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Approval Process

Introduction​

The approval process in CertHub is a structured workflow that lets you make controlled changes to objects by making sure everything gets reviewed and approved before it goes live. It's basically an important governance layer – especially for regulated documents and other critical content in your company.

The approval feature lets multiple people review, approve, or reject proposed changes. This way, all updates follow a clear, consistent path. You get a secure chain of responsibility that protects the integrity of your documentation system.

The approval process is basically the digital version of a regulated approval workflow – it not only lets you update objects, but also formally locks them after approval. Any further changes can only happen through a new approval process – super important for meeting regulatory requirements around document control.

When should you use the approval process?​

The approval process works great when:

  • Changes need formal review (e.g. SOPs, templates, documents)
  • Multiple people need to approve changes before they become valid
  • Regulatory requirements call for a documented approval process
  • You need a complete audit trail
  • Changes have wide-reaching impacts and need careful consideration
  • A document should be formally locked to prevent unauthorized changes

How the approval process works​

The process follows these steps:

  1. Author creates draft – Changes are made and saved as a draft
  2. Configure approval – Set up who's involved
  3. Start approval – The process officially begins
  4. Step-by-step review – People review in sequence: Author → Owner → Reviewer → Final Reviewer
  5. Make decisions – People approve or reject (with comments)
  6. Publish – After full approval, the author can publish the changes
  7. Versioning – The approved changes become the new main version of the object

Setting up approval​

Once you're ready to approve your changes, you need to set up who's involved in the process. In SOPs, you can access this view via the "Approve main version" button.

Start Approval The approval view lets you set up all the roles needed for the process.

Important for SOPs: Before starting the approval process, you need to publish a new minor version. The approval always refers to the latest minor version.

Required roles​

Every approval process needs four roles:

  1. Author – The person who created or edited the object (usually you)
  2. Owner – Responsible for the content
  3. Reviewer – One or more people for review (multiple reviewers are possible)
  4. Final Reviewer – Responsible for the final approval

Note: All four roles need to be filled before the process can start. One person can take on multiple roles.

Managing active approvals​

Once started, the object is locked. Changes are only possible by canceling the process.

Running Approval An active approval process shows the status of everyone involved. A banner indicates that the object is locked.

Actions people can take​

Everyone involved has two options:

  • Approve – Agree to the change, the process continues
  • Reject – Reject with a required comment

All decisions are documented and become part of the audit trail.

Canceling an approval process​

Sometimes you need to cancel a process, z. B. when:

  • Someone's sick or on vacation
  • Roles need to be adjusted
  • Content issues come up

You can end the process and make the object editable again via the "Cancel process" button in the banner.

Handling rejections​

If a change gets rejected, the process stops:

Rejected Approval When rejected, the comment is documented and the process is canceled.

After that:

  1. Author revises the object
  2. Creates a new minor version
  3. Starts a new approval process

Completing the approval process​

After full approval, it's time to publish:

Latest Main Version After approval by everyone involved, the new version can be published.

Only the author can publish. The new version is then saved as the active version. Approval date and history are permanently logged.

Approval history & audit trail​

In the history, you'll find all info about previous versions and decisions:

  • Who approved what and when?
  • What comments were made?
  • Which versions were rejected?
  • Complete history of all changes

This documentation meets regulatory requirements for change and document control.

Dashboard overview​

The CertHub dashboard has three areas for managing approvals:

Approval Dashboard The dashboard shows all active approvals at a glance.

Personal approval area (left – 3)​

Here you'll find all processes you're involved in:

  • Your role (Author, Owner, Reviewer, Final Reviewer)
  • Status of your involvement ("Pending", "Approved", "Waiting")
  • Direct access to pending actions

Global approval overview (right – 1)​

Shows all active approvals in the company:

  • Overview of all processes
  • Status of each process
  • Shows who needs to act next
  • Progress indicator

Approval audit log (bottom – 2)​

Detailed log of all approval activities:

  • Chronological event list
  • Who did what when?
  • All comments and status changes
  • Filter and search functionality