Jan 23, 2018

A description of the process that Sobs uses for approvals

Selection for approval processing

Firstly, only selected resources will use the approval process.  The default in Sobs is that no approval is necessary, however if approvals has been enabled for a resource then all booking requests will initiate the approval process, with the exception of bookings made by Resource Managers who already have the approval security.

For more details refer to the article about configuring approval processing.

The processing steps

When a new booking is saved for a resource that requires approval:

1. Firstly we check if the resource is configured as requiring approval
2. Secondly we check the time of the current time vs the time the booking starts, if it is within 30 minutes no approval is required
3. We check to see if the current user is a Resource Manager (RM) for the current resource – if so we don’t need to generate any approvals (as they would simply be approving their own bookings).  This also applies if the Resource Manager (RM) is booking on-behalf of another staff member, no approval is required in this instance
4. If this is a regular staff member then we get a list of the current Resource Managers (RMs) who have approval authority for this resource, we send an email to each of these staff members.  The email contains details of the booking along with links to Approve or Cancel the booking
5. The current user will then complete any additional/optional information required for the booking
6. When the booking is saved it will appear with a ‘Pending’ icon next to the booking
7. One of the RMs will then process the email, clicking on the Approve or Cancel links.  These links will open a browser window and potentially display additional information or ask additional questions.  For example if the ‘Cancel’ link was selected the RM will be asked for a reason to send back to the staff member the booking was made for.  Also, if the booking is a repeat booking then the list of all repeats will be displayed – the RM will then have options to Approve/Cancel just a single booking or all of the bookings on display
8. When the Approve or Cancel is completed an email is sent back to the staff member the booking was made for, informing them of the success or failure of the request.  For a canceled booking the reason is included in the message and then the booking is deleted.  For an approval the ‘Pending’ icon is removed from the booking
9. If the booking is still ‘Pending’ within 30 minutes of the booking starting, the system will automatically approve the booking