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The Approval Manager simplifies and automates the entire job approval process for proposals, creative briefs, content, estimates, schedules, and change orders.

The Job Approvals window tracks all of a job's pending, approved, and rejected appproval requests from its start to its completion, keeping a record of all of the approved, rejected, and pending approvals for estimates, schedules, content (artwork), change orders, and tasks. From this window you can review all pending approvals as well as add new requests of your own.

	Get a complete overview of the Approval Manager in this Clients & Profits classroom video training session. Running time: 5:15

How the job approval process works  Anyone can request an approval for any step during a job's lifetime. These steps can be ok'd by any staff member with the correct approval access privileges. When a job approval request is made, the person who will approve it is notified via e-mail. It also appears in the staffer's Approval Manager window immediately. A request can be approved as is, approved with conditions or changes, or rejected with our without a reason. In any case, the requestor is notified via e-mail. Job content, such as copy, illustrations, or video, can be sent to a client contact for approval as well. Any client contact who has the approve jobs and content option checked can be chosen as the person to approve a request. (Only one person, either a staff member or a client contact, can be selected to approve a request.) When the client receives the request, he or she can reply to the email or, if you use the My Clients & Profits! X add-on web server, can approve the request online from their web browser. For better accountability, creative briefs, estimates, and schedules can be required (see approval preferences) to be internally approved before being printed for the client. The Approval Manager is not available in C&P Classic X.

Tasks can create their own approval steps automatically. In the Task Table, a requires approval option causes a job approval request to be created whenever a new job is opened or a new tasks is added to a job ticket. The task approvals appear in the Pending tab but are undated. Double-clicking on a task approval lets a staff member enter its description and other details, as well as assign its approval to a supervisor.

To see job approvals

1 Choose Production > Job Tickets.

2 Click on the approvals link or choose Edit > Edit Job > Approvals.

The Job Approvals window opens, displaying the job's pending approval requests:



Approval requests are displayed separately by status: Pending, Approved, and Rejected. Any approval request that involves a job ticket will be displayed. Double-clicking on an approval request displays its complete details. From the Job Approval window you can review, edit, or delete approval requests, approve or reject a request, resend a selected approval request via e-mail, or print a hard-copy of a request to the printer.

Approval requests are initials listed by date needed, oldest first. Requests shown in the list can be sorted by clicking on any column heading. To reverse the sort order of a column, click on the column heading again. Urgent requests are identified as "RUSH" in the Priority column but are still ordered by date needed.

To add a job approval request

Anyone can add a request for a generic job approval, or an approval for content, by clicking the add button in the Job Approvals window.

Click here for step-by-step instructions

To add a specific job approval request for a creative brief, estimate, schedule, or a change order click the Add Request button in the approval section of those windows:

To see and edit an approval request

1  From the Job Approvals window, double-click on a approval request. 

The Edit Approval Request opens, displaying its complete detail including the name of the person who requested the approval, the step to be approved, the date the approval is needed by, its rush or draft status, and any special instructions that would help the approver understand the request.

If the approval request involves job content (e.g., illustrations, photos, Word documents, PDFs, etc), the path to the file's location is shown. If the file is a GIF, TIFF, or JPG graphic, a thumbnail will be displayed. (The file itself can't be opened here.)

If this is a request your made, you can change its description, date needed, instructions, and status here. You can only change the your own requests.

2 Make your changes, then click Save.

To delete a job approval request

1 From the Job Approvals window, click once on an approval request to select it.

2 Click on the delete button or choose Edit > Delete Approval Request.

To resend a job approval request

If you change the status, instructions, or some other part of an approval request, it can be easily resent to the person who will approve it. They'll receive an e-mail containing the approval request's new details instantly. Approval requests can only be e-mailed to one person, which is the staff member who can approve it. To reduce in-box clutter, approval request e-mails can't be cc'd to other staff members.

1 From the Job Approvals window, click once on a job approval request to select it.

2 Click the resend button or choose File > Resend Approval Request. 

To print an approval request

The printed approval request displays the job, client, requestor, step/description, date needed, the optional file to approve, and any accompanying instructions on a single printed page. Only one approval request can be printed at a time.

1 From the Approval Manager window, click once on an approval request to select it.

2 Click the print button or choose File > Print Approval Request. 

To approve (or unapprove) a job approval request

Job approval requests are unique because, unlike other types of requests, they can be unapproved. Unapproving a request isn't a rejection; instead, it notifies the requestor that you changed your mind about the request and need further information.

1 From the Job Approvals window, click once on an approval request to select it.

2 Click the approve/unapprove button or choose Edit > Approve/Unapprove Request. 

Job approvals can be made conditionally (i.e., it is approved with certain changes or conditions that have to be met) in the Approval Manager window (see My > My Approvals).

To reject a job approval request

Job approval requests can be rejected outright. The person who made the request will be notified immediately of the rejection via e-mail. The reason for the rejection can be entered into the conditions/changes field in the Edit Approval Request window in the Approval Manager, but not in the Job Approvals window.

1 From the Job Approvals window, click once on an approval request to select it.

2 Click the reject button or choose Edit > Reject Request. 


See also:

Approval Manager
User access privilege to approvals
Approval preferences