Table of Contents

Configure Tasks and Approvals

Use task phases and approval phases to create your workflow in Opal.

You can add as many tasks in a task phase or approvers in approval phases as you need to help you get your work done.

Note: Assignees can be added to workflow everywhere it appears, e.g. moments, content.

Creating an Approval Phase

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To create an approval phase, follow the below steps:

  1. Click “Add Phase”
  2. Select “Approval Phase”
  3. Click “Approver Unassigned” and search for a user to insert into the phase. Repeat this process until all required approvers have been added to the phase.

Edits are automatically saved as approvers are added. If you add more than one approver, by default, only one of them will need to approve in order for this phase to be complete.

Note: A new approval phase cannot be added to a workflow if all prior phases have been completed.
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Due Date

To assign a due date to an approval phase:

  1. Navigate to the workflow and delivery tab for the content you wish to edit.
  2. In the top right-hand corner of the phase, click “Schedule”
  3. In the calendar, select the day this phase should be completed by.

Approvals Needed

Often approval phases do not require all approvers within a phase to approve the content. To select whether all approvers within a phase need to approve or approval is required from one of the listed approvers in the phase:

  1. Hover mouse over the approval phase you wish to make the change.
  2. Click the cog icon that appears
  3. From the dropdown, select the correct option from the “approvals needed” menu.

Phase Start

Approval phases can be configured to start automatically or manually. Select "Automatically" to start the next task automatically after the prior task or approval phase has been completed. Select "Manually" to require a user to start the phase manually.

  1. Hover over the approval phase on which you would like to make the change.
  2. Click the cog icon that appears
  3. From the dropdown, choose the necessary option from the “This approval phase will start:” 

Creating a Task Phase

To create a task phase, follow the steps below:

  1. Click “Add Phase”
  2. Select “Task Phase”
  3. Click “Task” and enter any task required in order for this piece of content to be complete. Any number of tasks can be added to any task phase. Example: Add copy to post, add asset, add brief, add URL, mark as finished etc.
  4. Optionally, click the “+” button on the task to assign the task to an Opal user.
Note: Once a task is assigned to a user, the task will appear as a line item in the “tasks” tab within the user’s personal panel. See Personal Panel to learn about managing tasks that have been assigned to you.
Important: Edits are automatically saved as edits are made.
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Editing a Task Phase

To edit the description of an existing task phase:

  1. Click on the task description
  2. Make the needed change

To un-assign/re-assign someone from a task:

  1. Click the profile icon
  2. Click “Unassign this Task”
  3. Click the “+” icon
  4. Optionally, search for or select an assignee

Arranging Phases Within a Content Workflow

Once workflow phases have been created within the workflow and delivery tab or inherited from the workspace, a channel’s account, or story, phases will appear in this default order:

  1. Story phases
  2. Channel account phases
  3. Workspace inherited phases.

Workflows can also be re-arranged manually by clicking the "move phase up" and "move phase down" phase options.

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A common way to set up phases would be to first create a task phase to list out all tasks needed to create a piece of content such as “add copy or “add an asset.”

Once a task phase has been created, any number of approval phases can be added to ensure the content is reviewed by all necessary parties. For example: Implementing three different approval phases after a task phase might look like the below:

Task Phase 1: Create Content

Approval Phase 1: Team Sign-off

Approval Phase 2: Legal Review

Approval Phase 3: Final Approval

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For some workflows, a task phase may be required after any of the above approval phases in order to prepare the post or perform a required action before advancing to the next approval phase. For example:

Task Phase 1: Create Content

Approval Phase 1: Team Sign-off

Task Phase 2: Required tasks prior to legal review

Approval Phase 2: Legal Review

Task Phase 3: Set Content Delivery Options

Approval Phase 3: Final Approval

sample_2_-_approvers.jpg

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