Approvals

Approvals (German UI: Genehmigungen) turn requests such as leave, expenses or sign-offs into a clear process: a form, one or more approval steps, reminders, a cover while someone is away, and a complete history. Approvals are available in the Business and Enterprise plans.

Setting up approvals (space admins)#

Approvals are a Coviqo bot. People who may set up Coviqo bots (Space settings → Apps & integrations → Bots → Coviqo bots) choose Approvals once per space. Optionally pick a room: the bot then keeps a message there with one Start a request button per flow.

In the bot's settings you manage the flows – one flow per kind of request. Start with an empty flow or a template:

• Leave – period, type of leave, cover, note
• Expense – purpose, amount (EUR), date, category, receipt
• Sign-off – subject, description, attachment, needed by

A flow consists of:

• Form fields (up to 20): text (one or several lines), number (with minimum, maximum and unit), date, period, choice (optionally multiple choice) and file (up to 5 files). Mark fields as required and add a hint where useful.
• Approval steps (1 to 5, one after another). For each step choose who approves – the requester's team lead, specific people or a role – and whether one person is enough or everybody must approve. A rejection always ends the request. Nobody approves their own request.
• Reminders after a number of days (default 2, 0 switches them off).

Switch a flow off to stop new requests without losing anything. Deleting a flow that already has requests archives it – the requests are kept.

Starting a request#

Open Space → Approvals in the sidebar (the entry appears in spaces with approvals) and choose Start a request, or type /genehmigung (English: /approval) in a room, or click the button of the bot in a room. Fill in the form, attach files if needed and submit. Under My requests you always see the status: pending (with the current step), approved, rejected or withdrawn. While a request is pending you can withdraw it.

Deciding#

When a request waits for you, you get a notification (in the app, as push and by e-mail – configurable under Settings → Notifications → Approvals) and the sidebar shows a number next to Approvals. Open the request, check the details and attachments and choose Approve or Reject – optionally with a comment the requester sees. The tab To approve lists everything waiting for you; Decided by me keeps your history.

If a step needs everybody, the request moves on once all have approved. If one person is enough, the first approval completes the step. After the last step the requester is notified.

Cover while you are away#

Under Cover while absent on the Approvals page choose a colleague and a period. During that period your cover can decide requests that wait for you (you still can, too), and new requests reach them as well. The history shows "on behalf of" for decisions they made.

History and export#

Every request keeps a complete history: submitted, step started, each decision with comment and time, reminders, withdrawal. Space admins see all requests (tab All) and can download a CSV export filtered by flow, status and period – with all details and decisions.

Who sees a request: the requester, its approvers (and their covers) and the space admins who manage approvals. Details, comments and file names are stored encrypted.