Approve, return or reject

When a request, payment or memo reaches your level in its approval route, it lands on My Desk. This page shows you how to find it, read it, and record your decision with a comment.

You approve things if you are a head of unit or department, hold an executive office (CMD, DA, CMAC, DFA), or work in an office that is a step in a route (for example Finance, Audit or a processing unit). You are told by a notification each time something reaches you.

My Desk

Open My Desk from the Work group of the menu. The number beside it is how many items need you.

My Desk of the Head of the ICT Unit, showing requests waiting for a decision.
  1. Views. Action required is everything waiting on you. The number on each view is its count.
  2. Overdue. Items that have passed the date they were due. Deal with these first.
  3. In progress (with others). Items you submitted or have already decided, and who holds them now.
  4. Module. Show only requests, payments or memos.
  5. A task. Its title, reference, who it is from, which level of the route you are (for example Level 1 of 2 · Approve) and when it is due (Due in 4h or Overdue 2d). Select the title to open it.

The other views:

Critical
High-value or urgent items, routes that have not moved for days, and items far past their due date. Badges say why: High value, Urgent, Chain stalled or Very overdue.
History
Every decision you have taken, with the comment and time. Search it by reference or title, or filter it by decision and date.
Trends
How long decisions take (shown only to people with that access).

You can also reach your tasks from Requests: the Action required chip lists the requests waiting on you.

Open the task and read it

  1. Select the task’s title on My Desk (or the notification). A request opens on its own page; a payment or memo opens on a task page.
  2. Read the document. It is shown as it will be printed. The Form data tab has what the originator entered, Attachments has their supporting documents, and Comments has any discussion.
  3. Check the approval chain. The Approval chain card on the right shows the decisions and comments of everyone before you.

Your decision box, Your decision — Step N: …, is at the top of the page. It appears only when the item is at your level and assigned to you.

Record your decision

The decision box on a request at the head of unit’s level.
  1. Comment. What you want the originator and the later approvers to read. At UATH a comment is required for every decision.
  2. Return for correction. Sends the request back to the originator to fix (requests only).
  3. Reject. Ends the request. On a recommend level this button reads Do not recommend.
  4. Approve. Moves it on to the next level, or completes it if you are the last. On a recommend level this reads Recommend.
  1. Type your comment. Say what you decided and why, or what must be corrected.
  2. Select your decision: Approve (or Recommend), Return for correction, or Reject (or Do not recommend).
  3. Confirm. A box asks you to check. Select the same word again to record it, or Cancel.
The confirmation box for Return for correction.
  1. Cancel. Goes back without recording anything.
  2. Confirm. Records your decision with your name, the date and time, and your comment.

Once recorded, the decision box disappears, the chain shows your decision, and the next approver (or the originator) is notified. The item leaves your Action required list and moves to In progress (with others) and History.

Which decision to use

Approve / Recommend
You agree. It moves to the next level. If you are the last level, the request is Approved and is automatically sent to the offices that need a copy (registries, the CMD’s secretary, Finance for payments, the originator and their heads).
Return for correction
Something is missing or wrong, but the request can go ahead once fixed. The route pauses; the originator corrects it and resubmits it with the same reference, and it starts again from the first level. Use this rather than Reject for anything fixable. See If your request is returned.
Reject
The request should not go ahead. The route ends, the originator is notified, and the rejected request is filed with the registries.
Do not recommend
On a recommend level. Depending on the route it either ends the request or goes on to the next level with your “not recommended” on the record for the final approver to weigh.
Partially recommend
Offered on some recommend levels. Use it when you support part of the request (for example some items, or a smaller amount); your comment must say what is and is not recommended.

Some offices use their own words on the buttons, for example Endorsed / Not Endorsed, Treat / Don’t Treat, Authorized / Not Authorized or Forward to CMD / Return to officer. They work in the same way: the first word agrees, the second declines.

The comment is required

At UATH every decision needs a comment, including approvals. Without it the suite will not record the decision:

Selecting Approve with an empty comment.
  1. Please explain your decision in the comment box. Type a comment and select your decision again.

Comments can be up to 2,000 characters. They are printed on the official record next to your name, so write them as you would a minute on a file. A returned or rejected request always needs a comment, because that is how the originator learns what to do.

Your signature

You do not sign each decision by hand. When you approve or recommend, the signature saved on your profile is printed beside your decision on the official record, with your name, position, date and comment. Add or change it under Personalization on your profile (Draw signature or Upload image). See Your profile & settings.

If your hospital makes signatures compulsory and you have none, the decision box shows Your signature is printed on the record, so it is needed before you approve or recommend. Select Add your signature, then come back. You can still reject or return without one.

When you hold more than one level

Sometimes the same person holds two levels in a row (for example you head both a unit and the department above it). The decision box then shows You also hold the next level(s) with a tick box, ticked by default. Leave it ticked to record the same decision and comment for those levels too; each is signed and marked “joint decision” on the record. A negative decision is never carried over.

When a level is shared

Some levels go to every member of an office (for example “Any member of Checking”). Everyone in that office sees the task; the first person to decide settles the level for all, and it leaves the others’ desks.

Payments and memos

Payment vouchers and memos use the same decision box, on a task page that opens from My Desk. The differences:

Hand a task to a colleague (delegate)

Where the route allows it, a payment or memo task has a Delegate button.

  1. Select Delegate.
  2. Choose the colleague under Delegate this step to.
  3. Say why in the comment box; it is sent to them.
  4. Select Delegate. The task moves to their desk and the chain records that you handed it over.

Request levels cannot be delegated, and there is no “out of office” setting. If you will be away, tell your administrator: a user with the right permission can move your pending tasks to someone else, and when a unit’s head is changed, pending tasks move to the new head automatically.

If an item is stuck with someone else

On the task page of a payment or memo that is waiting on someone else, Escalate notifies that person’s unit head. Use it when a decision has waited too long.

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