Ask someone in Assignar before the workflow continues

Some work should not run on its own. A large purchase order, an unusual timesheet, or a supplier invoice above a limit needs a person to say yes or no first.

That is what Request Approval in Assignar is for. You drop it into a Connect workflow. The workflow pauses. The right people get a request in Connect → Approvals. When one of them approves or rejects, the workflow continues on the matching path — and Assignar keeps a lasting record of who decided, when, and what they said.

You do not need Slack, email threads, or a spreadsheet of outstanding asks. The decision lives in Assignar Pay.

Who this is for

• Workflow builders (Owners, Admins, and Managers with Connect) set up the pause and choose who can decide.
• Approvers open Connect → Approvals, review what is waiting, and approve or reject. They do not need access to the workflow builder.

Build a workflow that waits for a person

1. Build and test everything before the pause

Add your trigger and any lookups first. Test them. The approval step should arrive when you already know what is being decided.

2. Add the approval step

Click + where the workflow should wait, search for Assignar Pay, and choose Request Approval in Assignar.

3. Write what the approver will see

• Title — the short line in the Approvals list and in the in-app notification. Prefer something specific: Supplier invoice SI-1042 — $14,300, not Approval needed. Use the data selector so each run fills in its own details.
• Details — optional longer explanation: what to check, why it matters, what happens next.

4. Choose who can decide

Use either or both:

• Approver Roles — Owner, Admin, or Manager. Everyone currently holding that role can decide. Prefer roles when the job should decide, not a named person (people go on leave; roles stay).
• Approver Users — specific Owners, Admins, or Managers by name.

You must pick at least one role or one person. If nobody can be found when the step runs, the step fails with a clear error instead of leaving the workflow paused forever.

5. Link the record (strongly recommended)

Set Linked Record Type and Linked Record ID to the thing being decided. Supported types:

Invoice, Timesheet, Docket, Workpack, Quote, Project, Client

Approvers get a link to the real record. The decision is also written on that record's activity trail when the type supports it.

6. Add amount and extra context (optional)

• Amount (and optional Currency) — shown in the list and sortable, so large items float to the top.
• Context — short label-and-value pairs on the detail page (supplier, project, cost code, and so on) so someone can decide without opening three other screens.

7. Set a deadline (recommended)

Expires In (Hours) — from 1 hour up to 720 hours (30 days). When time runs out with no decision, the request is marked Expired and the workflow continues so you can chase it up. Leave blank only if you are sure you will always get an answer.

8. Branch on the answer

Add a branch after the approval step. The step returns:

Branch on Outcome when "nobody answered" should be handled differently from "someone said no". Both arrive as not approved, but they usually need different follow-ups.

9. Test, then publish

Run a test, open Approvals, decide the request yourself, and confirm the rest of the workflow follows the right path. Then Publish.

Decide requests in Assignar

Open your inbox

1. Open Connect.
2. Click Approvals in the toolbar (next to Builder).

The badge shows how many requests are waiting on you, not the whole organisation.

You will see tabs for Pending, Decided, and All. Narrow the list with Workspace, Automation, and Linked record, or search by title. Filters stay in the page address, so you can bookmark a view, share it, or refresh without losing your place.

Approve or reject one request

On the row, click Approve or Reject.

• On approve, a comment is optional.
• On reject, you must give a reason — the requester and the permanent record both see it.

Decide several at once

Tick the rows you can decide, then Approve selected or Reject selected. One comment covers the whole batch (the dialog says so). You can do up to 50 at a time. Rows you are not allowed to decide stay visible but cannot be ticked.

Open the full request

Click the Request title. You will see:

• What was asked, from which automation and workspace, and how long ago
• Details and context from the workflow
• A link to the linked record (when you have access)
• Open flow run (if you can use the builder) to inspect the paused workflow
• Decision history — raised, decided, expired, or cancelled, in order
• Copy link to send the request to someone else

What each status means

Export for audit

Export CSV downloads what you are looking at — filters included — including title, automation, workspace, linked record, amount, who was asked, who decided, when, and the comment.

Useful patterns

Only pause above a threshold

Put a branch before the approval: under the limit continues automatically; over the limit goes to Request Approval in Assignar. Approvers only see what needs them.

Two people in sequence

Add a second Request Approval in Assignar after the first, with different approvers. The second only starts after the first is approved, so a rejection never bothers the next person.

Chase unanswered requests

Set Expires In (Hours), then on the expired branch send a reminder, notify a manager, or raise a new request with a wider group.

Find why a workflow is stuck

Open Approvals, switch to All, and filter by that automation. A row still Pending is why the run has not moved.

Troubleshooting

The step says no approvers could be resolved

A role or person you named could not be found (wrong role, empty role, or someone who left). Fix the step and run it again.

I can see a request but cannot approve it

You were not named on the step (by role or as a person). Visibility for builders and Approvals users is intentional so stuck work can be found; deciding is limited to the nominated people.

It shows approved, but the workflow did not continue

The run had already ended before the decision arrived — often cancelled in the builder, or left paused so long it timed out. Your decision is still stored in Assignar; there was simply nothing left waiting. Check Decision history on the request.

If Assignar could not reach the workflow at the moment you decided, it retries for several hours, records the outcome, and never applies the same decision twice.

Someone else decided while I had it selected

The first decision wins. The second is refused. In a batch, that one row is reported as already decided and the rest still go through.

It left Pending

It was decided, expired, or cancelled when its run ended. Check Decided or All.

How long will a workflow wait?

Until someone decides, until your expiry, or for 30 days — whichever comes first. Set an expiry so you control the outcome.

Tips that keep Approvals useful

• Put the number and the amount in the Title.
• Prefer Approver Roles over named people for day-to-day work.
• Always set Linked Record Type and Linked Record ID when you can.
• Always set Expires In (Hours).
• Only pause people for decisions that are genuinely theirs — a noisy list stops being opened.

What's Next

• Connect Apps: everything Assignar Pay and Assignar Ops can watch for and do.
• Getting Started: build and publish your first workflow.
• Best Practices & FAQ: keep automations reliable.