A powerful new way to manage policy changes with confidence, clarity, and control.

We’re excited to introduce a major enhancement to policy management in Ideagen Procedure Management: Approval Workflows. This feature has been purpose-built to support best-in-class compliance practices while keeping things simple for your teams on the ground.

Whether you’re in a regulated industry, managing multiple locations, or simply looking to streamline how policies are reviewed and approved, Approval Workflows give you the structure you need, without losing the flexibility you love about Ideagen Procedure Management. 

Why We Introduced Approval Workflows

In many businesses, policies are central to keeping teams safe, compliant, and aligned. But without a clear process for policy review and approval, it can be hard to:

• Maintain version control

• Ensure the right people sign off before changes go live

• Track who’s responsible at each stage of review

• Confidently demonstrate compliance to auditors or regulators

Until now, policy publishing in Ideagen Procedure Management has been fast and efficient—but it didn’t always match the complexity of real-world approval chains. You told us you needed more visibility, flexibility, and accountability.

We listened. This new feature set is the result.

What’s New – Key Features in Action

Here’s a quick snapshot of how Approval Workflows expand what you can do with Ideagen Procedure Management:

This new feature set introduces stronger controls, greater flexibility, and better collaboration across your organisation.

Below, we’ll walk through how the system behaves in practice—including workflow logic, notifications, task tracking, and admin options.

Built-In Notifications and Tasks

Approval workflows are tightly integrated into the Ideagen Procedure Management experience:

• If a workflow stage is marked as a required task, users will be notified:

  • By email

  • Through the task icon

  • Via the Outstanding Tasks widget on your dashboard (if enabled)

• Each task includes the policy name, and a direct link to take action

• Tasks remain visible until completed, ensuring nothing slips through

Only required tasks appear in the Outstanding Tasks list, helping teams stay focused on what’s actionable.

Workflow Logic and History Tracking

Approval workflows follow a linear path, moving through each stage in the order defined by your template. At each step, the system ensures that only authorised users can review, comment, approve, or reject changes.

Here’s how it works in practice, using a simple 1-stage workflow as an example:

If a policy is rejected at any stage, the drafter is notified and can make updates based on the reviewer’s comments. The policy can then be resubmitted into the same workflow for further review.

In multi-stage workflows, policies move step-by-step through each approver:

Each stage can be configured with:

• A specific user, user role, or group

• Due dates

• Escalation settings

• “Required Task” status (to appear in the Outstanding Tasks list)

All actions—approvals, rejections, and reviewer comments—are recorded in the workflow history log, alongside version control and policy activity. This ensures complete transparency and an audit-ready record of all policy changes.

Draft Users Can Submit for Approval

Users with Manage Drafts access can:

• Create new policies

• Suggest edits to live policies (e.g. fixing typos, updating links)

• Submit those changes for approval via a workflow

This gives teams a clear way to contribute without needing publish access - perfect for multi-role environments or decentralised teams.

Admins Stay in Control

Admins retain full oversight of policy workflows. At any time, they can:

• Override a workflow stage

• Progress a policy manually (e.g. if someone is on leave)

• Bypass the workflow and publish immediately - useful for small fixes or urgent updates

• View all policy status and activity in a centralised location

Workflows bring structure, but you still have the flexibility to act when needed.

Toggle On or Off 

Approval Workflows can be turned on or off from System Settings > Operations Manual. You can enable this functionality when you are ready.  Please note that if you have turned it on, and then switch it off later, any workflow that is in progress for a policy will be cancelled/deleted.

Where to Start

To get the most from Approval Workflows, take a look at these articles:

• Policy Management: How to Enable policy approvals and workflows

• Policy Management: Navigating the new workflow pages for Admins or users with "Can Publish" enabled.

• Policy Mangement:  Create a workflow

• Policy Management:  Ideagen Procedure Management - How to suggest an edit to a policy and submit for approval (User Role with "Can Manage Drafts" enabled)

• Policy Management: How to create or edit a draft policy for workflow approval (Admins and User Roles with "Can Manage Drafts")

These guides will walk you through setup, assignment, and day-to-day use. 

We also recommend testing the workflow using new draft policies first. This allows you to safely experiment and make adjustments, as these drafts can be deleted without affecting the Workflow History log for existing, long-standing policies on your site.

Help Shape What Comes Next

Have a suggestion or feature request? Add it to the pinned post on the Ideas Board (available to Admins from our Ideagen Procedure Management dashboard - look for the Help icon) so we can continue evolving the functionality with your needs in mind.