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Managing Approvals & Workflows

Updated over 2 weeks ago

Approvals in Bild help teams document and track decisions before releasing files, engineering change orders (ECOs), or BOMs. The approval workflow allows reviewers to comment and either Approve or Reject changes. This guide will show you how to create and manage approvals across your projects.

šŸ‘‰ Important: All files in an ECO must be checked in before you can start an approval. If any file is still checked out, the ā€œCreate Approvalā€ button will not appear.

Starting an Approval for a File

  1. Navigate to the fileā€™s Info Drawer and select the Activity tab.

  2. Click ā€œStart Approvalā€.

Reviewers will receive notifications to review the file and either Approve or Reject the request.

Starting an Approval for an ECO

  1. Open the ā€œECOs & Revsā€ icon from the left menu dock.

  2. Select the ECO you want to review.

  3. Click ā€œCreate Approvalā€.

Starting an Approval for a BOM

  1. Open the ā€œBOMsā€ icon from the left menu dock.

  2. Select the BOM you want to review.

  3. Click ā€œStart Approvalā€ button at the top right.

Filling out an Approval Request

  1. First Select a Due Date
    ā€‹

  2. For the first group, select a stage name by clicking the drop down menu next to "Custom"

    1. This can be a pre-defined stage name (this is defined in the admin settings, which we will cover later in this article)

    2. Or a custom name that you can define on the spot (by selecting "Custom")

  3. In the Search Bar, type and select which reviewer(s) (or group(s)) you would like to be part of the first approval stage


  4. After selecting your reviewers, you can make that reviewer a required approver or an optional approver

    1. Required Approver: This is an approver that is required to approve it in the stage. All required approvers of a stage must give their approval, in order for the approval request to move to the next stage (We will talk about stages in the next step)

    2. Optional Approver: This is an approver that is optional. Will not affect whether approval goes to next stage.

  5. You can then optionally add stages (and subsequently) additional reviewers by clicking the "Add Stage" button

    1. Once the required approver(s) give their approval for one stage, the approval request will then move on to the next stage

      1. When an approval request moves into a new stage, the reviewer(s) in the new stage will receive a notification (via email or in-app)

      2. Approvers can only approve the approval request if it is currently on the stage they are a part of


  6. (Optional) There is a checkbox at the bottom left of the Approval Window called "Release when all Approved". You can enable it if you would like. We will cover what this does in the "Approval Closure" section later in this article.

  7. Click "Request Approval" Button at bottom right, to release the approval request. The users that are part of the first stage will get notified.

Providing a Disposition on an Approval

There are several ways to access an approval you are assigned to:

  • From your Main Dashboard ā†’ Approvals section

  • From a file with an active approval ā†’ click the Approval block in the fileā€™s Data Card

  • From within an ECO ā†’ click the ā€œView Approvalā€ button

  • From the Approvals icon in the left menu dock (project view) ā†’ open any approval in your project

Approval Disposition Options

When viewing an approval, youā€™ll see the following disposition options:

  • Approve ā†’ Approve as-is

  • Conditionally Approve ā†’ Approve with comments or minor changes/feedback

  • Reject ā†’ Request significant changes

šŸ‘‰ Important: If you are an Admin, additional actions may be available such as "Approve and Close" this will automatically approve and close the entire approval request

šŸ‘‰ Tip: You can open each file in the approval in a new tab (will open file in Bild's viewer) for quick review:

  • On Windows ā†’ Ctrl + click file name

  • On Mac ā†’ Cmd + click file name

Approval Settings

  • If you go to admin Settings, and go "Approvals" there are a couple settings you can configure

    • You can check/uncheck "Auto Reject Approval On Individual Reject". If this is enabled, then if any individual rejects the approval request, the entire approval is rejected

    • Approval Stages

      • There are pre-defined stage name you can use, when selecting stage names while creating an approval request. You can define them here, and delete them as well.

  • When you are done with making any changes, remember to click the "Update" button on the bottom right

Approval Closure

Providing your disposition does not immediately finalize the approval.

  • Only an Admin or the approval creator can close the approval by providing the overall approval status (Approve & Close or Reject & Close).

  • The approval remains open until the owner or Admin completes it.

  • You can only approve and close the approval request, once all the approval stages have been completed'

  • If you enabled the "Release when all approved" option in the creation of the approval request, then when the approval request is fully approved, a different button will show up. Instead of "Approve & Close", it will be "Approve, Close & Release" (look at image below). If you click this button, it will immediately prompt to determine the new Revision IDs of the files in your ECO.

Next Steps

Learn more about the Change Order process:

  • Change Order Overview

  • Creating a Change Order

  • Tracking and Managing Change Orders

  • ECO Settings & Attributes

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