--- title: "Approval task configuration" canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/standard-task/approval-task/" md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/standard-task/approval-task.md" last_updated: "2026-05-29T22:20:04.769Z" description: "Learn approval task setup to enable group collaboration and improve workflow decision-making. Includes configuration options and examples." --- # Using approval tasks for decision-making Use the **Approval** task to provide users with approval options such as approve, deny, and re-work. It provides a structured way to streamline approvals and ensure efficient decision-making. ## Prerequisites Before configuring approval tasks, ensure you have: - **Process designer access** — Permission to create and modify processes in your workflow system - **Basic process knowledge** — Familiarity with adding tasks to process flows - **User management understanding** — Knowledge of how user permissions work in your system ## Video demo ## Configuring the Approval task You can use the task with one-to-many users, providing a way for group collaboration in decision-making, and serving as a logical decision point within your process. When you assign an approval task, end users can view approval options that the Process Administrator configured. The option a user selects in an **Approval** task always appears in the **Request Detail** for a request but it won’t necessarily update the request status itself (refer to the [Milestone task configuration](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/standard-task/standard-task-milestone.md) guide). ## Basic configuration After adding an **Approval** task to your process, hover over the task and select the **Configure Task** option. ### Approval options On the page that appears, select **Add Option** to add a new option. On the pop-up that appears, enter the option name and click **Add**. Use the **Complete Task If Selected** option for an **Approval** task option only in cases when you require multiple recipients to complete the task (refer to the [Task recipient configuration and process rules](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/task-menu/recipients/setting-recipients.md) guide). **How multi-recipient approvals work** - **Standard behavior** — All recipients must select an "Approve" option for task completion - **Exception behavior** — Only one person needs to select "Denied" for the approval to complete - **Complete Task If Selected** — When marked "Yes", one person selecting that option ends the task immediately (even with ten recipients assigned) ### Advanced settings Click the **Advanced settings** tab to configure advanced options such as: - UI options - Choose to allow users to enter comments - Choose approvers - Email options - Choose to allow approval by email - Choose previous approvers - Completed Form PDF options - Choose to allow completed form PDFs to be generated - Choose to allow completed form PDFs to be editable in the approval task Click **Save** to proceed. ### Attachments Click the **Attachments** tab to add or remove file attachments from other tasks, or configure editing tools. In review-focused workflows, users can keep **Document Preview** open and dock it beside the task content while they continue working. This enables side-by-side review of source documents and form data without closing the preview, which helps reduce context switching and improves validation accuracy. For an attachment, click the **Configure Tooling** icon to enable editing and select from the following options the tools that you want to enable to be displayed when editing file attachments: - Ink tools - Image tools - Text tools - Measurement tools - Document Editor - Signature - Comment - Shape tools - Content Editor - Form Creator Turn the toggle on for the tool(s) that you want to include and click **Save Configuration** in the lower-right corner to proceed. To use these editing tools, your license must include the enabled **Document Editor** component. Contact our [Sales team](https://www.nutrient.io/contact-sales) for more information. To learn more about all the editing tools available in the Document Editor, refer to our [Web SDK](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/web/viewer.md) documentation. ### Completed Form PDFs When you select a form for display on the approval task by clicking the checkbox, the system makes the **Configure Tooling** icon available. **Form display options:** - **Static PDF** — Display the form as a read-only document - **Editable form** — Enable editing tools for form interaction - **Same tooling options** — Use the same configuration options as attachments above ## Example use cases **Purchase request approval** — Create options such as **Approve**, **Deny**, and **Request More Information**. Set **Deny** and **Request More Information** to complete the task immediately when any approver selects them. **Document review** — Configure options such as **Approved**, **Needs Revision**, and **Rejected**. Enable comments to allow reviewers to provide detailed feedback with their decision. **Budget approval workflow** — Set up hierarchical approval with options like **Approve**, **Escalate to Manager**, and **Deny**. Use the **Complete Task If Selected** feature for deny decisions to prevent the system from processing further approvals. ## Troubleshooting **Users can’t view approval options** — Verify you properly assigned the approval task to the user and the task hasn’t already been completed. **Approval task not completing** — Check the **Complete Task If Selected** settings for your options. Ensure you configured at least one option to complete the task. **Comments not appearing** — Confirm that **Allow users to enter comments** is enabled in the **Advanced Settings** tab. **Document editing tools not available** — Verify that your license includes the enabled Document Editor component and that you’ve configured the appropriate tooling options. **Multiple approvers not working as expected** — Review your recipient configuration and ensure you understand how the **Complete Task If Selected** option affects multi-user approvals. For additional task configuration options, refer to the [task configuration](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/creating-a-task.md) and [process design](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/create-a-new-process.md) guides. --- ## Related pages - [Streamline approval tasks with previous approvers](/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/standard-task/approval-task/previous-approvers.md) - [Enhance approval decisions with AI-powered analysis](/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/standard-task/approval-task/ai-agentic-approval.md) - [Streamline workflows with email approval tasks](/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/standard-task/approval-task/approval-by-email.md) - [Configure your approval task for better feedback](/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/standard-task/approval-task/approval-with-comments.md) - [Display specific forms in approval tasks](/guides/workflow-automation/admin-guide/processes/tasks/standard-task/approval-task/displaying-forms-in-an-approval.md)