Approval workflows

Set up approval actions in Sanka workflows, choose approvers, collect approval fields, review outcomes, and troubleshoot approval stops safely.

Last updated: May 29, 2026

Use this guide to add approval steps to Sanka workflows and understand what should happen when a workflow is waiting for approval, approved, rejected, or returned for revision. It covers setup, expected behavior, AI-safe checks, and troubleshooting for approvals that control record creation, sending, purchasing, billing, inventory, or other sensitive operations.

What approval workflows do

An approval workflow pauses a workflow until the required approver action is completed. Use approvals when a person needs to review a decision before the workflow continues. Common examples:

Approve a quote before converting it to an order.
Approve a purchase request before creating a purchase order.
Approve a bill, expense, or disbursement before payment work continues.
Review a document or email before it is sent to a customer.
Gate an inventory adjustment or integration sync behind human review.

Approvals are especially important when AI helps draft records or workflows. AI can prepare the request and summarize evidence, but it should not approve, reject, send, pay, or sync on behalf of the responsible user without explicit human confirmation.

Approval action options

Setting	What it controls
Approvers	Users who can approve, reject, or return the request
Viewers	Users who can view the approval context but should not approve
Multiple approval	Whether one approver is enough or multiple approvers must respond
Approval fields	Extra fields the approver must complete, such as comments, dates, select values, or checkboxes
Templates	Reusable approval field setups for common approval patterns
Next actions	Workflow steps that run only after the approval condition is satisfied

Use the smallest approver group that can make the decision. Too many approvers can delay the workflow, while too few approvers can make finance, inventory, or customer-facing operations unsafe.

Ask AI to review the approval plan

Before enabling an approval workflow, ask AI to review the decision point and the evidence the approver should see. Do not ask AI to approve or reject the request.

Sample prompt

/sanka Review this Sanka approval workflow before I enable it. Summarize the trigger, record being reviewed, approvers, viewers, required approval fields, approval criteria, next actions after approval, what stops after rejection, what happens after return for revision, and any customer-facing send, payment, inventory, or integration step that depends on approval. Do not approve, reject, enable, or run the workflow.

Add an approval action

Open the workflow you want to edit.
Confirm the trigger and conditions are narrow enough that the workflow starts only for the intended records.
Add an Approval action at the point where human review is required.
Select the approver or approvers.
Add viewers if other users need to review context without approving.
Choose whether one approver or multiple approvers are required.
Add required approval fields when the approver must enter a reason, date, amount, category, or checklist confirmation.
Add the next workflow actions that should run only after approval.
Save the workflow and test it with a low-risk record before enabling it broadly.

Approver experience

When a workflow reaches an approval action, the approver should receive or see an approval request. The approver reviews the workflow context, related record, approval fields, and requested decision. The approver can usually choose:

Approve: allow the workflow to continue to the next step.
Reject: stop the workflow and record the reason.
Return for revision: send the request back so the submitter or workflow owner can correct the record or rerun from the appropriate step.

Approvers should enter a clear reason when rejecting or returning a request. This helps support teams and AI distinguish expected approval behavior from a product bug.

Submitter experience

The submitter or workflow owner should be able to review the approval status from workflow history, action history, or the related record. If the request is approved, the workflow continues. If rejected, the workflow stops. If returned, the record or request should be corrected before the workflow is run again. Do not rerun a workflow while an approval is still pending unless the team intentionally cancels or replaces the previous request.

Expected behavior

When approval is configured correctly:

The workflow pauses at the approval action until the required approver condition is met.
Approvers and viewers can access the approval context according to their role.
Required approval fields must be completed before the decision is saved.
Approval lets the configured next actions continue.
Rejection stops the workflow and should preserve a reason.
Return for revision stops or sends back the workflow so the record can be corrected.
Workflow history or action history shows who responded, when, and what decision was made.

An approval workflow does not bypass permissions, required fields, modules, or downstream action validation. Approval also does not guarantee that later actions will succeed; later record creation, email, document, payment, inventory, or sync steps can still fail their own checks.

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Approval checkpoints

Logs

Search logsAll actionsAll dates

ID / ActionDateTarget / ItemChangeActor

1Approval request createdMay 23, 2026Purchase request workflowRequest paused for manager approval with amount and reason fieldsWorkflow action

2Approval completedMay 23, 2026Purchase requestManager approved after reviewing supplier, amount, and delivery dateApprover

3Downstream action checkedMay 23, 2026Purchase order draftConfirmed purchase order was created from the approved requestOperations lead

Before treating an approval issue as a product bug, review the approver setup, required fields, workflow status, and downstream action results.

Troubleshoot approvals

Issue	What to check
The approval request did not appear	Confirm the workflow is enabled, the trigger fired, conditions matched, and the approval action is in the executed path.
The approver cannot open the request	Confirm the user is set as an approver or viewer and has access to the workflow and related record.
The approve button is not visible	Confirm the user is an approver, not only a viewer, and that the request is still waiting for approval.
Required approval fields do not save	Check required fields, date or number format, select options, and whether the request is still editable.
The workflow did not continue after approval	Check whether all required approvers responded, then review the next action's required fields, permissions, templates, or integration connection.
The workflow stopped after rejection	This is expected. Review the rejection reason before correcting or rerunning the workflow.
The same request was sent twice	Check whether the trigger fired twice or the workflow lacks a run-once status, flag, or condition.
AI says this is a bug	Ask AI to compare approver setup, workflow history, action history, required fields, permissions, and downstream action results before proposing a code change.

AI-safe support prompt

Use this prompt when a customer reports an approval workflow issue.