Set Up Form Approvals
Overview
Form approvals let you require a review before a submitted form counts as complete. When you turn on approvals for a form template, every submission enters a Pending Review status until an approver signs off.
Use this for forms that need sign-off before they're finished, such as incident reports, inspections, or safety checklists that require a supervisor or compliance lead to review the submission first.
Navigation
Step-by-Step Instructions
- From the Forms library, select the form you want to configure.
- Open the form in the Form Template Editor.
- In the Form Settings panel, open the Approvals section.
- Select Review Required. Two more fields appear once this is checked: Approval Type and Select Approvers.
Review Required
Turns on the approval workflow for this form. Submissions won't move to Completed until an approver signs off.
Use it when: any submission of this form needs a review before it's considered final.
Note: You can turn on Review Required without selecting any approvers. This is the most common setup. If you leave Select Approvers blank, the notification defaults to everyone with a Site Access role on the site where the form was submitted.
- If subcontractors submit this form and their submissions should also go through approval, select Include Subcontractors.
Include Subcontractors
Allows forms submitted by subcontractors to trigger the same approval notification sent to your selected approver or role.
Use it when: subcontractors submit this form and their submissions also need review.
Note: This checkbox only works if Share with Subcontractors is also turned on in the Access & Visibility section of Form Settings. Both settings need to be on, or subcontractor submissions won't route to approval.
- From the Approval Type dropdown, select Company User or Site Role.
Company User
Routes approval notifications to one or more specific people, regardless of which site the form was submitted from.
Use it when: you need a specific person or small group, such as a safety manager, to review every submission company-wide.
Site Role
Routes approval notifications to whoever holds the selected role on the site where the form was submitted.
Use it when: you want approvals to stay local to each site, such as having the on-site Foreman review submissions from their own site.
Warning: If you choose Site Role and no one on a site holds that role, no one is notified. The form stays in Pending Review with no reviewer alerted.
- In Select Approvers, choose who gets notified:
- If Approval Type is Company User, search for and select one or more specific people.
- If Approval Type is Site Role, select one or more roles from the list of active roles.
Select Approvers
Optional. Lists the specific users or roles that should be notified when a submission needs review. This field adapts based on the Approval Type selected above it.
Leave it blank to default to everyone with a Site Access role on the submitting site.
- Save the form template. There's no separate save button for approval settings, they save along with the rest of the template.
What Happens Next
Once approvals are configured, every submission of this form enters Pending Review status. The configured approver or approvers get a banner notification in the Salus mobile app. This notification only appears in the mobile app, not the web app. Tapping the banner takes them to the Forms section and opens the submitted form.
If the approver disapproves the form, the submitter is notified and must fix and resubmit it. Each resubmission sends a new notification to the approver. This cycle repeats until the form is approved.
Once approved, the form moves to Completed status. Submitters are not automatically notified when a form is approved, only when it's disapproved.
Tip: If you use webhooks with this form, remember that the Pending Review trigger fires before approval and the Completed trigger fires after. Use the Completed webhook if you want it to represent a fully approved form.
Frequently Asked Questions
Company User or Site Role, which should I pick?
Choose Company User to notify specific named people company-wide, regardless of site. This works well for centralized or compliance-driven review. Choose Site Role to notify whoever holds that role on the site where the form was submitted. This works well for approvals that should stay local to each site. If no one on a site holds the selected role, no one gets notified and the form just sits in Pending Review.
Can subcontractor forms go through approval?
Yes, but two settings are required. Turn on Share with Subcontractors in the Access & Visibility section of Form Settings, and select Include Subcontractors in the Approvals section. If either setting is missing, subcontractor submissions won't route to approval.
What happens when a form is approved or disapproved?
If disapproved, the submitter is notified and must fix and resubmit the form. Each resubmission triggers a new review notification. If approved, the form moves to Completed. Submitters are notified on disapproval but not automatically notified when a form is approved.
Can I require multiple people to approve in sequence?
No. Approval Type notifies one group, either a set of users or a role, and any one approval from that group completes the review. There's no staged or sequential approval chain.
Can I approve scanned or uploaded PDF forms?
No. Approval only applies to forms completed inside Salus. Uploaded or scanned forms should be approved on the original document before uploading. Once uploaded, they can only be disapproved, not formally approved.
How do webhooks interact with approvals?
With Review Required turned on, the Pending Review webhook fires before approval and the Completed webhook fires after. Use the Completed webhook if you want it to represent a fully approved form.
What if I don't select any approvers?
That's allowed, and it's the most common setup. If Select Approvers is left blank, the notification defaults to everyone with a Site Access role on the site where the form was submitted.
Notifications aren't arriving, what should I check?
Confirm Review Required is turned on for that form template. If using Site Role, confirm someone actually holds that role on the site in question. If using Company User, confirm the selected approver is still an active user. Also confirm the form wasn't uploaded as a scanned document, since uploads never trigger approval notifications. Make sure the device you are using is the last device you logged into.