The HighQ file approval process allows site and content administrators to:
- Create custom approval workflows rather than a fixed predefined approval process
- Allocate approvals to one or more users or a group
- Set due dates and reminders
- Create multiple steps in the approval process
- Set approvals for a Site
- Allocate selected files to an approval process
You can create an approval workflow that uses the File Status as a trigger; this does not need a metadata iSheet.
Users entered as approvers receive notifications for items awaiting approval and can see a list of approval requests in My Approvals.
As of June 2023, with One-click approval, users can approve or reject changes directly from a notification email. or, as of November 2023, directly from a Microsoft Teams message.
Please note that file approvals use the workflow approval process to enable data-driven approvals.
Setting up file approvals
Creating an approval template
On your site, navigate to site Admin:
The Site admin screen is displayed. In the Site admin screen, navigate to Approvals > Approval templates:
The Approval templates screen is displayed:
To add a new template, click Add template:
The Add approval template screen is displayed:
Enter the details required for the approval template. For example:
Template Name - Lease agreements
Approvers - Finance Team
Assign due date - 5 days after initial request
Instructions - Please review this lease agreement for a final pricing
In this example, we are creating an approval template for lease agreements, which needs to be approved by the finance team and we have provided them with some instructions to help them do this.
Set default due date and reminder
You can set a default number of days used to calculate the due date, which is automatically added to the approval request.
Select the box next to Assign due date, then enter the number of days until the initial due date.
The approver can change the due date of the request.
Select Exclude weekends to skip counting Saturday and Sunday when the date is calculated.
You can also set one or more reminders, based on the due date. Select Add to add a reminder:
Type the number of days before the due date for the reminder notification, then select the tick to confirm. Select Add again to add further reminders.
Additional steps
Click Add step to add additional steps. Use these steps to send files for approval to multiple parties.
If you include multiple approvers in your approval process, they all have to approve the process.
Click Add to create your new template.
The following message is displayed:
Your template is now active and available.
Enabling file approvals at site level
To enable file approvals on your site, you need to enable approvals in the Site admin section. Navigate to Site admin > Module settings > Files:
The Admin - Files screen is displayed; navigate to Advanced Settings. In this section you see two approval checkboxes; Enable approvals and Require approval to add files to folders:
If Enable approvals is selected, any files in the files module can be added to an approval process.
Click Save to save your changes.
Sending files for approval
In your site, navigate to the Files module:
Locate the files you want to send for approval and select them. Then select Action > Sent to... Approval:
The Send for approval screen is displayed:
If you select a locked file, you see a message in the Send for approval screen:
Click the following files link to see a list of files that are currently locked and cannot be sent for approval.
In the Send for approval screen, select the template you want to use:
If the correct template does not exist and you have the correct permissions, click Add approval template to create a new template.
The template defines the default approvers.
If the template includes a default due date, the calculated date is shown in the window:
If a due date is not defined in the template, select Assign due date, then select the desired date. Click Add to add one or more reminders.
Add a note for the approvers. For example, you could say 'Can you please review and approve these files ASAP'.
Click Send once you have entered all of the required information. The following message notifies you that your files are pending approval:
Open the My requests tab in My approvals to see the status of your requests.
Notifications and reminders
Assigned approvers receive notifications for items awaiting approval or overdue, and can see an overview of approval requests in My Approvals.
If reminders are selected for the approval request, approvers also receive one or more reminders before the due date.
HighQ notification:
Email or Teams:
As of June 2023, if One-click approval is enabled, users can approve or reject changes directly from a notification email. or, as of November 2023, directly from a Microsoft Teams message.
The current document approval status is shown at the top of the message panel.
If you have overdue approvals, you receive notifications every day until you approve, reject or reallocate overdue items.
Adjust notification settings
To adjust notification settings, click Settings in the notification pop-up.
Set Email, Online and Push options in the Sends content to me for approval, Has an overdue approval and Has an approval request reminder rows to change how you receive approval notifications.
Approve or reject the document
As of June 2023, with One-click approval, users can approve or reject changes directly from a notification email in Outlook; or, as of November 2023, directly from a Microsoft Teams message.
If necessary, this feature may be disabled by a system admin; if one-click approval is disabled, please use My Approvals to approve documents.
Set permissions
A Microsoft 365 admin must approve permissions for the app in the Microsoft admin center.
This step needs to be done only once by the Microsoft 365 admin of your organization. Once the TR Legal Communication Hub app has been approved by the admin, each user does not have to explicitly install the app. It will automatically install the app when an approval is sent for the user, and one click approval for Teams is enabled.
In the Microsoft Teams admin center select Teams apps then Manage apps:
Search for TR Legal Communication Hub
Click TR Legal Communication Hub:
Select the Permissions tab:
Click Review permissions and consent:
Review permissions and click Accept:
Disabling one-click approvals
If one-click approvals are not required, a system admin can disable one or both approval methods. If one-click approval is disabled, please use My Approvals to approve documents.
Open System Settings in System Admin and change ON to OFF for Enable one-click approvals through MS Outlook, Enable one-click approvals through MS Teams, or both.
Save your changes.
Approving requests in Outlook or Teams
Depending on the enabled service, you receive an email in Outlook or a message in Teams (or both). Open the email in Outlook or the TR Legal Communication Hub app in Teams to see the approval request.
The current document approval status is shown at the top of the message, as another recipient may approve the document before you open the message.
Select View in product to open the document in HighQ.
After you have checked the document, return to the message and click Approve or Reject to change the approval status of the document.
If you Reject the document, you can add a Reason for rejection before you submit the update:
If you are unable to use an email or message to update the status or want to see an overview of your approval requests, please open My Approvals.
A notification is automatically sent to the next stage of your approval process.
My approvals
The My approvals section is found in your profile drop-down > My approvals:
This is where you manage your requested approvals, and items you need to approve.
The My approvals screen:
As of January 2024, the To approve tab lists the requestor and requested date for each approval request.
You see the following tabs:
To approve
The To approve tab shows all files in your queue, awaiting action. If the approval is directly assigned to you, then you can approve the file directly. However, if the approval is allocated to a group and you are part of that group, before you can take any action, you must 'pick up' a file from More actions > Pick up:
The following screen is displayed:
Click Pick up. The file is then picked up by you, and tagged:
You can either approve or reject files. To do so, select the files, click Actions then either Approve or Reject:
The Approve screen looks like this:
Click Approve to approve the document. The document is moved from your 'To approve' list.
The Reject screen looks like this:
Enter any comments or reasons for rejection and click Reject. The file is rejected.
Additionally, in the More actions tab, you can:
- Return a file - which un-assigns the file
- Reallocate a file to another user or group
- View the Approval details, or
- Download the file
My requests
In the My requests tab, you see all files that you sent for approval:
In this tab, you can either Revoke or Delete your requests from the Actions tab:
My rejected
In the My rejected tab, you see all files that were rejected by other approvers:
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In this tab, you can also delete files from Actions > Delete:
Or edit the file from More actions > Edit:
Site Admin tab
Site administrators have access to a Site admin tab, where they can view all files that have been sent for approvals for which they are site administrators, and also Download, Reallocate and view the Approval details of files:
Require approval to add files to folders
If the Require approval to add files to folders checkbox is selected, approval is required to add files to the site. This uses the approval template created earlier:
Click Save to save your changes.
In this case, when a file is uploaded to the files module, it automatically enters the approval process:
After it has been approved, the file is only available in the files module.
If this file is rejected, it is not available in the files module but instead is visible in the requestors My rejected tab, under My approvals, where they can Edit and Delete the file.
Migrating existing site approvals
The upgrade to version 5.6.1 of HighQ included a default site approval template. This template mimics the pre-existing site approval flow.
