# Overview

**Approvals** is COMS’s general sign‑off system. It lets someone send a record — a Sole‑Source Justification, a Bidder List, a purchase, a project closure, and so on — to one or more people to formally approve or reject, with the decisions, comments and signatures captured as a permanent record.

<p class="callout info">**ℹ️ Good to know:** This is a **separate module** from Expense approvals. Expense claims have their own approval chain (see the Expense Management guide); this guide is about the general **/approvals** area you reach from **Approvals** in the sidebar.</p>

## Who does what

- The [**requester**](http://knowledge.services.conexusnuclear.org/books/coms-features-and-guidelines/page/requesting-an-approval) creates a request, attaches supporting files, and chooses who must approve.
- [**Internal approvers**](http://knowledge.services.conexusnuclear.org/books/coms-features-and-guidelines/page/approving-internal-staff) (Conexus staff) review and decide inside COMS.
- [**External approvers**](http://knowledge.services.conexusnuclear.org/books/coms-features-and-guidelines/page/external-approvers) (customer contacts) review and decide on the customer portal via a secure link.

## What can be sent for approval

A request always has a **category** (SSJ, Bidder List, Purchase Order, Travel, Vacation, Hiring… — a long, admin‑managed list) and can optionally be **linked to a record** so approvers see exactly what they’re signing off. The four linkable record types:

<table id="bkmrk-typetypical-useproje"><thead><tr><th>Type</th><th>Typical use</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>**Project**</td><td>Project‑level sign‑offs (e.g. closure, technical completion).</td></tr><tr><td>**Work Package**</td><td>Work‑package approvals.</td></tr><tr><td>**Purchase Order**</td><td>PO approvals.</td></tr><tr><td>**Purchase Request**</td><td>Procurement sign‑offs — Sole‑Source Justifications and Bidder Lists are the common ones.</td></tr></tbody></table>

<p class="callout info">**ℹ️ Good to know:** When the linked record is a Purchase Request with a Sole‑Source Justification or Bidder List, the approval page shows the **full details** of that record (scope, QA requirements, reasons, the justified bidder and quote) so approvers have everything in front of them.</p>

## The lifecycle

Every request moves through a simple set of statuses:

<table id="bkmrk-statuswhat-it-meansp"><thead><tr><th>Status</th><th>What it means</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>**Pending**</td><td>At least one approver still has to decide.</td></tr><tr><td>**Completed**</td><td>Everyone approved. A permanent Approval Confirmation PDF is generated. (Final.)</td></tr><tr><td>**Rejected**</td><td>Someone rejected it — that ends the request. (Final.)</td></tr></tbody></table>

A single **rejection ends the whole request**; every approver must approve for it to complete.

## Finding your approvals

Open **Approvals** from the sidebar. The list is split into tabs:

- **Mine** — requests you created.
- **Awaiting Me** — requests waiting for *your* decision.
- **I’ve Acted On** — requests you’ve already approved or rejected.
- **All** — only for administrators (needs the *view‑all* permission).

Each row shows the category, the linked record, an **approved / total** progress bar, the overall status, who requested it, and (for completed internal‑only requests) a report download.

![The Approvals list, showing categories, progress and status.](http://knowledge.services.conexusnuclear.org/uploads/images/gallery/2026-07/list-01.png)

*The Approvals list, showing categories, progress and status.*

<p class="callout success">**💡 Pro Tip:** Use the **Filters** bar to narrow by category, record type, status, whether an external approver is involved, or a date range — handy once you have a lot of history.</p>