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Working with Documents > Approving Documents > Defining an Approval Workflow
    
Defining an Approval Workflow
If you want to review and approve documents, you can do this using Adobe Acrobat and a simple, folder-based workflow in SmartVault.
For example, you may want to have an office manager review documents before attaching documents to entries in QuickBooks.
To use an approval workflow, first define your workflow. After you define your workflow, you can start using the approval workflow to review and approve documents.
To define your approval workflow:
1. Identify who will be responsible for performing the following actions:
– Uploading documents for approval
– Reviewing and approving or rejecting documents submitted for approval
2. Determine how users will be notified when documents are ready for approval, when documents are approved, and when documents are rejected.
If your users will be uploading documents for approval using the SmartVault portal, they can notify others that a document has been uploaded when the upload completes. For more information, see “Uploading Documents Using the SmartVault Portal” .
If your users will be uploading documents for approval using the SmartVault Drive or SmartVault Inbox, they will have to send an email notification manually using Microsoft Outlook or some other email application after the documents have been uploaded. For more information, see “Uploading Documents Using the SmartVault Drive” and “Uploading Documents Using the SmartVault Inbox” .,
3. Create a folder structure you can use to store the following types of documents:
– Documents that need approval
– Approved documents
– Rejected documents
For example, create the following folder structure:
     Bluebonnet Bakery, Austin (vault or folder)
          Client Correspondence
          Docs - Approval Needed
          Docs - Approved
          Docs - Rejected
For more information about creating vault and folder structures, see “Examples of Vault and Folder Structures” and “Best Practices for Creating Vault and Folder Structures” .
4. Share the approval folders with users who will need to perform the following actions:
– Upload documents for approval. Users can upload documents for approval in to the Docs - Approval Needed folder using the SmartVault portal, SmartVault Inbox, or SmartVault Drive. Users with guests licenses can upload documents using only the SmartVault portal. Users with user or client licenses can upload documents using the SmartVault portal, SmartVault Inbox, or SmartVault Drive. For more information, see “Understanding SmartVault Licensing” .
– Approve or reject documents. Approvers can approve or reject documents using Adobe Acrobat and the SmartVault Drive. Approvers must have an Adobe Acrobat license and a SmartVault user or client license to use the SmartVault Drive.
– Move documents to the appropriate Docs - Approved or Docs - Rejected folder using the SmartVault Drive. Approvers must have a user or client license to use the SmartVault Drive to move documents between folders. For more information, see “Moving Documents” .
– Attach documents to entries in QuickBooks using the SmartVault Toolbar. Users responsible for attaching documents to entries in QuickBooks must have a user or client license. For more information about attaching documents to entries in QuickBooks, see “Attaching Documents to QuickBooks Entries Using the SmartVault Toolbar” .
For more information about sharing documents with users, see “Sharing Vaults” and “Sharing Folders” .
5. Test your approval workflow by reviewing, approving, and rejecting a few documents to ensure you understand how your workflow works and what you will be asking users submitting documents for approval and approvers to do. For more information, see “Reviewing and Approving Documents” .