Incident IQ Academy:
Visit the Incident IQ Academy for comprehensive training and how-to videos on the Enhanced Approval Workflows (EAW) app, which automates and streamlines the approval process for both single and multi-level approvals.
Upon completing the learning path and passing the quiz, you’ll receive the EAW Specialist badge—an official recognition of your expertise in Enhanced Approval Workflows.
Click the link below to get started.
The following guide goes through the different setup sets necessary when creating a multi-level approval workflow. For this example, a teacher is requesting a new laptop. Approval from the Lead Technician and Tech Director is required before a teacher can receive a new laptop. After the approvals, a separate ticket is needed to assign/deploy the new asset.
The Enhanced Approval Workflow app is required to accomplish the following multi-level approval process.
Enhanced Approval Workflow App - EAW - Configuring
First, you will want to create custom ticket statuses for each approval level. This will help with configuring the rules necessary for this process, as well as, at a glance, see the stage/status of the ticket.
Name of Custom Status | Mapped to Workflow Stage |
Awaiting Approval - IT Technician | Awaiting Approval |
Awaiting Approval - Tech Director | Awaiting Approval |
Approved - IT Technician | Approved |
Approved - Tech Director | Approved |
Need to know how to create a custom ticket status? Here is the KB Guide:
These ticket statuses will directly relate to the workflow statuses within the approval workflow when configuring the rules:
Awaiting approval - The status of the ticket needs to be before it is approved (current approver)
Approved - The status needs to show that the same approver approves it (will help us change the ticket status to the next level)
Denied - Where does the ticket go if the request is denied? Does it go back to the requestor? Do you cancel the ticket?
Next, you will set up your first approval rule. This will be under the ticket trigger > When Created. Set the name to show it is going to the first tier of approval and add the filter for that specific issue (Request Staff Technology).
Then, under Perform these actions, add the action “Sent for Approval.” We are using the “Sent for Approval” action because the approval process, if required, is before the ticket can be worked on.
This will bring up the approval configuration. Here is where those custom ticket statuses will come in handy. Under workflow, you will need to set the following:
Awaiting approval - we will set this to the “Awaiting Approval - IT Technician” custom ticket status, who is the first approver in this example.
Approved - Once approved, we will move to the status of “Approved - IT Technician.”
Denied - You can cancel or reroute the ticket if it is denied.
After setting the workflow, you will need to determine the Approvers. You are able to determine this by the ticket's location or the location custom field. If you are adding based on location, you must list each location and the approver for that specific location.
Now that we have set up the rule for the first approval level, we need to set up the second approval workflow. We will need to create an additional rule under the ticket trigger “When Updated.”
When creating this example, we will apply the following filters:
Status = Approved - IT Technician
Using the filter “status” based on the initial rule that was configured for the first approval process.
When Field is Update = Status
This filter is needed to determine when this rule is executed based on which field is updated.
Issue Category = Request Staff Technology
This filter for the same issue category is set on the initial rule that was configured.
Next, we will add the action “Send for Approval.” Similar to the first rule, we will need to assign the statuses.
Awaiting approval - We will set this to the “Awaiting Approval - Tech Director” custom ticket status, who is the second approver in this example.
Approved - Once approved, we will move to the following status: “Approved - IT Director.
Denied - You can cancel the ticket or reroute it if it is denied.
Ensure the approval is based either on the ticket’s location or if you require just one tech director's approval.
Continue the same steps if you have additional approvers.
Once all approvers have approved the ticket, you can create an additional rule for the next steps after approval.
You can create a subticket for your agents to get the new device assigned to the teacher. This would be a separate ticket for your agent, so this parent ticket cannot be closed until everything is complete.
You can assign the ticket to the agent to deploy that new device. The agent would then be the closer of the ticket when the device is delivered.
---
Kathryn Carter - Community Moderator