Contents

• Overview
• Step-By-Step Instructions
  • Requesting Awarding Approvals
    • How to Void an Award in the Approvals Process
  • Requesting Disbursement Approvals
  • Requesting Reimbursement Approvals
• What Happens After Approval Requests are Sent?
  • Approver Experience
• 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 Note about Approval Deadlines

Approval deadlines are "soft" – approvers can still submit after the deadline passes. If the deadline passes before the minimum required approvals are met:

• The award, disbursement, or reimbursement status remains "Under Review."
• Approvers can still Approve or Reject the item from their end, even after the deadline has passed.
• The activity history will show the deadline as passed, but approval actions taken afterward are still recorded.

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. In the award cycle, click Awarding in the left-hand menu.

• The default view shows all Award Recipients (applicants you’ve selected for awarding).

2. Under each recipient, select the awards to send for approval. 

3. Click Send for Approval. 

4. In the pop-up, select the deadline for approvers to complete their reviews, then click Send in the bottom-right corner.

• A message appears in the bottom-left of the screen confirming that approvals were successfully sent.

➜ Next Steps: See What Happens After Approval Requests are 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.

To void an award:

1. From the Awarding page, find the award you want to void. Under the Actions column on the far-right, click the Void icon .

2. 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 the cycle's Amount Available for awarding.
• 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. In the award cycle, click Post Award > Disbursements in the left-hand menu. 

2. In Disbursements, you can request approval for a single awardee or in bulk:

➜ Single Approval: On the far-right of the disbursement record, click Actions, then select Request Approval from the dropdown.

➜ Bulk Approval: Select the checkboxes to the left of the disbursements you want to request approvals for > Click the Actions button in the upper-right corner of the table, then select Request Approval from the dropdown. 

3. Enter an Approval Deadline: Use the calendar dropdown or enter a date for approvers to complete their reviews.


 

4. Manage documents for the approval:

a. Any documents already attached to the disbursement automatically populate under "Upload Documents required to send for Approval." If nothing is listed here, no files have been uploaded to the disbursement yet. 

b. To add a document to this approval, click Choose File and select it from your device. Accepted formats are PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PNG, and JPG. Repeat for any additional files. 

If you're requesting approval for multiple disbursements at once (bulk approval), all selected disbursements are listed at the bottom of the pop-up. To remove one of them from the batch, click the trash icon on the far right of its row.

5. When finished setting up the approval request, click Send in the bottom-right corner of the pop-up. 

• A message appears in the bottom-left of the screen confirming that approvals were successfully sent.

➜ Next Steps: See What Happens After Approval Requests are 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. In the award cycle, click Post Award > Awardee List in the left-hand menu. 

2. Find the Awardee in the list, then click the hyperlinked number in the Actionable Expenses column. 

3. In the Expenses tab you'll see a list of reimbursement requests submitted by the awardee: 

• Possible Statuses:
  • 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.

4. Find the request you need an approval for, then click the hyperlinked title in the Request Title column. 

5. The details for that expense open. Under Expenses, you'll see the line item(s) for the expense.

6. Click the dropdown in the Actions column on the far right (you may need to scroll over). 

7. Select Request Approval. 

8. In the pop-up, select the deadline for approvers to complete their reviews. 


 

• 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 only the form fields/sections that you selected when setting up approvals..
• Choose to Approve or Reject the item, and can add a comment when sending their decision.

Example:

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 reimbursement, you can request a revision from the awardee and/or request approval again.

3. If you set up more than one approval group, the rejected item will not move forward to the next group.

4. For a rejected award, the funds return to the cycle's Amount Available for awarding.
 

Pro Tip: View Activity History

To view the activity history (including approval history) for any award, disbursement, or reimbursement/expense:

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:

Expense Example: 

Related Articles

➡️How to Set Up Approvals for Awarding, Disbursements & Reimbursements
➡️Awarding Page Overview

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