Approval Routing and Escalation
Why Approval Routing Matters
Understanding how approval routing works helps you predict timelines and troubleshoot delays. When content is submitted, CalmCompliance automatically notifies approvers, advances through stages in order, and records responses. Stages run sequentially—you can't skip ahead—and each stage must meet its required approvals before the next begins. If anyone rejects, the workflow stops immediately and the content returns to draft for the author to resubmit (which starts a new workflow from Stage 1).
How to Track and Participate in Approval Workflows
For content authors
Open your content (document, risk assessment, or form) and go to the Approval section or tab
Check the workflow status—pending, approved, or rejected
See which stage is active, who has approved so far, and who still needs to approve
If rejected, read the rejection comments, make changes, and Submit for Approval again—this starts a new workflow from Stage 1
For approvers
Check your inbox or notification center—you'll see approval requests when it's your turn
Click through to the content and review it
Click Approve (optionally add comments) or Reject (add comments explaining why)
If you approve, your response counts toward the required approvals for that stage; once the stage meets its requirement, the next stage activates and those approvers are notified
Approvers can view the complete history of previous stages, including who approved and any comments they left.
Common Questions
Can I skip a stage if it's not relevant? No. All stages must complete in order. If a stage isn't always needed, create separate approval policies for different scenarios.
What if an approver is on holiday? The workflow waits. Use groups or multiple approvers with required approvals less than the total (e.g. 1 required from a 3-person group) so someone else can approve.
What happens if I change an approval policy while a workflow is in progress? The workflow continues using the original policy. Changes only affect new workflows.
Can I cancel an in-progress approval workflow? For document drafts, the person who originally submitted the approval request can cancel it while it is still pending. Open the document and click Cancel Approval in the page header. You must still have permission to add document versions. After cancellation, the draft returns to an editable state and Publish Draft becomes available again. Pending approvers no longer see the request in their inbox. For risk assessments and forms, administrators can cancel workflows if needed. Authors typically cannot cancel once submitted for those content types—contact your site administrator.
Where can I see cancelled approval workflows? Cancelled workflows appear in the document's approval history. Open the document, click Manage in the header, then open the Approvals tab. The workflow shows a cancelled status with a timestamp. The audit log also records an Approval Cancelled event with the document name, version number, and optional reason.