Approving an item in the system triggers a series of automated events that can automatically update data, create new records, and send notifications. Understanding these events helps users appreciate the power and scalability of the approval process.
Prerequisites
Audience: Users, Approvers, and Administrators who manage or rely on item approvals.
Intent: Explain the automated system events that occur upon item approval.
Key Ideas
The system is configured to perform automated actions when an item is approved, making the approval process powerful and scalable. The events triggered can be generic (applying to all approvals) or specific (applying only to certain item types, like contracts).
Generic Approval Events
When any item is approved, the system typically performs the following core actions:
Raise an audit record.
Send an email notification to the item's submitter.
Update the submitted item's status to 'Approved'.
Item-Specific Approval Events
Different types of item approvals can trigger additional, specific events:
| Approved Item | Specific Events Triggered |
|---|---|
| Contract Extension | Update any dates listed on the contract record to reflect the new extension. |
Update any non-exercised extensions to align their dates with the new contract dates. | |
| Contract Variation | Update any dates or financial values on the contract record to reflect the new variation. |
Create new extensions, if they were a component of the variation. | |
Update the contract's schedule of rates (if one exists and the variation impacts the contract's value). |
Limits & Notes
The default approval events are kept generic to avoid over-complexity.
The automated events can be tailored to meet individual organisation needs through a change request.
Examples of Build-on-Demand Events
Additional, custom events can be built, sometimes requiring extra integrations:
Automatically push an approved document to a system like TRIM.
Notify specific departments of the approval.
Schedule a calendar event.
Generate a document (e.g., a mail merge PDF or Word document) auto-populated with system information.
Create a user and send system access.
Publish a tender to a procurement marketplace.
Trigger an HTTP request (a potential solution for pushing information to remote systems)