What is an approval workflow

Overview

An approval workflow refers to a predefined sequence of steps and processes that are followed to obtain approval or authorisation for RFQs and award decisions within an organisation. It typically involves multiple individuals or roles who need to review and approve a particular item before it can progress to the next stage or be implemented. This systematic approach ensures robust governance and supervision over procurement operations, instilling confidence in staff members when handling new tenders and contracts.

Approval Workflows are an optional feature for organisations. If you wish to enable this feature for your organisation, reach out to your Customer Success Manager for further details and assistance.

Key features

• Level-based approval workflows.
• Approve RFQs and Awards within Felix.
• Configure multiple approval routes contained within groups.
• Control the visibility of approval groups at a project level.
• Have one or more approvers on each level.
• Configure approval templates for requesters to complete to provide key details.
• Ad hoc approvers can be added to new and in-flight approvals.
• Final-level approver(s) can override lower levels.
• Users can be granted permission to override singular approvers.

Using approval workflows

Two approval workflows are used in Felix:

• Request for Quotation (RFQ) approval - This approval is used to establish a controlled and systematic process for reviewing and authorising RFQs within an organisation.
• Recommendation for Award (RFA approval - This approval is used to seek authorisation for awarding a contract or making a vendor selection recommendation within an organisation.

To learn how to send RFQ and RFA approvals, refer to How to prepare an approval. To configure the questionnaires for these approval workflows, you can seek assistance from the Felix Support team, your Customer Success Manager or the Project Delivery team.

Approval groups

An approval group is a collection of approval routes. For organisations using our projects features, groups can be made available to one or more projects, allowing users to control the visibility of routes across the organisation.

Approval routes

Approval routes follow a configured series of approval levels in sequential order. All but the final approver waits to provide their endorsement until after the prior approval level has provided theirs. If there is more than one user at an approval level, users can approve the request at the same time.

To create an approval group or an approval route, refer to How to create and modify approval workflows.