What is Approval Management : Approval management is a business process that involves the management of steps through which an official approval for work from different levels of the organization gets obtained. And the word work here means invoices, purchase orders, customer credit limits, and many other documents and initiatives.

Managing approvals can be difficult when it’s handled by emails, spreadsheets, paper, or other old-school methods. Emails get missed, spreadsheets are cumbersome, paper is…well, paper. Yet many businesses still handle approvals with these methods. Approval Management seeks to replace these tired, manual approval processes with workflow automation.

Odoo Approval Module : Approvals are important business documents that are attached to a request by an executive or a group of executives. In the most basic sense, this is how we may define Approvals. Approvals in Odoo have the same meaning as approvals in other systems, but they are more advanced in terms of meaning and usefulness.

In every organization, expensive purchases should be approved by the responsible person. This module allows the user or employee to request to purchase some products. 

The approval requests in the Odoo platform can be customized as per the needs and the operations could be managed and monitored effectively in the platform. The Approvals module in Odoo 15 focuses on seeking and providing permissions for staff requirements provided for company needs. 

Basic workflow of the Approval module : This is the basic workflow of the Approval Module.

Employee -> Request -> Notification -> Approver -> Approved.

Access Rights : There are 2 groups. Using these groups to grant the right for your users.

Settings : Can Create / Edit the approval type.

User : Can Create / Approve the approval request.

Features of Approval Module in Odoo V15 : Every module has its own unique feature, so approval modules have some specific features.

• Customize the analyzing parameters on each request.
• Makes internal operation of the company run smoothly.
• All aspects are done electronically thus the paperless operation.
• Remote access features enable the requests to be made and approved from offsite.
• Provide a customized description of each request.
• Zero operational and implementation cost in the platform.
• Have user access from the employee as well as the manager side.
• We provide a “Minimum Request Approver” feature in every request type.
• A user-Friendly tool for permission seeking.
• If the request is refused then it generates a popup for a refused reason.
• Every request has its approvers/refusers.
• Easy to group by requests by type, approver, contact, date, request by, deadline & item.
• Approval requests can be verified by more than one consigned party.
• Centralize all the requests to the project manager of the team.
• The user or employee can send a purchase request.
• Paperless
• Time efficient for employees.

In this blog we will have a deep understanding about the workflow of Odoo V15 Approval Module.

To use this module firstly install this from the Odoo apps. And if it is already installed then open this module from the Odoo database. 

From the above screenshot you can see that this module is already installed for me, so let’s click on the icon of the Approval Module and its dashboard is shown in the screenshot below.

The Approval types are visible in the dashboard itself. The approval request can be sent from the approval types.

Approval Types : There are various types of approval available which are required to be approved from the manager. Let see the type of approval.

1. Business Trip
2. Borrow Item
3. General Approval
4. Contract Approval
5. Payment Application
6. Car Rental Application
7. Job Referral Award
8. Procurement

You can find the approval types from the Configuration tab, when you click on the configuration tab you will see the Approval types with it.

When you click on the Approval types you will come to the new window, for reference you can see the screenshot below.

For the new approval you can click on the “Create Button” and a new window will appear.

When creating a new approval type, details such as the name of the approval type, the name of the company, the description of the approval type, and the options that must be included in the type must be input. This will aid the approver in reviewing and validating the request. In the approver section, the user can assign the executives who should approve the type of request. In case the respective approval should be approved by more than the manager the respective employees can be listed out. 

Upon providing the details of the required, optional, and not needed fields the user can save the approval type to be able to use it in the platform and operate on them.

Approval Request : You can find approval requests from the My Approval tab from the Approval dashboard. When you click on the My Approval tab you can see the drop down menu and select New Request. For reference you can see the screenshot below.

Approval Module Dashboard > My Approvals > My Request

Now the user can view the window as shown in the below image where all the respective approval types are being listed out.

Choose the new request option available from the respective type from the list available. 

When you select to create a new request the user will be represented with the window as shown in the screenshot below.

Provide the details and the description along with the approver’s names who should approve initially before the manager approves it. The employee will be required to submit information such as the Approval Subject, Request Owner’s name, Approval Category, Date, From and To Period, Location, Contact, Amount if applicable, and Reference. The products that require approval, as well as the quantity, unit of measurement, and description, must be listed in the designated area. The user also has the provision to attach documents that would come as the supporting documents of the request. 

After filling all the details save this and submit the request. When you submit the request status will be changed from “To Submit” to “Submitted” for reference you can see the screenshot below.

Now the request will be sent to the Approvers and the Approvers can decide whether the request should be Approve, Refuse or Canceled.

When the manager logs into the system and selects the approval request available he/she is illustrated with the window as shown in the screenshot below.

The manager can view all the approval requests, requested employee, category, next activity, and the status of each request available. 

Now select the request which you want to approve. When you select the request you will come to the new window. For reference you can see the screenshot below.

Now the approver has 3 options likewise Approve, refuse and cancel.

He can approve your request, he can refuse your request and he can cancel your request also. When he clicks on the Approve button the status will be changed from “Submitted” to “Approved” and this is how your request will be approved. Similarly he can refuse and cancel the request also.

You can also click on the Withdraw Button to withdraw the offered approval. This is how you can cancel your approval for the request.

This is how you can use the Approval module for Odoo V15 to manage the request from the employees. If you like to read more blogs written by us click on the Planet-Odoo