> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.hitaji360.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How Approvals Work Day to Day

> The runtime side — submitting, multi-step approval, rejection, queries, amount-based routing, and why a document gets stuck in Pending.

The [editor](/workflows/user/the-workflow-editor) and [approval policies](/workflows/user/approval-policies)
are the *setup*. This page is the *runtime* — what actually happens when someone
submits a document, from the submitter's and the approver's side. It applies to every
document type that has an approval step.

> 📷 *Screenshots to be added.*

***

## The journey of one document

Take an expense claim as the example; every gated document type follows the same shape.

1. **Draft.** The creator fills it in. It's fully editable and nothing has happened yet.
2. **Submit.** The creator submits it. Two things happen at once:
   * its **workflow state** moves to **PendingApproval**, and
   * an **approval request** is created and the first approver is notified.
3. **Sign-off, step by step.** The approval request walks down the rule's steps. Step 1
   must approve before step 2 is asked, and so on. Each approver gets notified when it's
   their turn.
4. **Approved.** When the **last** step signs off, the document is automatically moved to
   **Approved** — the accrual is posted, the payable exists, and it's ready for the next
   stage (payment, disbursement, conversion, …).
5. **Or Rejected.** A single rejection at any step stops the whole thing. Where the
   document lands depends on its type (see below).

If there's **no approval rule** for the document's business, step 3 is skipped entirely:
submitting takes it straight to **Approved**. (See
[Approval Policies](/workflows/user/approval-policies).)

***

## For the person submitting

* **You can't submit twice.** While a document has an open approval request you can't
  start a second one — finish, cancel, or get the current one rejected first.
* **You can't approve your own document.** Even if you also hold the approver role, the
  system skips you for your own submissions (see *segregation of duties* in
  [Approval Policies](/workflows/user/approval-policies)).
* **If an approver has a question**, they can send it back to you as a **query** without
  rejecting. The document pauses, you get notified, and you respond — which returns it to
  the approver to continue. Only you (the submitter) can answer your own query.
* **Rejected?** You'll typically get the document back as an editable **Draft** to fix and
  resubmit (expenses, invoices, bills, budgets, purchase orders), or it lands in a
  dedicated **Rejected** state (requisitions, advances, leave, reimbursements) — see the
  [Document Types Reference](/workflows/user/document-types-reference) for which is which.

***

## For the person approving

* You're **notified when it's your turn** — not before. In a multi-step chain you only
  see a request once the earlier steps have signed off.
* You act with **Approve** or **Reject** on the document (or from your approvals list).
  You can also **query** it back to the submitter for clarification instead of rejecting.
* **Approve** advances to the next step, or finishes the request if you're the last step.
  **Reject** ends the request immediately.
* **Who counts as "you" for a step** depends on how the step was configured — a role, a
  named person, or an org-resolved *manager* / *department head* (see the approver types
  in [Approval Policies](/workflows/user/approval-policies)).
* **Payment steps.** If a step is a **Payment** step, approving it *also* marks the
  document paid — used at the end of expense, reimbursement and advance chains so the
  final sign-off and the pay-out are one action.
* **Emergency override.** A tenant administrator or super-admin can approve any step to
  unblock a stuck document — but even they can't approve something they submitted
  themselves.

***

## Amount-based routing

If your rules use **amount bands**, the document's amount decides which rule (and
therefore which chain) runs. A small expense might need only a manager; a large one might
match a stricter rule that also requires Finance. You build this by creating one rule per
band — see *How several rules are chosen* in
[Approval Policies](/workflows/user/approval-policies).

***

## Why is my document "stuck in Pending"?

A quick checklist when something won't move:

* **It's waiting on a specific person.** Check whose step it's on. If the step is
  *Submitter's Manager* or *Department Head*, confirm that person is set in the org
  chart.
* **The only approver is the submitter.** Segregation of duties blocks self-approval — the
  step needs someone else. Add another approver to the rule or have a different person
  act.
* **A binding is too tight.** If you added a [role binding](/workflows/user/role-bindings) that
  points at the wrong or an inactive user, the transition can't find anyone. Loosen or
  fix the binding.
* **A query is open.** If an approver queried it, it's waiting on the submitter's reply,
  not on the approver.

***

## Related

* [Approval Policies](/workflows/user/approval-policies)
* [Document Types Reference](/workflows/user/document-types-reference)
* [Overview](/workflows/user/overview)