I have a sheet with three approval workflows, including approval from Program Manager, Finance Representative, and the New Hire (external to organization).
When I built the workflows, the Program Manager, for example, receives an approval request in which they can Approve or Reject the terms to be included on a payment contract. If they click Reject, it is followed-up with an Update Request in which they provide a reason for the rejection (a column in the sheet is included called Rejection Reason). They provide a reason in the box in the Update Request, and click Submit. The approval moves to the next person ONLY after the Program Manager provides a reason for rejection.
When I tested the workflow originally a few months ago, I thought I could include a Comment in the approval workflow, in lieu of the follow up Update Request, but the Comment box wasn't appearing in the request. So, I added the follow up Update Request.
Now, in new testing, the Program Manager, who was at first only a Viewer on the sheet, clicked Reject, then received the follow-up Update Request and didn't see the box to provide the reason. Another person, who had Admin access to the sheet, received a separate approval request, clicked Reject, received the follow-up Update Request, and she saw the box to provide the reason for the rejection.
I changed the the first person's access to the sheet from Viewer to Editor (cannot share), and she refreshed the Update Request, and she still did not see the box.
Three questions:
- Can you include Comment in Approval Requests (that then appear with other comments in the row in the sheet)? What level of access would they need to add a Comment?
- Does a person have to be an Admin to see the Rejection Reason box on the Update Request? (Again, the Rejection Reason is a column in the sheet.)
- The third person in the approval process (the New Hire) is external to the organization (they won't at the time have a university email address). Will they be able to add a Comment in their approval request? Would they be able to see and add info the Rejection Reason box if they clicked "Reject" and received the follow-up Update Request?
When a person clicks Reject, a notification goes to our Contracts Manager that indicates the person (e.g., the Program Manager, the Finance Rep, or the New Hire) rejected the Payment Contract. Within the message, I use a placeholder to include the reason (content of the Rejection Reason cell).
One question:
- If the person responding to an Approval request (internal or external to the organization) can add a Comment (which means I could eliminate the follow-up Update Request asking for the rejection reason), can I include that comment in the notification to the Contracts Manager saying the contract the rejected by, e.g., the Program Manager (internal) or the New Hire (external)?
