Approval Workflow Overview

The Approval hierarchy and workflow is predefined in the system. You control how the hierarchy and workflow is applied by the number of approvals set in the user record, whether you have managers, approvers, cost center approvers or some combination, and whether your learning objects are set up as pre-approved or not. The approval workflow applies to users requesting learning objects, to users requesting completion status of learning objects or to both.

An approval workflow can also be defined for learning object (LO) types and individual LOs. See Default Approval Workflow Templates.

Note: For Completion approvals, workflows can only be defined for LO types (NOT individual LOs).

PERMISSION NAME PERMISSION DESCRIPTION CATEGORY
Approve Training by Approver Grants ability to approve training requests of those for whom the user is the designated approver. Learning
Approve Training by Cost Center Approver Grants ability to approve training requests of those for whom the user is the designated cost center approver. Learning
Approve Training by Manager

Grants ability to approve training requests of those for whom the user is the designated manager.

Note: Delegating this permission only applies when "Manager" is designated in the Approval Workflow. If the Approval Workflow contains a custom employee relationship - even if the Manager happens to fill that role - the approval will not flow to the delegate.

 Learning
EMAIL NAME EMAIL DESCRIPTION ACTION TYPE
Approve Training Request This email is triggered when an approver approves a student's request for an online class, quick course, event, curriculum, library, posting, test, external training, material, or cohort. The available recipients for this email are Training request approvers, Assignor of the training, Cost center approver, Cost center owner, User's manager, or Student. Training

When a user requests training that requires approval or requests completion approval, the following workflow options are available:

  • Approver
  • Cost Center Approver
  • Manager
  • Cost Center Owner - This option is disabled by default.

The default approval workflow is as follows Approver > Cost Center Approver > Manager > Manager's Approver > Manager's Cost Center Approver > Manager's Manager, etc. However, this is often customized for each organization during implementation. If your current system does not have an approver, then the approver is skipped and it goes to the next person in the chain.

To set default approval by learning objects, See Default Approval Requirements by Division.

To set required training approvals in the user record, See User Record - Edit.

Custom Relationships as Approvers

If custom relationships or miscellaneous users or groups are added as approvers in a custom approval workflow template, those users must have the Approve Training by Manager permission in order to access those pending approvals. This permission should be added to the corresponding custom relationship role, and approvers outside of a standard or custom relationship also need the permission via one of their security roles. The easiest overall solution to this is to add the Approve Training by Manager permission in the default user role. This has no impact if a user is not a designated approver or manager. Having this permission is necessary, however, if the user becomes part of a population of training approvers via a custom training approval workflow template.

Helpful Hints

  • If the Required Training Approvals field on the user record is set to zero, then no training approvals are ever required for the user, regardless of any training approvals that are set anywhere in the system.
  • If a learning object is set as pre-approved, it will bypass all steps in the approval workflow.
  • If the learning object requires approval and the number of Required Training Approvals in the user record is 1, then the first approver who exists in the workflow will get the approval request.
    • If the approver defers the request, the next approver in the workflow will get the approval request.
  • If the learning object requires approval and the number of Required Training Approvals in the user record is 2, then the first approver who exists in the workflow will get the approval request. The request will be routed to the next approver in the workflow automatically. When both approvers have approved the learning object it will change to an approved status in the user's transcript.
    • If the Approve Training Request email is active and Training request approvers is selected as a recipient, the second approver will be notified via email to approve training request.