> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.assetinfinity.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Approvals

> What is waiting on your sign-off, what you asked for, and the trail either leaves behind.

Wherever the product asks somebody to sign off before something proceeds, this is where that ask
lands.

## Reaching it

A stamp icon in the header, grouped with [notifications](/config/notifications) and the sync tray —
see [the header](/get-started/navigating#the-header) for how that cluster works and why it moved
there from the sidebar. Clicking it previews what is waiting on you; opening it fully brings up this
screen.

## The header stats

| Figure                 | Meaning                                                                |
| ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Waiting on you**     | Pending items where you are the approver on the current step           |
| **Overdue**            | Of those, how many have sat past however long your organisation allows |
| **Your requests open** | Things you asked for that have not yet been decided                    |

The first two are what you owe somebody else. The third is what somebody else owes you.

## Two tabs

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Waiting on you">
    Everything with an open step where you are the approver. Each item names what it is, who asked,
    when, and what it actually is — a status change on a work order, a purchase request, a purchase
    order, or whatever else your organisation has put behind a chain.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="You asked for">
    Everything you have submitted that carries an approval, regardless of whose step it is on now.
    This is where you check on your own requests without having to go find each record.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Deciding an item

Two actions, and nothing else:

| Action      | What it needs                                                   |
| ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Approve** | Nothing further — the chain moves to its next step, or finishes |
| **Reject**  | A typed reason                                                  |

<Note>
  Reject always asks why. A rejection with no reason tells the requester nothing except that they
  must start over, and guessing what was wrong the second time is worse than asking once.
</Note>

Approving does not necessarily finish the chain — a step you clear may hand off to another approver
behind you. Rejecting does: one rejection stops the whole chain, and the record returns to whoever
raised it with the reason attached.

## What can carry an approval

Anything your organisation has put a chain in front of, configured on
[approval workflows](/config/workflows):

* A status transition on a work order or an asset that needs sign-off before it can happen — see
  [statuses and transitions](/config/statuses).
* A [purchase request](/commercial/purchase-requests), typically routed by amount, category or site.
* A [purchase order](/commercial/purchase-orders), before it commits spend.

The same two actions apply everywhere. What differs is only what a chain was configured to guard,
and who it names as approver at each step.

## Why it moved out of the sidebar

Approving something is a thing you do in passing, on your way to whatever you actually opened the
product to do — not a screen you plan a visit to. It used to be a sidebar item under Work; it now
lives in the header instead, next to the other things worth a glance on every screen rather than a
destination of their own.


## Related topics

- [Finding your way around](/get-started/navigating.md)
- [Approval workflows](/config/workflows.md)
- [Purchase orders](/commercial/purchase-orders.md)
- [Purchase requests](/commercial/purchase-requests.md)
- [Vendors](/commercial/vendors.md)