An approval step's status reflects both by its icon, and its subtitle that is underneath the step's name. Beyond the status, a step will also express:
Its due date (when started) or throughput time (before started)
The conditions to be ready
The amount of responses versus the amount of listed requests
An approval step can reflect 9 different statuses:
1. Ready to start
3. In progress
6. Completed
8. Skipped
9. Overdue
1. Ready to start
When an approval step has all the conditions to begin, it will show the status 'Ready to start'. It will feature a button 'Start' and 'Skip'. The icon reflects that the approval step is not yet active.
2. Waiting on Step (number)
When an approval step requires you to finish a previous step, it will reflect that in its status 'Waiting on Step (number)'. The icon reflects that the approval step is not yet active.
3. In progress
When an approval step has started, it will reflect that with the status 'In progress'. This means that it contains pending approval requests, and has not yet reached the set minimum amount of approvals to be ready. The icon reflects that the approval step is active, and waiting for (more) responses.
4. Action needed
When one (or more) requests receive a rejection, the step will express that in its status 'Action needed'. A rejection must be resolved before a step can be marked as ready. The Actions button contains the options to proceed, which can be either:
To reinvite only those who rejected
To reinvite all approvers in this step (Restart step)
5. Minimum approvals reached (ready)
When an approval step has reached its minimum amount of approvals, it will reflect that in its status 'Minimum approvals reached'. The icon indicates that the step is ready; the Asset Manager can choose to start the next approval step, if he wishes to do so, even if there are still approval requests awaiting a response.
If the asset manager wants to block any further approvals from coming in, he can optionally choose to 'mark the step as completed' through the action menu (...). See next status: 'Completed'.
6. Completed
In case the asset manager marks the approval step as 'completed', the approval step will reflect that status accordingly. Furthermore, when (at the end of the approval flow) the entire approval workflow is marked as completed, then all steps will reflect this status.
7. Cannot be started
When not all conditions to start a step are met, a step will express this by the status 'Cannot be started'. This typically means, approvers need to be added, because:
Insufficient approvers are added to that step
No approvers were added to that step
8. Skipped
When an approval step is deemed unnecessary, an asset manager can choose to skip that step. In that case, it unlocks any step that was waiting on that approval step to be ready. The icon indicates that the step is not active, and has indeed been skipped.
9. Overdue
When a step is past its due date, it will reflect that in its status 'Overdue'.