Contents
- Overview
- Step-By-Step Instructions
- What Happens After Approval Requests are Sent?
- What Happens After Approvers Complete Their Approval Assignments?
- Pro-Tip: View Activity History
-
Related Articles
Overview
This step-by-step guide shows Organization Owners and Program Owners how to request approvals for awarding, disbursements, and reimbursements in an Award Cycle in Next.
You can request approvals for:
- Awards: Before notifying an award recipient
- Disbursements: Before initiating a disbursement (payment)
- Reimbursements: After an awardee requests reimbursement for an eligible expense
⚠️IMPORTANT: If you still need to set up the approval process, see ➡️ How to Set Up Approvals for Awarding, Disbursements & Reimbursements.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Requesting Awarding Approvals
When awarding approvals are set up, award recipients must be approved before you can notify them.
To request awarding approvals:
1. Open the Program you need.
2. Click Awarding in the left-hand menu.
The default view shows all Award Recipients (applicants you’ve selected for awarding).
3. Under each recipient, select the awards to send for approval.
📌Note: Notify Recipients is not clickable for any applicant until approvals are completed for that applicant.
4. Click Send for Approval.
5. In the Send for Approval pop-up, select the deadline for approvers to complete their reviews.
6. Click Send in the bottom-right corner.
7. A message appears in the bottom-left of the screen confirming that approvals were successfully sent.
How to Void an Award in the Approvals Process
Organization Owners and Program Owners can void an award if it shouldn’t move forward for any reason. Voiding permanently cancels an award.
An award can only be voided when:
- The award status is “In Review” or “Approved.”
- The awardee has not been notified of the award.
- The award has not been accepted.
📌Note: Once an award has been accepted, the Void option is no longer available.
To void an award:
1. From the Awarding page, find the award you want to void
2. Under the Actions column, click the Void icon .
3. In the pop-up, enter a reason and click Void. A message appears in the bottom-left confirming the award offer was voided.
After an award is voided:
- Award status changes to "Voided" and funds return to your program's available amount.
- Application stays in Awarding so you can issue a new award if needed, and the awardee is not notified.
- Void is recorded in the award record and visible in the Organization Audit Logs.
Requesting Disbursement Approvals
When disbursement approvals are set up, disbursements must be approved before you can initiate them.
To request disbursement approvals:
1. Open the Program you need.
2. Click Post Award > Disbursements in the left-hand menu.
💡Tip: You can also access the disbursement schedule from: Awarding > View: Accepted Awards > # of Disbursements.
3. In Disbursements, you can either do a:
➜ Single Approval: Click Request Approval on the disbursement you want to request approval for.
➜ Bulk Approval: Select the disbursements you want to request approvals for > Click Actions > Request Approval.
5. In the Send for Approval pop-up, select the deadline for approvers to complete their reviews.
6. Click Send in the bottom-right corner.
7. A message appears in the bottom-left of the screen confirming that approvals were successfully sent.
Requesting Reimbursement Approvals
When reimbursement approvals are set up, an awardee's individual expense items must be approved before you can initiate a payment (reimbursement).
To request reimbursement approvals:
1. Open the Program you need.
2. Click Post Award > Awardee List in the left-hand menu.
3. Find the Awardee in the list, then click the hyperlinked number in the Expenses column.
4. If not already selected, click the Expenses tab.
5. In the Expenses tab you'll see a list of reimbursement requests submitted by the awardee:
- Request Title
- Amount
- Requested Date
- Status
- Action Pending: Program Admin needs to take action.
- In Progress: Program Admin does not need to take action; the expense is with the awardee or approver.
-
Completed: The expense line item is completed; it has been paid, discarded, or voided.
6. Find the request you need an approval for, then click the hyperlinked title in the Request Title column.
7. The details for that expense open. Under Expenses, you'll see the line item(s) for the expense.
📌Notes:
a. You can only request approval for a line item with the status "Submitted" or "Approval Rejected" (in the event you want to re-send the expense for approval).
b. To download uploaded files, click the eye icon under the Uploads column on the far-right. If the number next to the eye icon is "0," there are no uploads.
8. Click the dropdown in the Actions column on the far right (you may need to scroll over).
9. Select Request Approval.
10. In the Send for Approval pop-up, select the deadline for approvers to complete their reviews.
11. A message appears in the bottom-left of the screen confirming that approvals were successfully sent.
What Happens After Approval Requests are Sent?
1. All approvers automatically receive an email notifying them of new approval assignments.
2. The status for the award, disbursement, or reimbursement updates on the Admin side to show that it’s pending approval/in review.
Approver Experience
After you send awards, disbursements, or reimbursements for approval:
1. Once the approver logs in, an orange pop-up message notifies them of new approvals.
2. In the left-hand menu, an orange number shows how many Approvals they have to complete for each approval type (Awarding, Disbursements, and Reimbursements).
3. After clicking an approval type in the left-hand menu, approvers will:
- See a list of all their approval requests; items that require review will show status "Pending."
- See the information you allowed them to see when setting up the approvals (if any).
- Choose to Approve or Reject the item, and can add a comment when sending their decision.
What Happens After Approvers Complete Their Approval Assignments?
Once the minimum number of required approvers have completed their reviews, the system updates the status of the item based on the outcome.
➜ If the award, disbursement, or expense item is APPROVED ✅:
1. The award, disbursement, or reimbursement's status changes to “Approved.”
📌Notes:
- If a disbursement has progress report dependencies still pending approval, it will remain “Under Review” until those progress reports are approved.
- If you set up Sequential Approval Groups (meaning, when one approval group finishes, the next group is notified of their approval assignments), the status won’t update to “Approved” until all groups complete their reviews.
2. Next steps you can take:
- Awarding: You can now Notify Recipients.
- Disbursements: You can now initiate the disbursement.
- Reimbursements: You can now initiate payment for the expense item.
➜ If the award, disbursement, or reimbursement is REJECTED❌:
1. The award, disbursement, or expense item status changes to “Rejected.”
2. For a rejected award, the funds return to your available pool.
3. For a rejected reimbursement, you can request a revision from the awardee and/or request approval again.
4. If you set up Sequential Approval Groups, the rejected item will not move forward to the next group.
Pro Tip: View Activity History
To view the activity history (including approval history) for any award or disbursement:
1. On the Awarding or Disbursements page, click the clock icon next to an awardee’s status.
2. The audit log opens, showing a full timeline of the award or disbursement history (including approval history).
Award Example:
Disbursement Example:
Related Articles
➡️How to Set Up Approvals for Awarding, Disbursements & Reimbursements
➡️Awarding Page Overview
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