By default, Ruddr supports manual and automatic approval of time and / or expenses. When set for manual approval through the Project Settings area of workspace settings (Figure 1), this default, manual approval process is a single-step approval where the Project Admin on a project is the sole approver of time and expenses.
Figure 1 - Ruddr's Default Options for Time and Expense Approval in the Workspace
In cases where organizations may need to introduce a more complex approval workflow, Ruddr provides a multi-step approval workflow feature. Leveraging this feature allows organizations to establish, at a project level, a time-and-expense approval workflow with multiple, sequential approvers. This article will cover:
- Enabling the feature in Ruddr
- Default workflow for time and for expense in the workspace
- Workflow for a project
- Disabling the feature in Ruddr
For more details on leveraging the workflow at a project level, and for how the various steps of the approval workflow are executed, please refer to the Project Approval Workflow article in the Ruddr Help Center.
Enabling Multi-Step Approval in Ruddr
The Multi-Step Approval feature in Ruddr can be enabled or disabled within the Features section (Figure 2) of workspace Settings. As some organizations may not need or desire to use multi-step approval workflow, Ruddr allows this feature set to be turned off. To enable or disable multi-step approval workflow, simply click the Multi-Step Approval Workflow toggle (Figure 3) on the Features section.
Figure 2 - Access Features from Ruddr Workspace Settings
Figure 3 - Toggle the Multi-Step Approval Workflow Feature On or Off Based on your Organizational Requirements
Disabling the Feature
Should you decide to disable the Multi-Step Approval Workflow feature in the workspace, any projects that leverage multi-step will be reverted back to the default one-step approval process whereas the Project Admin is the sole approver of time and expenses entries for projects. Because of the impact this may have on the projects in your workspace, attempting to disable the feature by toggling the setting in Workspace Settings (Figure 3) will trigger a prompt (Figure 4) to confirm this selection.
Figure 4 - Ruddr will Prompt for Confirmation when Attempting to Disable the Multi-Step Approval Workflow Feature
Setting the Default Workflow
Once the multi-step approval workflow feature is enabled, you will see a Set Default Workflow button appear in the Project Settings area of workspace settings (Figure 5). Clicking on this button will display an Edit Workflow screen that displays the default, one-step approval (Figure 6) with the Project Admin listed as the sole approver. For more information on working with multi-step workflows, see the Managing Multi-Step Approval Workflows section in Ruddr Help Center.
Figure 5 - With the Feature Enabled, you can Set a Default Workflow for the Workspace
Figure 6 - One-Step Approval Workflow with the Project Admin as Sole Approver
Setting the Workflow for a Project
For projects that need to stray from the default workspace approval workflows, Project Admins can edit the default workflow for a project in the project settings. For more on setting up a project, view the Create a New Project article in the Projects section of Ruddr Help Center.