try again."
The list could not be read from the server. Pull down to refresh. If a decision failed with an error, the inbox refreshes anyway, because the decision may have been saved; a card that disappears was decided.
Common questions
Can I approve or reject while offline?
No. Approval decisions change the request for everyone involved, so they are sent straight to the server and are never queued on the phone. The approval panel shows Not available offline and the inbox shows Approvals need a connection. while you have no signal. Everything else on the record continues to work offline, and you can come back to the approval as soon as you are connected again. Submitting a record for approval needs a connection too, which is why the Submit for approval bar disappears offline.
How will I know an approval is waiting for me?
Approval processes send email notifications on submission, approval, rejection and recall when the administrator has switched them on. When submission notifications are on, a newly re-assigned approver is emailed too. On the phone, an Approvals inbox page lists everything waiting for you, if your administrator has added one. Otherwise, open the record named in the email and use its approval panel.
What is the difference between Recall and Reject?
Recall is the submitter's action: it withdraws a pending request before anyone has finished deciding it, usually because the record needs changes. Reject is the approver's decision that the request should not go ahead, or, on steps set up that way, that it should go back to the previous approver. Both keep the request in the history with the remark that was entered. After either one, the submitter can correct the record and submit again.
Where do my remarks go?
Every remark is stored on the request's action trail. It appears on the step's card in the timeline (first line only), in full when you tap the card, and in the History of the request once it is closed. Anyone who can open the record can read it, on mobile and on the web. Remarks are optional on the approval panel, but they are the explanation the next reader will rely on, so a short reason is worth adding.
Can I approve several requests at once on mobile?
No. The Approvals inbox decides one card at a time, each with its own Approve or Reject button. Bulk approval is available on the web Approvals page.