Can you have an Approval Workflow go back into the workflow after a Decline?

alexis.ray89371

Hi!

I will try to explain this the best way I can. :)

I have a process I need to run through 6 approvers one after another. If one person declines it needs to send an update request to the submitter to ask them to update something. Once that person makes the update I need it to go back to the person that denied it for re-approval and then continue to the next person.

I have done a lot of testing and haven't found any easy way of doing this.

I have tried to start making the super complex branching, but that just seems like a horrible idea and would take forever.

I tried doing one "if declined send update request to submitter" to see if it would automatically go back into the existing workflow after being updated and it does not.

Is there an easy way that I am just not thinking of?

Thanks!

Paul Newcome

You could use a checkbox column and enter a formula that would search the approver columns. If "Declined" is found, it will check the box which can be used to generate the update request. Once the update request is complete, it would generate another update request to the approver who initially declined it to give them the option to change from declined to approved. Once it is approved, it can move on the the next approval workflow.

Paul Newcome

You could use a checkbox column and enter a formula that would search the approver columns. If "Declined" is found, it will check the box which can be used to generate the update request. Once the update request is complete, it would generate another update request to the approver who initially declined it to give them the option to change from declined to approved. Once it is approved, it can move on the the next approval workflow.

alexis.ray89371

That is a great suggestion! Thank you.

Paul Newcome

Happy to help. 👍️

One thing I would suggest considering is that you set up an additional workflow that runs daily/every other day/whatever regularity you feel is appropriate to catch any checkboxes that did not become unchecked whether it be because the approver either did not take another look or because they did and still rejected.

Tim Sheehan

Sorry but I'm having a hard time following this. Is there any chance you could give some more specific examples? I don't understand how to incorporate the formula that is proposed.

Nawal Jibawi

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/241979#Comment_241979

Hi, could you tell me what formula you would use? I am using the a Contains formula and it is not checking a box when the formula is met. Instead it is inserting the word "True" however, it is inserting this for all my rows regardless of whether or not the row contains the word "decline".

=IF(CONTAINS("Declined", [BSD Supervisor Approval 1]:[VP Approval 3]), "True", "False")

Paul Newcome

CONTAINS generates a TRUE/FALSE value already, so you don't even need the IF statement when putting it into a checkbox column like this. You can use it as a stand-alone function in this instance.

=CONTAINS("Declined", [BSD Supervisor Approval 1]:[VP Approval 3])