Approval Workflows

Align supports structured approval workflows for releases and costs. Approvals ensure the right people sign off at each stage before work progresses.

How Approvals Work

An approval instance contains one or more stages. Each stage has:

• A designated approver (or multiple approvers with configurable logic).
• A status — Pending, Approved, or Rejected.
• An optional comment field.

Stages are processed in order. The next stage only becomes active once the previous one is approved.

An approval instance showing three sequential stages: Engineering Lead, Product Owner, and Client Sign-off, each with their status and timestamp.

Release Approvals

Release approvals are triggered when a release moves to a status that requires sign-off (configurable per template).

For Approvers

1. You'll receive an email notification: "Action required: approve release X".
2. Click the link in the email, or go to the Approvals section in the sidebar.
3. Review the release details, linked entries, and any attached evidence.
4. Click Approve or Reject.
5. Optionally add a comment before submitting.

The approval action panel showing the release summary, previous approver comments, and Approve/Reject buttons.

For Admins — Approval Templates

Approval templates define the default approval chain for new releases.

1. Go to Settings → Approval Templates.
2. Click New Template.
3. Add stages in order. For each stage, choose:
   • Approver — a specific user or a role (e.g. "any tech lead").
   • Required — whether this stage blocks progression.
4. Save the template and assign it to projects.

The template builder showing a drag-and-drop list of approval stages with approver and role selectors.

Cost Approvals

Cost approvals follow the same pattern but are triggered by a committed cost exceeding the threshold.

• The approval chain for costs is: Manager → Admin → Client (optional).
• Each approver sees the entry details, the committed amount, and any notes.
• Approval at each level locks that stage and passes control to the next.

See Cost Management for details on setting up cost thresholds.

Viewing All Approvals

Admins can see all pending approvals across the organisation:

1. Click Approvals in the left sidebar.
2. Use the Status filter to show Pending, Approved, or Rejected approvals.
3. Click any approval to view its full history and take action.

The approvals list with columns for release name, stage, approver, and status, with filters applied to show only pending items.

Delegating an Approval

If you are unavailable, admins can reassign a pending approval stage to another user:

1. Open the approval instance.
2. Click Reassign next to the pending stage.
3. Select the new approver and click Save.

The original and new approver are both notified.