# Approval Workflows Approval Workflows help you manage structured decision-making on ticket requests such as expense sign-offs, IT access approvals, onboarding processes, or compliance-related reviews. ClearFeed allows you to define multi-level approval chains, notify approvers directly in Slack, and track every approval action inside the ticket. {% hint style="danger" %} Approvals is only available on the **Internal HelpDesk** Product Edition. {% endhint %} ## How to Configure Approval Workflows?

### **Navigate to Approval Workflows** * From the left navigation bar in the WebApp, go to **More → Approval Workflows**. * Click **Create Approval Workflow** and enter a meaningful name. ### Select Intake Form * Choose the form that will trigger the approval workflow when used for ticket creation. * Select any fields that should not be changed while the approval process is ongoing. #### Participants Behavior * **Automatically Add Approvers as Participants (Optional)-** When enabled, all approvers are added to the ticket as participants so they can view and respond in the conversation. [Learn More](https://docs.clearfeed.ai/clearfeed-help-center/clearfeed-helpdesk/participants) ### Define Routing Rules Routing rules determine **when** a particular approval chain should be used. Each rule contains two parts: #### **Conditions (When this rule applies)** Conditions are evaluated against the ticket’s fields. All conditions must match for the rule to be applied.\ If no rule matches, the **Default Routing** is used. Examples: * Department = Finance * Request Type = Access Request * Location = APAC #### **Approval Sequence (Who must approve, and in what order)** After defining conditions, configure the **ordered list of approvers** for that rule. Approvals proceed level by level in the sequence you specify. ClearFeed supports **two types of approvers**: #### **Specific User (Static Approver)** Select an internal user who will always approve at this level. #### **From Form Field (Dynamic Approver)** Choose a **User Select** field from the Intake Form. The approver for this level will be the user selected in that field. {% hint style="info" %} **Important:** **User Select** field will appear in the **From Form Field (Dynamic Approver)** dropdown only when * it is added to the selected Intake Form * it is configured to be **editable by All** (not only by responders.) {% endhint %} Dynamic Approvers are ideal when approvers depend on the requester's context, such as: * Manager * Team lead * Project owner * Department owner * Regional approver **Backup Approver (Required)** Each dynamic approver must have a backup. The backup will be used if: * The field was removed from the form * The field exists but was not filled by the requester ## How the Approval Process Works Once the workflow is active, here is how ClearFeed evaluates and runs approvals: * When a user submits a ticket using the selected Intake Form: * An Approval Request is created and linked to the ticket * Ticket status cannot be closed until approvals finish * ClearFeed checks routing rules top-down and selects the first rule whose conditions match. **Approver Resolution** For each approver level: * **If Static Approver is used:** Assigned directly as configured. * **If a Form Field has been used:** ClearFeed evaluates in the following order: * **Field exists? -** If not → use backup * **Field has a value?-** If empty → use backup (Reason: “Field left empty”) * **Resolved approver already used at a lower level? -** If yes → level is skipped

The same user will never receive approval tasks at multiple levels. If any approver (static, dynamic, or backup) duplicates a lower-level approver:

Only the lower-level approval runs
The higher level is skipped
Skip reason is displayed in the Approval Chain
No Slack notification is sent for skipped steps

* **Else** → use dynamic approver value * Dynamic values and fallback results are shown in the Approval Chain. **Approval Execution** * Approvers receive a Slack message and can approve or reject directly * If the **Automatically add approvers as participants** is enabled, approvers receive **two messages from ClearFeed**: * A message to **approve or reject** the approval request. * A notification that they have been **added as a participant** on the ticket, allowing them to view the conversation and send/receive messages. * If approved → next approver is notified * If rejected → the entire approval request is closed as rejected * All approval actions are logged privately on the ticket **Visibility in the UI** The logs for the Approval Workflow can be found in Ticket Activity, Approval Task View and Slack Triage Channel as Private Comments. It includes below information: * Static and dynamic approvers * When a backup approver was used * Skip reasons (duplicate, removed field, empty field) * Approval or rejection comments * Approval timestamps