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The Approval Manager simplifies and automates the entire approval process for jobs, artwork and content, estimates, purchase and insertion orders, media plans, vendor invoice, and client invoices.

All of the different approval requests are gathered together in the Approval Manager window. It shows all of the requests you made -- and the requests made of you. From this window you can track the status of your requests, as well as approve new requests. You can't approve your own requests, and you can't change the approval requests made by others.

How the approval process works  The Approval Manager dramatically enhances the existing approval functionality offered by Clients & Profits for years. The approval process is now active: it uses e-mail to notify staff members (and clients) that a certain step needs their approval, then lets them track their approvals right from Clients & Profits. The process is 100% paperless. Anyone can add an approval request, but only staff members with the right access privileges can approve a request. Job content, such as artwork, can be approved any client contact with approval rights. When a job approval request(s) added, both staff members and client contacts can be chosen to approve the request. Requests can be approved or rejected, which notifies the staff member who made the request automatically via e-mail. If you use the My Clients & Profits! X add-on web server, clients can approve job requests directly from any web browser. For better accountability, optional settings in approval preferences can require proposals, estimates, POs, invoices, and more to be approved before they can be posted or printed. The Approval Manager is not available in C&P Classic X.

To see your approvals

1 Choose My > My Approvals.



The Approval Manager window opens. The window will display both the requests awaiting your approval as well as the requests you've made yourself. To see the approval request you've made, choose "I made" from the "show approval requests" drop-down menu.

Approval requests are displayed separately by kind: proposals, jobs, purchase orders, media, A/P invoices, and A/R invoices). Click on a tab to see the approval requests. Double-clicking on an approval request displays its complete detail.

From the Approval Window 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.

The Approval Manager window only shows pending approval requests. Once a request is approved, it is removed from the list. The approved request is saved in the Clients & Profits database for auditing on custom reports, but can no longer be displayed (except for jobs, which saves and displays approved and rejected requests).

	Watch the approval process in action in this Clients & Profits classroom video training session. Running time: 5:15

To add an approval request

Approval requests aren't added from the Approval Manager window. Instead, they are added from the record that needs to be approved (i.e., proposals, jobs, estimates, purchase orders, media estimates, Accounts Payable, etc.).

Anyone can add an approval request by clicking the "add request" button: 

Click here for step-by-step instructions.  

To see and edit an approval request

1  Double-click on an 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 that you made, you can change its description, date needed, instructions, and status here. You can only change your own requests.

If you are the person whose approval was requested, you can only change the approval conditions -- or the reasons for its rejection. The changes you make here will be e-mailed to the requestor when you approve or reject this request.

2 Make your changes, then click Save.

To delete an approval request

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

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

To resend an 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 Approval Manager window, click once on an 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 a request

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

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

Approvals can be made conditionally (i.e., it is approved with certain changes or conditions that have to be met). You should explain what conditions or changes are required by editing the approval request before approving it. Once approved, the person who requested the approval will be notified via e-mail that it was approved with changes -- which are included in the e-mail.

To reject an approval request

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. These reasons will be included on the rejection e-mail.

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

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

See also:

Job approvals
User access privilege to approvals
Approval preferences