Approvals

you can create an approval process when multiple stakeholders need to review and sign off on a workflow ashby currently supports configuring approvals for openings, jobs, and offers permissions and access approvals can be set up on the legacy plus, plus, and enterprise plans foundations legacy plus plus enterprise ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ see the table below for information on the permissions required to configure approvals and to be an approver access role can configure an approval? can make one off edits to an approval process for a specific candidate (if enabled)? can be set as an approver? limited access ❌ ❌ ✅ agency users ❌ ❌ ✅ elevated access external recruiter (not linked to an agency) ❌ ❌ ✅ elevated access analyst ❌ ❌ ✅ elevated access hiring team member ❌ ❌ ✅ elevated access hiring manager ❌ ❌ ✅ elevated access admin ❌ ❌ ✅ elevated access admin private ❌ ✅ ✅ organization admin ✅ ✅ ✅ when an approval request is submitted, approvers can approve or reject the request from their inbox using the approval notification they do not need to have a specific access role or level of permissions to approve or reject the approval request via email or via slack they need to have at least elevated access to the role in question to be able to view the candidate's profile prior to approving, but users with limited access can be set as an approver and submit an approval when would i use each type of approval process? approval type use case common approvers opening approval commonly used to validate that headcount has been approved by finance finance, talent job approval commonly used to ensure the accuracy of the interview plan stages and other job settings and the quality of job postings talent offer approval commonly used to ensure appropriate stakeholders have reviewed offers ceo, finance, talent, hiring manager create an approval process navigate to approvals https //app ashbyhq com/admin/organizational settings/approvals in admin to build an approval process before you click + new , make sure you have selected the correct object type tab options include offer job opening configure a new approval process to configure a new process, you first set your scope, then add steps and add approvers to each step setting a scope you set criteria by clicking + add field to match , choosing your fields, and then determining your criteria using field values the approval's scope contains the criteria that must be met in order to trigger an approval flow as an example, you could set your scope to only run this approval process for jobs within the recruiting department then the approval process only runs for roles that have the recruiting team assigned to them steps steps are the rounds of review within an approval click + add step to add additional stages to your review process you can add names to your steps to more easily identify them click the pencil icon to the right of the step name to amend it conditional steps conditional steps allow you to set scopes within approval steps this means you can create additional stages for offers, jobs, and openings that may need further review without the need to configure a whole new approval flow for those edge cases conditional steps in approvals are only available on the plus and enterprise plans foundations legacy plus plus enterprise ❌ ❌ ✅ ✅ to set a step to only run if specific conditions are met by the offer, job, or opening, click the always dropdown within your step and set it to when condition matches the conditions of your scope are evaluated at the point of an approval request being submitted for example, if you are creating an opening and an approval process is in place, your approval flow scopes are reviewed at the point of the approval request being submitted the opening uses the approval flow it matches the scope for to set your step conditions, click + add field to match to select a field and then determine the values that are a part of your criteria in the example below, this step of a job approval process only runs if the job's location is set to emea if the job's location is not emea, then the step in the pictured example is skipped in the approval process approvers approvers are the specific stakeholders completing the review click + add approver within a step to add a stakeholder to a step you can include multiple approvers at each step or select a pool of users based on their role on the job consideration you can then choose whether all, one, or some approvers need to provide approval once you finish configuring your approval, click create it becomes active immediately ordering the process list ashby evaluates activated processes in the order they are listed, so it is key to review your approval list as part of your setup if multiple processes have a scope that would apply, the one highest on your list of approvals is used in the example pictured below, if an offer linked to a job in the product support department was also linked to a job with the location set as new york city, the product support offer approval flow is used because it is higher on the list an approvals list for offer approvals the product support offer approval flow is higher on the list and will take priority if the offer meets the conditions of multiple flows you can drag and drop each process to re prioritize as needed hover over the six dots to the left of the approval flow's title, then click and drag the flows to re order them the offer approval flow list with the area to click and drag flows to order them highlighted as an example, if you have a general catch all approval flow, you would want to move this to the bottom of your approvals list so that all other flows are considered first example approval processes by scope types setting the scope is highly flexible, but the most common options selected are the department and the role examples of each are below scope by department in this example, the scope field is set to the job's department all job considerations that an offer is generated for in the engineering department follow this example process scope by role in this example, the scope field is set to rely on a specific recruiter all job considerations that an offer is generated for where arthur is set as the recruiter on the hiring team follow this example process use an approval process once activated, all approval types follow a similar flow approvers receive a notification prompting them to approve the request once they submit their response, the process moves on to the next approver opening approvals you can learn more about openings at openings management docid\ ksxxwi1zugaw8lrp8jwxz use opening approvals to approve new headcount in ashby when you create an opening, it is in a draft state you can then move it into the next state by clicking the draft tag you have the option to approve it or create an approval request review the approval flow details, then click submit request to start the approval flow when submitting for approval, you have the option to add a note once the approval flow is complete, the opening moves into the approved state from there, you can open the opening and allow people to hire against it sending a reminder for an opening approval request if you need to send a reminder for an opening approval navigate to jobs > openings click the opening in question, then click view approval on the following popover, click send reminders confirm the recipients and add in a message if needed, then click send reminder to x approvers opening reapproval fields on approved openings, changes to fields set to require reapproval trigger a new approval cycle before taking effect changes to fields that do not require reapproval are applied immediately when you save to learn how to create custom fields and mark them as requiring reapproval, see custom fields docid\ qpgklrscmzgwc 7krbwds fields that require reapproval have a yellow reapproval icon next to them to easily identify which fields fall under this condition when you make a change to a field that requires reapproval and select save changes , a window with the pending changes appears verify the details are correct, and select submit request to send to the approver(s) the approver receives a notification and can review a comparison of the changes while a reapproval is pending, the opening stays in an approved state, so its connection to any linked jobs is not disrupted at the top of any openings with pending changes, a banner appears with a button allowing you to view changes at any time you can edit or cancel pending changes by selecting the respective buttons within this pane if an approver rejects the changes, you receive a notification and the opening reverts to its last approved version job approvals you can learn more about jobs at creating & opening jobs docid\ uytn03bh4fvrpvjhythat use job approvals to approve the opening of a role once you create your job, click the draft drop down under the job title to see the option to send for approval click this to view the approval process and click submit request to kick off the approval flow reviewers commonly ensure the interview plan has all steps needed to assess candidates' role fit, and the job postings meet quality standards sending a reminder for a job approval request if you need to send a reminder for a job approval request navigate to jobs > jobs click the job in question, then click view approval on the following popover, click send reminders confirm the recipients and add in a message if needed, then click send reminder to x approvers canceling and restarting an in progress job approval if you edit a job and make amendments to a job field that requires approval, this restarts the approval request using the updated approval process, if one exists to set job custom fields docid\ qpgklrscmzgwc 7krbwds as fields that require reapproval if edited navigate to admin > organization setup > custom fields click the jobs tab create a new custom field or click an existing custom field to amend it ensure the require reapproval checkbox is checked to edit a job navigate to jobs > jobs locate and click the job in question navigate to the settings section of the job and edit a field that requires reapproval confirm the correct approval process is showing and click submit request offer approvals you can learn more about offers at offers and offer letters docid\ klimfx9n1tahebvkmgpoh use offer approvals to approve the offer details before generating an offer letter and extending an offer to a candidate once you create the offer and click submit , you see the approval process details review these and the offer details, then click submit request to start the approval flow you can see the approval flow details prior to submitting your request on an offer sending a reminder for an offer approval request if you need to send a reminder for an offer approval request navigate to the candidate's profile, then click view offer on the offer activity within the offer overview popover, click send reminders confirm the recipients and add in a message if needed, then click send reminder to x approvers offer re approval fields on offers, changes like the candidates' last name or address often don't require reapproval, but adjustments to fields like salary and start date may require the approval process to run again reapproval fields allow your team to determine which fields do and don't require a new approval process you can select your reapproval fields via the configure offer reapproval fields option on the approvals https //app ashbyhq com/admin/organizational settings/approvals/offer page use the yes/no radio buttons to determine the fields that should trigger an offer reapproval in the popup your changes are saved automatically enabling editing of offer approval processes on a one off basis having the option to edit offer approval processes on a one off basis can be useful in the case of any unexpected changes, such as assigning a delegate if the usual approver is on pto or looping in an additional approver for a specific offer to have the option to edit an approval process on a one off basis, either before the offer approval is submitted or during the active approval process, navigate to admin > organization setup > approvals > settings https //app ashbyhq com/admin/organizational settings/approvals/settings from here, using the allow editing one off offer approval processes dropdown, select an option to determine the users who are allowed to make these edits never never allow offer approval processes to be adjusted on a one off basis organization admins only only those with organization admin access can adjust offer approval processes on a one off basis organization admins and elevated access users organization admins and those with the required permissions as part of their elevated access role can adjust offer approval processes on a one off basis the user would need to have elevated access admin private access in order to view the offer and adjust the offer approval adjusting the approval process for an offer you cannot make ad hoc changes to the approval process once the offer has been approved you can make one off amendments to your offer approval process either before you send the approval request for an offer, or during the approval process if you make changes to the approval process on the offer prior to submitting your request for approval, or while the approval process is in flight, click view offer on the offer within the candidate profile click configure approval process from within the approval process section of the offer on the following screen, you can add or remove approvers from steps, add steps, or remove steps once you make your adjustments, click use approval process to confirm your changes your amendments are reflected on the offer these changes do not impact the original offer approval process set up within admin > organization setup > approvals the option to make one off approval amendments is only available for the offer approval process it is not available for opening or job approval processes approval settings you can access and amend your approval settings on the settings https //app ashbyhq com/admin/organizational settings/approvals/settings tab of the approvals page allow unauthenticated approvals from email notifications if you enable this option, users in the approval chain can approve or reject approval requests directly from email notifications they receive without needing to log in to ashby each approval notification sent via email includes a secure unique link that automatically authenticates users when used users need to have email notifications enabled for approval requests to use this setting include interview feedback in offer approval email notifications interview feedback is included in the body of approval email notifications, alongside the offer and opening details approvers can see interview feedback in their approval email if this option is enabled attach candidate's resume to offer approval email notifications when enabled, offer approval email notifications include the candidate's latest resume include ai summary in offer approval email notifications offer approval email notifications include an ai generated summary of the candidate and interview feedback if this option is enabled what an approver sees once an approval request is submitted, approvers can receive notifications via slack and/or email depending on their notification settings for more on notifications, check out notifications & notification settings docid\ a85zaqfvmgejnblapketl in an approval request email or slack notification, the approver sees the key job, offer, or opening details if any previous approval notes have been left, they are also included in the notification the approver has the option to approve or deny directly from the notification if the approver clicks approve x from the email notification, they also have the option to add a note to their approval if the approver receives a notification via slack, they have the option to approve, approve with a note, or deny an approver does not need to have a specific access role or permission level to approve or reject the approval request via email or via slack they need to have at least elevated access to the role in question to be able to view the candidate's profile prior to approving editing an approval to edit an approval navigate to admin > organization setup > approvals select the approval tab and click the approval click edit within the approval details edit, remove, or add scopes and/or steps as needed, then click save changes to apply the new approval setup to approval requests moving forward approval setups are evaluated when an approval request is submitted if you have approvals in flight when editing an approval setup, ashby does not apply the new approval process to them reporting on approvals a list of available fields and reporting options can be found in reporting on approvals docid\ r4e crglybf1nf5rppoic faq how many processes can i have? you can create unique approval processes which take effect under certain conditions as only one approval process applies to each offer, the order of processes in the list determines the priority with which these processes take effect you can optionally configure a default fallback process that runs when no other process applies is it possible to set the 'hiring manager' on the hiring team of a job as an approver instead of selecting a specific person? it is! you can select a pool of users as approvers based on their role on the job you can pick from pulling an approver from the job consideration's recruiters, recruiting coordinators, sourcers, and/or hiring managers can a user be cc'd in to receive approval notifications? currently, only those involved in the approval process receive notifications about the approval flow if an organization admin forces through an approval, does the approver receive a notification? the approver does not receive a notification, but if they try to click approve , they see that the approval already occurred and no action is needed can i set an approval chain via the api? the enterprise offer approval api tool is only available on the enterprise plan when creating an approval, you have the option to set it to be managed via the api to create an approval within ashby, navigate to admin > organization setup > approvals and click + new screenshot of approval admin settings with the new button highlighted toggle on the managed by the api? option in the steps section you can opt to set up criteria within the scope section if only offers that meet certain criteria should be managed via the api screenshot of the "managed by the api?" enabled when an offer is created and submitted, a waiting for external process message shows in the offer overview this means that ashby is waiting for an approval chain to be submitted via an api call screenshot of the "waiting for external process" message to pull data via the api to update the approval chain, you can use the approvaldefinition update request for details, see the approvaldefinition update api reference https //developers ashbyhq com/reference/approvaldefinitionupdate once the approval chain is received, the approval steps are added to the offer this option is currently only available for offers will incomplete or blank offer fields be included in the email sent to an approver? the offer approval email only includes fields that have been filled in, including offer custom fields why isn't the 'hired' stage appearing in the dropdown when i click on 'change stage'? the hired stage does not appear in the change stage dropdown if there are active offer approvals set up in the admin > approvals > offers section https //app ashbyhq com/admin/organizational settings/approvals/offer to complete the offer process, click the offer accepted option within the offer's settings once this is done, the candidate's stage automatically changes to hired how do i archive an approval process? navigate to admin > organization setup > approvals https //app ashbyhq com/admin/organizational settings/approvals/offer and click the approval process you have the options to edit, copy, or archive the approval process screenshot of edit, copy, and archive buttons on an approval flow you can restore archived approval processes by changing the active dropdown to archived when viewing your approvals screenshot of approvals list with active list expanded to show the archived option click the process you want to restore and click restore screenshot of an archived approval showing the restore button can i trigger a reapproval process for jobs and openings once they've been approved? for jobs , triggering a reapproval process once a job is approved is currently not possible if reapproval fields are configured for specific custom fields, they only trigger reapproval while the initial approval is still in progress, not after it has been fully completed for example, if a change is made after approver 1 has approved a job but before approver 2 has done so, the approval process restarts and the first approver must provide approval again for openings , changes to fields marked as requiring reapproval trigger a new approval cycle before taking effect, even after the opening has been fully approved changes to fields that do not require reapproval are applied immediately when you save for more details, see the opening reapproval fields section above how do job approval processes work with confidential jobs? as part of the setup process for a job approval workflow, you can check the is confidential? checkbox within the scope section screenshot of the approval process highlighting the "is confidential?" checkbox if you check this checkbox, the approval process only applies to confidential jobs that meet the criteria set in the approval scope if the checkbox is left unchecked, the approval process is not applied to confidential jobs, even if they meet the other scope criteria why am i seeing an approval gap message for openings and how do i resolve it? you're seeing an approval gap message because your existing opening approvals have filters applied in their configurations for example, you may have specified that an opening must be a part of a specific team for that approval process to be triggered, or some other similar criteria when an opening is created that doesn't meet the criteria set for any of your organization's configured approval flows, an approval process isn't triggered, resulting in an approval gap to prevent approval gaps, we recommend creating one approval flow with no filters as a fallback, as shown below this ensures that any openings that don't match criteria in your existing configurations still trigger an approval workflow