#Configure Approval Processes

An approval process is a defined process to obtain approval for an operation in AvePoint Cloud Governance, for example, a request for creating a site collection in SharePoint. With approval processes properly configured, the provisioning and management operations can be completed efficiently by standardizing the process, without human error.

When a policy or service integrates with AvePoint Cloud Management features, approving a request will also trigger a job in Cloud Management. For example, a Cloud Management Deployment Manager plan is selected in a Cloud Governance Create Site Collection service. After a request for the service is approved, a Deployment Manager job will be automatically started in Cloud Management, and the design elements or solutions in the Deployment Manager plan will be deployed to the new site collection.

To create or manage approval processes, click Approval Process in the Request Management group within Settings. The Approval Process Management interface appears.

Follow the instructions below to configure an approval process:

1. Approval Process Name – Enter a Name and an optional Description for this approval process in the corresponding text boxes.

2. Approval Process Category – Categories are used to organize your AvePoint Cloud Governance approval processes. Select an existing category from the drop-down list or create a new category for this approval process by clicking Create New then configuring the new category in the Create Category interface.

3. Approval Process Stages – Choose the approval method:

   • Use approval stages – Select Use approval stages and select the number of approval stages. Having multiple approval stages provides flexibility based on your governance needs.

     You can Enable automatic approval to skip the approval when certain conditions are met.

     • Automatically approve the request when the requester and the approver are the same person

     • Automatically approve the request when the requester is a member of the group

       If you enable this option, enter one or more group names. The group type can be Microsoft 365 Group, Security group, Mail-enabled security group, or Distribution list.

   • Auto-approve – Select Auto-approve, and services using this approval process will be performed automatically upon request.

4. Completion Notification – Choose whether to Send an email to the requester when the request is completed. If you choose to send an email, you can configure the Cc and Bcc fields to specify additional users and/or groups by completing the following steps, and they can be Microsoft 365 users, and Microsoft Entra groups. The specified users and groups will be notified when the service request is completed without assigning tasks to them. Note that with the option selected, by default, AvePoint Cloud Governance will notify all approvers and the requester upon request completion.

   1. Enter the name of the users and/or groups in the text box. Press Enter to check if the name is valid.

      You can also enter the following roles. For detailed descriptions of the roles, refer to Appendix F - Supported Variable Roles.

      • $Manager of approver

      • $Manager of requester

      • $Administrator contact

      • $Primary site collection administrator

      • $Primary site collection contact

      • $Secondary site collection contact

      • $Primary site contact

      • $Secondary site contact

      • $Group/Team/Power App/Power Automate flow owner or community admin

      • $Primary group/team/community/shared mailbox/resource mailbox/Power Platform object contact

      • $Secondary group/team/community/shared mailbox/resource mailbox/Power Platform object contact

      • $Primary guest contact

      • $Secondary guest contact

      • $Task assignee

   2. Select a Completion Email Template for this notification from the drop-down list. The Completion Email Template can be configured in the System group within Settings.

5. If you select Auto-approve, skip the following steps and click Save to save all of the configurations and return to the Approval Process Management interface. Click Save and Activate to save all configurations and activate this approval process. Click Cancel to return to the Approval Process Management interface without saving any changes.

6. If you choose to use approval stages, continue to the Stage One Configurations.

7. Stage Name – Enter a Name for the first level stage. By default, its name is First Stage Approval. Then, enter an optional Description for future reference.

8. Approver(s) – Select approvers for the first approval stage. The approver will be assigned a task when this approval process starts. For details on setting approvers, refer to Configure Approvers.

9. Email Settings – You can enable the following email notifications for this approval process:

   • Notify the approver when the task is assigned

     NOTE

     The new task email notification will not be sent to the approver if a request is automatically approved due to one of the following options enabled in the Approval Process Stages section:

     • Automatically approve the request when the requester and the approver are the same person

     • Automatically approve the request when the requester is a member of the group

   • Notify the requester when the request is rejected

     NOTE

     When you enable this notification, the approver who rejects the request will also receive a copy of the notification email.

   • Notify the requester when the request is approved

     NOTE

     When the request is automatically approved because the requester is one of the approvers, the requester will not be notified.

   • Notify the approver and requester when the request is canceled

   • Notify all previous approvers when the request is rejected

   Select the email template you wish to use for each notification from the corresponding drop-down list.

   NOTE

   AvePoint Cloud Governance provides a built-in email template for each notification. You can create custom email templates in Settings > System > Email Template.

10. Duration and Escalation – Select the Enable Duration and Escalation checkbox to notify the escalation user or group that the original task has not been handled within the specified amount of time. They can be Microsoft 365 users, and Microsoft Entra groups.

    1. Duration – Enter a number in the Duration text box for the amount of time allowed before the task is escalated, and select either Day(s), Week(s) as the time unit for the duration.

       You can select the Send a reminder email to the approvers before the task is escalated checkbox to remind the approver before the task expires. Select a reminder profile from the drop-down list or click Create New to create a new one. For more information about configuring a reminder profile, refer to Configure Reminder Profiles for Upcoming Expiration.

    2. Escalation – Choose the action that the escalation will trigger from the drop-down list.

       • Notify – The specified user or group will be notified when the task is escalated. Enter a username or group name in the text box. Press Enter to check if the name is valid. You can also enter $ to select from the following roles:

         • $Manager of requester

         • $Manager of source user

         • $Manager of target user

         • $Manager of approver

         For detailed descriptions of the roles, refer to Appendix F - Supported Variable Roles.

         This user or group will be notified once the specified amount of time passes.

       • Re-assign to – The task will be re-assigned to the specified user or group when the task is escalated. Enter a username or group name in the text box. Press Enter to check if the name is valid. You can also enter $ to select from the following roles:

         • $Manager of requester

         • $Manager of source user

         • $Manager of target user

         • $Manager of approver

         For detailed descriptions of the roles, refer to Appendix F - Supported Variable Roles.

         The task will be re-assigned to this user or group once the amount of time specified as the duration passes, and this user or group will receive a notification email that the task is re-assigned to them. If a group is selected here, the task will be completed once any member of the group handles the task.

         NOTE

         The task can only be re-assigned to one user or one group.

       • Reject – The request will be automatically rejected if the approval of the task is not completed in a specific period of time. When the request is automatically rejected, a notification email will be sent to the service administrator contact.

    3. Select an Email Template for the notification sent when this approval task is escalated.

11. If more than one approval stage was selected, follow the instructions for Stage One Configurations for the remaining stages.

12. At any time, click the arrow on the left-hand side to return to the previous step to check or modify your configurations. When you have finished, choose one of the following options:

    • Click Save to save all of the configurations and return to the Approval Process Management interface.

    • Click Save and Activate to save all of the configurations and change the status to Active.

    • Click Cancel to return to the Approval Process Management interface without saving any changes.

#Configure Approvers

This section will guide you through the steps to select approvers based on roles, users, groups, and shared mailboxes.

#Select variable roles as approvers.

Set approvers according to user roles. This may be preferable to entering specific users since role-based approval can adapt to personnel shifts in your organization.

Enter $ in the Assign To text box, and a list of roles appear in the drop-down list. Select the role of the person designated to be the approver for this approval stage. You can add multiple roles.

The following roles are available, but the roles vary when selecting roles in different types of services. For detailed descriptions of the roles, refer to Appendix F - Supported Variable Roles.

• $Requester

• $Manager of requester

• $Primary site collection contact

• $Secondary site collection contact

• $Primary site contact

• $Secondary site contact

• $Primary site collection administrator

• $Manager of previous stage approver (this option is only available for second or third stage approval)

• $Source user

• $Target user

• $New site collection contact

• $Primary site contact ofsource

• $Secondary site contact ofsource

• $Primary site contact of target

• $Secondary site contact of target

• $New site contact

• $Group/Team/Power App/Power Automate flow owner or community admin

• $Service metadata (“Metadata name”)

• $Primary group/team/community/shared mailbox/resource mailbox/Power Platform object contact

• $Secondary group/team/community/shared mailbox/resource mailbox/Power Platform object contact

• $Site collection metadata (“Metadata name”)

• $Group/Team/Community metadata (“Metadata name”)

• $New group/team/community contact

• $Primary guest contact

• $Secondary guest contact

• $Power App co-owner

If multiple roles are entered, choose the order in which those tasks are assigned from the Order drop-down list:

• One at a time (serial) – The users of your specified roles must approve one after another. If an approver of one role rejects the request, the approver of the next role will not be asked for approval.

• All at once (parallel) – The users of all specified roles will be notified at the same time. If an approver of any role rejects the request, the request will be rejected.

You can also enable the Allow approvers to reassign tasks to others option. If the checkbox is selected, the approver can reassign the task to another user or group.

#Select users as approvers.

Enter the names of the Microsoft 365 users you wish to designate as approvers for this approval stage. Press Enter to check if the names are valid.

If multiple users are entered, choose the order in which those tasks are assigned from the Order drop-down list:

• One at a time (serial) – The users you have specified must approve one after another. If an approver rejects the request, the next approver will not be asked for approval.

• All at once (parallel) – All specified users will be notified at the same time. If any approver rejects the request, the request will be rejected.

You can also enable the Allow approvers to reassign tasks to others option. If the checkbox is selected, the approver can reassign the task to another user or group.

#Select Microsoft Entra groups as approvers.

Enter the names of the Microsoft Entra groups you wish to designate as approvers for this approval stage. Press Enter to check if the names are valid. AvePoint Cloud Governance will assign the task to the groups. Note that groups specified as approvers need to be added in AvePoint Online Services > Management > User management. The task will be approved once any single group member approves it, and an approval notification email will be sent to the group, including all group members and owners.

If multiple groups are entered, choose the order in which those tasks are assigned from the Order drop-down list:

• One at a time (serial) – The groups you have specified must approve one after another. When a user of the first group approves the task, the task will be assigned to the next group. If a group member rejects the request, the next group will not be asked for approval.

• All at once (parallel) – All specified groups will be notified at the same time. If any group member rejects the request, the request will be rejected.

You can also choose to Allow approvers to reassign tasks to others. If the checkbox is selected, the approver can reassign the task to another user or group.

#Select Shared Mailboxes as approvers.

Enter the email address of a shared mailbox that you wish to designate as the approver for this approval stage. Press Enter to check if the name is valid. Users who are the delegates of the shared mailbox cannot see tasks sent to this shared mailbox. The shared mailbox as the approver, can only receive notifications rather than approving tasks. To approve the task, a user with the permission to use the shared mailbox needs to sign in to the Cloud Governance Portal using the email address of the shared mailbox.

If multiple shared mailboxes are entered, choose the order in which those tasks are assigned from the Order drop-down list:

• One at a time (serial) – The approver must approve one after another. When a user approves the task on behalf of the first shared mailbox, the task will be assigned to the next shared mailbox. If a user rejects the request on behalf of the first shared mailbox, no approval task will be assigned to the next shared mailbox.

• All at once (parallel) – All approvers will be notified at the same time. If any user rejects the request on behalf of a shared mailbox, the request will be rejected.

You can also choose to Allow approvers to reassign tasks to others. If the checkbox is selected, the approver can reassign the task to others.