Approve or send back a week

If your organisation has approval stages, a team's submitted week goes to one or more approvers before it's final. This page covers approving a week, undoing a submission or approval, and why old weeks lock.

Approve a week

You need to be an approver at the stage the week is waiting at — ask your Flowstate admin if you should be.

1. Open the task in your Inbox, or go to Delivery → Effort reporting → All teams and pick the team and week.
2. Read the week. Discussion shows comments and Change log shows who changed what.
3. Choose one:
   • Approve — optionally, leave a note for the team.
   • Request Changes — say what needs to change. The week goes back to the team's manager with your reason.
   • Make adjustments — fix a small mistake yourself. Your changes are applied when you approve.

What happens next

• If there's another stage, its approvers are asked to review the week.
• After the last stage, the week is Approved.
• You can Undo Approval for a short time afterwards — 24 hours, unless your admin has changed it. The week goes back to the previous stage. Only the approver who approved it can undo it.

A week with unattributed effort can't be approved

A week can't be approved, or submitted, while anyone in it still has effort in Unattributed. That work isn't on any project, so it can't be counted as CapEx or OpEx. Ask the team's manager to clear it. See Fix unattributed effort.

Undo a submission or an approval

Button	Who can use it	For how long
Withdraw Submission	The team's manager, or whoever submitted	Submission withdrawal window — 24 hours by default
Undo Approval	The approver who approved	Approval undo window — 24 hours by default

Withdrawing returns the week to draft. Undoing an approval returns it to the previous stage. Your admin sets both windows in Effort reporting settings.

Set up approval stages

Who: a Flowstate admin, with your Finance lead.

1. Go to Settings → Scenarios → Review Workflow.
2. Under Approval Stages, select Add Stage for each sign-off you need after the team manager, and type a name for it.
3. On each stage, select Add Approver, choose the User, and select Add Approver.
4. Select Save Workflow.

Stage 1 is always the team manager, who submits the team's week. It can't be renamed or removed. With no further stages, the team manager also approves their own team's week.

Every approver's role also needs the Approve Effort permission. The list of people you can add doesn't check this, so check their role in Settings → Users & Access → Roles. See Change a role's permissions.

Rename or remove a stage

1. Go to Settings → Scenarios → Review Workflow.
2. Under Approval Stages, choose one:
   • Rename a stage: type the new name in the stage's name box.
   • Remove a stage: select the bin beside the stage's name. The stages after it move up a number.
   • Remove an approver: select the bin beside their name.
3. Select Save Workflow. Nothing changes until you do.

Review emails

Whether managers and approvers get emails about effort reporting is set in Settings → Organisation → Notifications, in the Effort reporting category. See Choose how people are notified.

Not available yet

Review Workflow also has Notification Preferences: Email when review period opens, Email when overdue and Email when next approver is needed, with Save Preferences. Your choices there are saved, but they don't change which emails are sent yet. Use the Effort reporting category in Settings → Organisation → Notifications instead.

The lock period

Old weeks lock, so figures finance has already reported can't change. No one can submit or edit a week older than Lock submissions older than — 1 month by default. Your admin can change it to No lock, 2 weeks, 2 months or 3 months in Settings → Delivery → Effort Tracking Review.

A locked week says "This period is over … old and cannot be submitted" or "… cannot be modified".

Week statuses

Status	Means
Draft	Not submitted yet.
Submitted	Submitted by the team's manager.
Awaiting …	Waiting at a named approval stage.
Changes Requested	Sent back to the team with a reason.
Approved	Signed off at the last stage.
Overdue	Past its due date and not submitted.

The Review tab shows these for every team and week.

If something's not right

"Cannot approve: resolve unattributed effort before approving". Someone in the week still has unattributed effort. See above.

"You're viewing this report but aren't listed as an approver for this stage". You aren't an approver at the stage the week is waiting at. Ask one of that stage's approvers, or your Flowstate admin.

Withdraw Submission or Undo Approval has gone. The time to undo has passed, or your organisation has turned undo off.

Nobody was asked to approve. The stage has no approvers. Ask your Flowstate admin to add them.

You select Approve and see "Failed to approve — please try again." If it keeps happening, your role may not have the Approve Effort permission. Ask your Flowstate admin to add it.

A stage or approver you changed is back as it was. The change wasn't saved. Make it again and select Save Workflow.