Universal Design of Approvals User Guide

Change Summary

The Universal Design of Approvals feature in TechnoMile’s Contracts Suite provides a streamlined and flexible framework for managing review and approval workflows. This enhancement enables users to handle approval requests with options to Recall, Cancel, or Resubmit when necessary. Additionally, automated email notifications keep relevant reviewers and approvers informed at every stage, ensuring seamless collaboration across teams.

This enhancement applies to the following entities: 

• Contract 

• Contract Mod

• Agreement

• OCI

• CPAR

• Solicitation

• Proposal

• Negotiation

• TINA Certification

• At-Risk Funding

Audience

• Contracts Suite Users

Prerequisites

Ensure that TechnoMile's Contracts Suite is installed and configured. The version of this package must be 2025.1 or higher.

Review/Approval Workflow

The review/approval workflow status is displayed in the relevant Team Members entity related table.

NOTE

The related tables for the Team Member entity are named as per the selected entity, as Team Members (Contracts, Solicitation, and At-Risk Funding), Agreement Team (Agreements), Internal Team (CPARs), and OCI Team (OCI), Proposal Team (Proposal), Negotiation Team (Negotiation), TINA Team (TINA Certification).

Workflow Status

The available review statuses include:

• Not Started: This status indicates that the review or approval process has not yet been initiated. No actions have been taken yet, and the record is still waiting to enter the workflow.

• Pending: This status indicates that the review or approval is currently in progress. A record in this status is under consideration and awaiting either approval or rejection.

• Approved: The record meets all the necessary criteria and is accepted.

• Rejected: The record fails to meet the criteria or requires further modifications, so it is declined.

• Request Recalled: This status allows users to stop the review or approval process temporarily and make necessary adjustments before reinitiating the review or approval process.

• Follow-up: This status indicates that the review or approval is still pending, and a follow-up request has already been sent.

Managing Reviews/Approvals

Before you Begin

Ensure that team members are added and assigned their respective roles. For information on adding team members, refer Adding Team Members.
The following table outlines the roles available for each team member entity: 

Sending for Review/Approval

The following steps outline the signature authorization and data review process for Contracts:

1. In the Contracts tab, locate and open the contract record which you want to send for review.

2. Click the Team Members tab.
   A list of team members and their assigned roles is displayed.

3. Under Actions, click Send for Signature Auth.

   NOTE

   The Send for Signature Auth option is available only when the signature authorizer's Review Status is set to Not Started or Request Recalled.

   

4. A confirmation dialog appears. Click Ok. 

5. The Review Status of team members with Signature Authorizer roles changes from Not Started to Pending and the Date Sent field is populated. The signature authorizers receive an Approval Email Notification. 

6. Once Approved or Rejected, the Review Status of the Signature Authorizer roles changes from Pending to Approved or Rejected and the Date Completed field is populated.

7. On approval, the contract's business process flow moves to the Review stage.

8. Under Actions, click Send for Data Review. 

9. A confirmation dialog appears. Click Ok. 

10. The Review Status of team members with Data Reviewer roles changes from Not Started to Pending and the Date Sent field is populated. The data reviewers receive an email notification.

11. Once Approved or Rejected, the Review Status of the Data Reviewer roles changes from Pending to Approved or Rejected and the Date Completed field is populated.  

Reassigning Requests

The following steps outline the process to reassign approval requests:

1. In the Contracts tab, locate and open the contract record which you want to reassign.

2. Click the Team Members tab.
   A list of team members and their assigned roles is displayed.

3. Open the team member record that was sent for review or approval, where only the Date Sent field has been updated. 

4. Open the Respond Link URL. The Power Automate Approvals page displays all approval requests for the signed in user.

5. Select the approval you want to reassign.

6. From the Choose Your response drop down, select Reassign.

7. In the Reassign to field, select the team member you want to reassign the request to. 

8. Click Save.
   The previously assigned user receives a Reassign Email Notification, and the newly assigned user receives an Approve/Reject Email Notification.

Recalling Requests

NOTE

The Recall option is available only when there are team members with their Review Status in Pending.

The following steps outline the process to recall the signature authorization process for Contracts:

1. Under Actions, click Recall. 

2. Enter the reason for the recall in the text box, then click Recall. 

3. The Review Status of team members changes from Pending to Request Recalled, and the reviewers receive a Recall Email Notification. 

4. A new Approval History record is created with the following details:

   • Approver Name: User who initiated the recall.

   • Status: Request Recalled.

   • Date: Recall date and time.

   • Comments: Recall comments entered by the user. 

NOTE

If the review or approval request changed the BPF status of the record, it will revert to its previous status upon recall.

Correcting and Resubmitting a Recalled Request

The user can resubmit a recalled record by first addressing the reasons for recall and making the necessary updates. Once the issue is resolved, reinitiate the Sending for Reviews/Approvals process, which restarts the approval workflow from the beginning.

Approving or Rejecting a Request

A review or approval request can be directly accepted or rejected through Email Notifications, allowing recipients to take action without the need to access the system. When a review or approval request is Approved, the process advances to the next stage as defined by the Business Process Flow (BPF). 

When a review/approval request is Rejected, the user has two options: 

• Take No Action (Cancellation)
  For Agreements, OCI, and CPAR, the record remains permanently in the Rejected status and does not progress further. Contracts cannot be permanently canceled or abandoned in the Rejected status; they require resubmission to move forward.

• Resubmit

  The user can resubmit the record by first addressing the reasons for rejection and making the necessary updates. Once the issue is resolved, reinitiate the Sending for Reviews/Approvals process, which restarts the approval workflow from the beginning.

An Approval History record is created for all approved and rejected requests, containing the following details:

• Approver Name: The name of the user who approved or rejected the request.

• Status: Indicates whether the request was approved or rejected.

• Response Date: The date and time the approval or rejection occurred.

• Comments: Any comments entered by the reviewer during approval or rejection.

Follow-up on Review/Approval Requests

To help accelerate review process, Agreement, OCI, and Proposal processes support two types of follow-up reminders for reviewers and approvers:

• On Demand Follow-up: Manual reminders sent by users to specific team members as required. These follow-ups are independent of the automatic schedule and give users control to nudge the right people at the right time.

• Scheduled Follow-up: Configured by the Admin, these reminder emails are sent at a set interval (in days) to team members who have not yet responded to the initial request. The system ensures completed processes or users who have already acted on their tasks do not receive further reminders.  

On Demand Follow-up

NOTE

• The Follow up option is available only when there are team members with their Review Status in Pending.  

• The follow-up functionality is available only for Agreement, OCI, and Proposal entities.

To send an on demand follow-up:

1. Open the record you want to follow-up on.

2. Under Actions, click Send Follow-up.
   

3. In the Add follow-up team members window, select the team members you want to notify, then click Send Follow-up. 

4. Click OK on the confirmation window. 

5. The Review Status of team members changes from Pending to Follow-up, and the reviewers receive a Follow-up Email Notification. 

6. Once Approved or Rejected, the Review Status updates from Follow-up to Approved or Rejected accordingly.

7. The history of all on-demand follow-ups is available in the Follow-up History tab.
   

Scheduled Follow-up

Configured by the Admin, scheduled follow-up emails are sent at defined intervals (in days) to team members whose Review Status is still Pending after the configured period has passed. When triggered, the system sends a follow-up email and updates the team member’s status from Pending to Follow-up. 

Once Approved or Rejected, the Review Status of the Reviewer or Approver roles changes from Follow-up to Approved or Rejected.   

NOTE

If the team member does not act on the initial follow-up request, the system sends a second reminder after the next configured interval, followed by a third reminder if the task is still incomplete.

The history of all scheduled follow-ups is available in the Follow-up History tab.

Email Notifications

Automated email notifications keep relevant reviewers or approvers informed at every stage, ensuring seamless collaboration across teams.

Approve/Reject Email Notification

This email notification is triggered when a record requires a decision in the review or approval process. It informs the recipient about the need to either approve or reject the record and typically includes relevant details about the record and a link or instructions for taking action. For detailed information, refer Agreement review process, CPAR review process, and OCI review process.

Reassign Email Notification

This email notification is triggered when a review or approval task is reassigned from one user to another. It notifies the previously assigned user that the task has been reassigned and that no further action is required from them. The newly assigned user receives an Approve/Reject Email Notification. 

Recall Email Notification 

This notification is sent when a request is recalled by the user. It informs the relevant stakeholders that the review or approval process has been recalled, allowing the user to make necessary adjustments to the record before resubmitting it for review or approval.

Follow-up Email Notification

This notification, sent either on a scheduled basis or on-demand (manually), is triggered when a review or approval request remains pending. It alerts the relevant stakeholders that their review or approval is still awaited, prompting them to take the necessary action.

For scheduled follow-ups, if the stakeholder does not act on the first follow-up email, the system sends a second follow-up email after the next configured interval, followed by a third follow-up email if the task is still incomplete. On-demand follow-ups are independent of the schedule and allow users to send reminders when required.

NOTE

• Once you receive a second follow-up email, you can no longer respond to the first follow-up email. Similarly, after receiving the third follow-up email, you cannot respond to the first or second follow-up emails.

• For an OCI entity, if the response from a reviewer to a follow-up email is marked as Conflict, then a follow-up email is automatically sent to the approvers in pending state.