Organizations often have to adhere to various laws, regulations, and internal policies. Approvals help verify that actions are compliant with these rules. This could include approvals related to legal contracts, environmental regulations, or industry-specific standards. When someone approves a decision or action, they are taking ownership of it, making it easier to trace back any issues or errors. Many organizations have limited resources, such as budget, personnel, or time. Approvals help ensure that these resources are allocated efficiently and in line with organizational goals and priorities.

Common types of approvals in organizations include:

Budget approvals

Project approvals

Purchase approvals

Employee Hiring and Promotion Approvals

Contract Approvals

Leave or Time-Off Approvals

Travel Expense Approvals

Quality Control Approvals

The specific approvals required and their processes can vary widely depending on the organization’s size, industry, and internal policies. In any case, these approvals are subject to multiple levels according to the organizational hierarchy. For different purposes, different hierarchical procedure is followed for approvals. These approval levels and types can be configured in the Odoo database to make the approval process easier. The ‘Approvals’ module in Odoo 16 provides all the details to manage every approval request in our organization.

Approval Dashboard

The ‘Approvals’ dashboard gives an overview of all the Approval types in that organization. We can select each approval type in the dashboard by going to the Kanban card and creating new approval requests. Meanwhile, in the kanban card of each approval type, we can see the number of approvals to be reviewed. We can also go to the Approval dashboard by selecting the ‘New Requests’ option in the ‘My Approvals’ menu.

Creating a New Approval Request

Select the ‘New Request’ option in the required kanban card of the Approval.

The new approval request page is created where we can specify the Approval Subject, Request Owner, Category of approval, Contact, Amount, Reference, Approvers, and Description. Here, Contact and Reference are valid fields. We can also attach documents for the same. After entering the required details, select the ‘Submit’ option so that the request is submitted for approval and the status changes from ‘To Submit’ to ‘Submitted’. The ‘Approver’ can either ‘Approve’ or ‘Refuse’ the request.

My Requests option

The ‘My Requests’ option in the ‘My Approvals’ menu shows each approval request concerning its stages as shown below. The page shows the status of approvals created. The different stages of approval include ‘To Submit’, ‘Submitted’, ‘Approved’, ‘Refused’, and ‘Cancel’.

Manager Menu

The ‘Manager’ menu is the menu for managers to track, manage, approve, or reject all requests. It contains two options namely, Approvals to Review and All Approvals.

The ‘Approvals to Review’ option shows the approvals that are pending for the manager to review and either approve or refuse the request. The Contract Approval that is left for approval by the manager is displayed on the ‘Approvals to Review’ page. We also have the option to export all approvals to review by selecting the Icon just below the ‘Approvals to Review’ title of the page.

Similarly, we can view all the details of every approval created along with its activities and request status by selecting the ‘All Approvals’ option in the ‘Manager’ menu. Exporting can also be done in this option as well.

Configuration Menu

The Configuration menu of the Approvals module contains options like ‘Approval Types’, ‘Products’, and ‘Product Variants’.

The ‘Approval Types’ option shows all the Approval types that are created and configured with the system. These approval types are displayed as kanban cards in the Approvals dashboard in which we can create new approval requests. We can also create new Approval Types by selecting the ‘New’ option at the top-left corner of the page.

The above-shown picture is the page of the new approval type we are going to create. Here, we have to specify details such as the Approval Type, Automated sequence or not, Description, Company, Fields to be added to the request form, Employee’s manager, Approvers, Approvers sequence to be followed or not, and Number of minimum approvals.

The ‘Products’ option lands the users on the products page where we can create and manage products in our organization. We can request the manager for various products through this option.

The ‘Product Variants’ page also enables the users to create and manage different variants of each product. By selecting the ‘New’ option, we can create new products and product variants on their respective pages.

Overall, approvals help organizations maintain control, compliance, and accountability in their operations, ensuring that decisions and actions align with their strategic objectives. Infintor Solutions provides best practices for making the approval process easier for managers and employees through the Odoo ERP platform.