Flow Settings
1. Using Sanplex by Role
1.1. Administrator
1.2. Program Manager
2. Introduction of Sanplex features
2.1. Core Management Framework
2.1.1 Program
2.1.2 Project
2.1.3 Product
2.1.4 Execution
2.1.5 Management Models
2.2. Dashboard
2.2.1 Getting Started with Tutorials
2.2.2 Quick Add
2.2.3 Notification Center
2.2.4 Effort Tracking
2.2.5 Dashboard - Project and Execution
2.2.6 Dashboard - My Work, Contribution, and Recents
2.2.7 Dashboard - Approval
2.2.8 Contacts
2.3. Program
2.3.1 Program List
2.3.2 Program Kanban
2.3.3 Create Program
2.3.4 Create Sub-Programs
2.3.5 Project Charter Management
2.4. Product
2.4.1 Create Product
2.4.2 Manage Modules
2.4.3 Multi-Branch and Multi-Platform Management
2.4.4 Manage Plans
2.4.5 Manage Stories
2.4.6 Story Reviews
2.4.7 Story Status and Phase
2.4.8 Create Releases
2.4.9 Track Progress
2.4.10 Epics and Multi-Level Stories
2.5. Project
2.5.1 Scrum Project
2.5.2. Waterfall Project
2.5.2.1 Manage Project Phases
2.5.2.2 Project Design
2.5.2.3 Project Matrix
2.5.2.4 Project Reports and Earned Value Management
2.5.2.5 Project Baselines
2.5.2.6 Project Change
2.5.3. Kanban Project
2.5.3.1 Set Up Kanban Projects
2.5.3.2 Configure Kanban Boards
2.5.3.3 Use Kanban Boards
2.5.4 Hybrid Agile Project
2.5.5 Hybrid Waterfall Project
2.5.6. Project Settings
2.5.6.1 Project Setup
2.5.6.2 Project Executions
2.5.6.3 Project Requirements
2.5.6.4 Project Builds
2.5.6.5 Project Tests
2.5.6.6 Project Docs
2.5.6.7 Project Releases
2.5.6.8 Project Reports
2.5.6.9 Project Risks
2.5.6.10 Project Issues
2.5.6.11 Project Opportunities
2.5.6.12 Project Deliverables
2.5.6.13 Project Reviews
2.5.6.14 Project Process
2.5.6.15 Deliverables
2.5.6.16 Quality Assurance
2.5.6.17 Project-specific Workflow Management
2.5.7 Project Templates
2.6. Execution
2.6.1 Product Planning and Task Breakdown
2.6.2 Task Assignment and Daily Tracking
2.6.3 Build Creation and Test Requests
2.6.4 Bug Confirmation and Resolution
2.6.5 Execution Kanban Boards
2.7. Testing
2.7.1 Write Test Cases
2.7.2 Execute Test Cases
2.7.3 Bug Submission and Reports
2.7.4 Verify and Close Bugs
2.7.5 Test Case Scenes
2.7.6 Submit a Test Request
2.7.7 Test Report
2.8. Agent
2.8.1 Conversation
2.8.2 Sanplex Agents
2.8.3 General Agents
2.8.4 Skill Management
2.8.5 AI Knowledge Library
2.8.6 Models
2.8.7 ZAI Service Installation
2.8.8 ZAI Service Control Panel
2.8.9 ZAI Configuration
2.9. Kanban
2.9.1 Kanban Spaces
2.9.2 Kanban Regions
2.9.3 Kanban Cards
2.10. Company
2.10.1 View Team Members and Work Information
2.10.2 View Recent Company Activity
2.10.3 View and Edit Company Information
2.11. Feedback
2.11.1 Configure, Create, and Review Feedback
2.11.2 Process Feedback and Send Notifications
2.11.3 Tickets
2.12. Admin Settings
2.12.1. System Settings
2.12.1.1 Mode
2.12.1.2 Backup
2.12.1.3 Trash
2.12.1.4 License
2.12.1.5 Security
2.12.1.6 Cron Job
2.12.1.7 Time Zone
2.12.1.8 Rebuild Index
2.12.1.9 LDAP
2.12.1.10 Table Engine
2.12.2 Feature Options
2.12.3. Users Management
2.12.3.1 Set Departments and Edit Company Profile
2.12.3.2 Manage Users
2.12.3.3 Set Permisions
2.12.4. Feature Configuration
2.12.4.1 Dashboard
2.12.4.2 Product
2.12.4.3 Project
2.12.4.4 Execution
2.12.4.5 Test
2.12.4.6 Kanban
2.12.4.7 Feedback
2.12.4.8 Tickets
2.12.4.9 User
2.12.4.10 Relations (Standard Version)
2.12.4.11 Meaturement
2.12.5 Migrate Jira Data to Sanplex
2.12.6 Jira to Sanplex Migration Mapping
2.12.7 Migrate Confluence Data to Sanplex
2.12.8. Agent Configuration
2.13. Asset Library (Premium)
2.13.1 Asset Library Management (Premium)

Approval Flow

2026-10-23 11:22:46
Kelsea Zhang
3
Last edited by Kelsea Zhang on 2026-10-23 13:56:57
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Summary: This guide explains how to create and configure approval flows in Sanplex, including approval nodes, reviewers, CC recipients, conditional branches, parallel branches, project usage, and workflow integration.

Catalog

I. Overview

Sanplex provides custom approval flows that can be tailored to your business process. You can design approval flows flexibly with approval nodes, approvers, approval roles, CC recipients, conditional branches, and other settings.

Approver settings support consecutive management levels, the initiator, initiator-selected approvers, and approvers selected by the previous node. Approval flows can also use percentage-based approval, opinion collection, and approver removal.

During approval, Sanplex supports Return, Transfer, Initiator Withdraw, and required approval comments.

Approval Flow is available under Admin > PApproval Flow.

II. Entry

Go to Admin > Approval Flow to open the Approvals page. Approval permissions must be granted by a system administrator. You can configure approval flows and approval roles on this page.

Approval flow entry point

Approval flow page

III. Create an Approval Flow

On the Approvals page, click Create Approval Flow to add an approval flow, or use the action buttons on the right side of the list to edit an existing approval flow.

On the creation page, enter the approval flow name, type, and description.

Create an approval flow

Click Create Flow. The page returns to the list, where the newly created approval flow is displayed.

Crucial Project Approval Flow in the list

IV. Design an Approval Flow

In the action column on the right side of the list, click Design Flow to open the design page.

Design button

A newly created approval flow contains three default nodes: Start, Approval, and Finish.

Start to design

You can click each approval node to configure it. The following screenshot shows the configuration of a CC node, where you can set CC recipients:

Set CC Recipients

  • Submitter select: The initiator selects CC recipients manually on the approval initiation page.
  • Appointee: Specify a user to receive the CC notification.
  • Roles: An approval role maintained under Approvals > Roles.
  • Department Head: The department manager defined in Sanplex’s department structure.

The following sections describe the configuration of an approval node.

Approval settings

1. Configure Basic Information

Configure the approval title and approval type.

Set approval nodes

Approval title: The name of the approval node.

Approval Node Type:

  • Manual: A user must manually click Approve or Reject.
  • Auto- Pass: Mainly used when a multi-branch flow has no approver configured.
  • Auto Reject: Mainly used when a multi-branch flow has no approver configured.

2. Configure Approvers

Set reviewers

Approver Type:

  • Submitter select: The initiator selects approvers on the approval initiation page. The range can be unrestricted or limited by role, department, or position.
  • Oneself: The initiator approves the request.
  • Roles: All users in the selected role review the request together. Roles can be configured in Admin.
  • Position: All users in the selected position review the request together. Positions can be configured in Admin.
  • Department Head: The manager of the initiator’s department reviews the request.
  • Higher level: The initiator’s direct manager reviews the request. Direct managers can be configured for users in Admin.
  • Multiple Higher level: The initiator’s managers at multiple consecutive levels review the request together. The approval can end at the top manager or at the second, third, fourth, or fifth manager level.
  • Previous node selects approver: The approver of the previous node selects the reviewer for this node. This option is unavailable for the first node.
  • Execution Roles: Roles associated with the execution that owns the approval object, including Product Owner, Test Owner, Release Owner, and Execution Owner.
  • Product Roles: Roles associated with the product that owns the approval object, including Product Owner, Test Owner, Release Owner, Feedback Owner, Ticket Owner, and Story Reviewer.
  • Project Roles: Roles associated with the project that owns the approval object, including Project Owner and Project Stakeholder.

3. Configure Action Permissions During Approval

Set approval permission

Can Forward: After transfer, another user becomes the approver. Only one user can be selected.

Can Revert: You can return the approval to any node before the current node, including Initiate.

  • Follow approval flow sequence: After the returned node is approved, the approval proceeds to the next node in sequence.
  • Resume from the current review node: After the returned node is approved, the approval jumps to the current node for review.

Add Node: You can add an approval node before or after the current node, or add approvers to the current node.

  • Add before: Add a node before the current node. You can select multiple approvers and reconfigure the multi-approver rule when multiple approvers are selected. Other approval settings are the same as those of the current approval flow.
  • Add after: Add a node after the current node. You can select multiple approvers and reconfigure the multi-approver rule when multiple approvers are selected. Other approval settings are the same as those of the current approval flow.
  • Add approvers at current node: This option is not displayed when the current approval flow has only one approver.

Approval flow in the nodes

The initiator withdraws: When selected, the initiator can withdraw the approval while this node is under review.

4. Configure CC Recipients

You can select the scope of CC recipients. The same personnel restrictions as those for approvers apply.

CC Recipients settings in the node

5. Configure Approval Rules

You can configure multi-approver rules, whether approval comments are required, and other restrictions.

Multi-approver modes:

  • Joint approval (all approve): The approval passes when all approvers approve.
  • Any approval (one approves): The approval passes when any one approver approves.
  • Joint approval (percentage threshold): The approval passes when the configured approval percentage is reached.
  • Collect opinions (result: approved): Primarily used to collect opinions; the result does not affect progression to the next node. If Require all reviewers to complete their reviews is cleared, the node ends once the calculation condition is met. If it is selected, the flow waits for every reviewer to finish before moving to the next node, regardless of the review results.

You can also click the plus icon between nodes to add nodes or branches to the approval flow.

click Plus to expand

Conditional branches: Only one branch proceeds. Branches are prioritized from left to right. If none of the left branches meets its condition, the flow uses the default branch on the far right.

Condition

Parallel branches: Multiple branches can proceed at the same time. Any branch that meets its condition runs, and the default branch always runs.

Parallel

V. Use Approval Flows in Projects

See Project Approval Flow Settings.

After configuration, you can use the approval flow in a project.

Create a review

After you select a review object, Sanplex retrieves all approval nodes from the approval flow bound to the object. If the configuration uses Initiator selects, the approvers must be selected manually.

After a review is initiated, click Progress on the list page to monitor the approval flow.

Review progress

A blue node represents an approval that is in progress.

Progress details

A green node represents an approval that is complete.

Passed approval

When an approval reaches a node, Sanplex sends email reminders to the approvers and CC recipients for that node.

Go to Dashboard > Approval to view all approval items awaiting your review.

Dashboard

VI. Use Approval Flows in Workflows

Select Workflow Approval as the approval type for an approval flow. After the approval flow is configured, it can be used in workflows.

1. Configure a Workflow

When creating a workflow, you can enable approvals directly.

Enable approval flow in the new added workflow

For an existing workflow, enable approvals through the approval settings in the Advanced Editor.

If the user configuring the workflow is not a super administrator, that user must have the Approval Settings permission.

Enable approval flow in an exist workflow

After approvals are enabled, default fields, actions, and labels are added:

Approval actions design

Configure the settings related to Submit, Recall, and Review.

Set submit triggers

 

Set recall approval triggers

Set review approval triggers

Set approval linkage

After the actions are configured, the approval feature is ready.

2. Extend a Built-in Workflow

If the list contains too much data, you can also configure the fields on the approval initiation and approval pages.

The approval progress is the same as that for project approvals.

3. Use Approvals

You can initiate, approve, and recall approvals from lists and detail pages.

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