Track approvals

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Chasing approvals page by page stops working at about three of them. Open Capable, Approval and you get the lot in one place: what needs your answer, what you are waiting on other people for, and what is about to lapse.

#The dashboard

Four panels, scoped either to the space you are in or to the whole site.

Panel

What it shows

Overview

A ring chart of approved, pending, rejected and expired.

Assigned to you

Pages waiting on your answer, newest first.

Requested by you

Approvals you raised, with the reviewers and how far they have got.

Expiring

A window from one month ago to one month ahead, so recently lapsed and about to lapse sit together. See Expiry and re-approval.

Approval dashboard with the Overview ring chart and the Assigned to you, Requested by you and Expiring approvals panels
The four dashboard panels. The number in the middle of the ring is the total across every status, with the split in the legend underneath.

#The inbox

A three column board. On a wide screen you can drag a card straight from the first column into Approved or Rejected to answer it, which is by far the fastest way to clear a backlog.

Column

Holds

WAITING FOR YOU

Everything that needs your answer right now.

APPROVED

What you have said yes to. Drag a card here to approve it.

REJECTED

What you have refused, with your reason attached.

Counts next to each section tell you how much is in there before you open it, so a glance is usually enough to know whether anything needs you today. What each answer actually does is covered in Respond to a request.

Approval inbox board with Waiting for you, Approved and Rejected columns, each holding page cards with a count at the top
Drag a card from Waiting for you into Approved or Rejected to answer it. The number at the top of each column tells you how many cards it holds.

#Ready-made lists

Section

Lists

Your approvals

Pending, approved, rejected, expiring soon, expired, and everything you raised.

All approvals

The same across everyone, for whoever needs the whole picture rather than their own corner of it.

Pending list under Your approvals, with one page selected and its approval panel open on the right showing Approve and Reject
The Pending list from Your approvals. Select a page and its approval panel opens on the right, so you can answer without leaving the list.

#Build your own view

The search section is a table you can shape: change the filters, add or remove columns, change the sort, or drop into CQL and write the query yourself.

For saved searches that keep your criteria, filters, column sorting and sizing, use the Search capability included in Capable for Confluence. That is where standing reports live. The classic one is everything in this space expiring in the next 30 days, opened at a monthly quality meeting and worked through. The full column and filter list is in Search and reporting.

#A few things that catch people out

  • The dashboard is scoped to the current space by default. Switch to site scope if a request seems to be missing.

  • Dragging cards needs a wide window. On a narrow one, open the page and use the panel instead.

  • Commented requests still sit in your Waiting column, because a comment is not an answer. See Approval statuses explained.

  • The Expiring panel looks backwards as well as forwards, so things you have already missed are in there too.

No more corridor conversations about who still owes you a review.