Who is this article for?

Administrators who need to set up form workflows, notifications, and approval processes.

Form configuration access required.

This article explains how to configure form workflows, including automated notifications, approval processes, and completion criteria to streamline form submissions and reviews.

1. Adding notifications to your form

The Notifications feature allows you to automatically alert users when key actions happen on a form. These notifications can be fully customised and triggered based on how a user interacts with specific questions or when the form reaches certain states.

This is especially useful for keeping stakeholders informed, sending reminders, or escalating critical submissions like incidents, permit requests, or safety violations.

When notifications can be triggered:

You can configure notifications to be sent when a form is:

• Submitted – a user has filled out and submitted the form
• Completed – the form has gone through all approvals or review stages
• Created – a new form is opened or started by a user
• Unlocked – a locked form has been reopened for edits
• Locked – the form is locked after submission or approval

Tip: Use notifications to route the right information to the right people at the right time—automatically. It cuts down on manual emails and ensures no critical action is missed.

2. Configuring notification settings and fields

Triggering Form Question

Enter the Field Name of the question that should trigger the notification. This allows notifications to be conditional.

Triggering Question Response

Set the specific answer that should trigger the notification. For example, send a message only if the response is "Yes" to "Was someone injured?"

Notification Type

Choose how users should be notified:

• Email
• SMS
• Email and SMS

User Tags

Select the user tags that should receive the notification (e.g., EHS Team, Supervisor, Radiation Safety Officer). These tags must be set up in your User Tag settings ahead of time.

Triggering Question (Roster)

If you are working with a field tied to a roster (like PI or Lab Group), this allows you to notify people based on their role in that roster.

Roster Roles

Define which roles within the roster (e.g., PI, Lab Manager, Co-PI) will receive the notification.

3. Setting up notification message content

To customise your notification messages, configure the following fields:

1. Set the Email From field to the address shown in the "From" field of the email (e.g., safety@yourorganisation.edu).
2. Enter the Subject line that appears in the recipient's inbox.
3. Write the Body message content that will be sent. You can include plain text or reference field responses using merge tags.

Note: You can display field responses in your message by using the format %cofe.fieldname%, where fieldname is the name of any question (i.e., field) from the form. This will pull in the user's response for that specific field.

4. Adding approvers to permit forms

Note: This field only applies to the permit module.

The Add Approver section allows you to set up approval workflows for your form. Approvers can be assigned to review, approve, or deny submissions at different stages, and the configuration defines who is involved, what their role is, and what happens at each step.

Use this area when you need formal sign-offs from supervisors, EHS, department chairs, or other designated roles.

Tip: The approval system is flexible and scalable. Whether you need a quick one-step review or a complex multi-tiered process, these settings allow you to customise the workflow to match your organisation's needs.

5. Assigning approvers

Select User

Choose the individual who will act as the approver. This can be any active user in the system.

Form Selection

Use a user field from the form to dynamically assign an approver based on the person selected by the submitter—helpful for routing to the appropriate supervisor, PI, or manager.

Example: If your form has a question labelled "Select Your Supervisor" with the field name supervisor_user_id, selecting that field will route the approval to the supervisor chosen in the form.

6. Configuring special approver settings

Special Approver

Tick this box if the approver has limited permissions (e.g., they can only complete minimal sections of the form or are not expected to fully review the submission).

Special Approver Action

Set the label for what the special approver will do (e.g., "Certify", "Review Complete", or "Acknowledge"). This label appears in the approval interface.

Special Approver Text

Add a short message or instruction that explains the purpose or expectations of the special approver's role. This appears in the interface during the approval step.

7. Setting up regular approver options

Regular Approver Label

Define the title for the standard approver's role (e.g., "Supervisor Review", "Lab Manager Approval"). This is displayed to users during the approval process and typically offers more review options.

Regular Approver Action

Define the label for the standard approval action (e.g., "Approve", "Verify", "Accept").

Deny Action

Enter the label for what users see when denying a form (e.g., "Reject", "Send Back for Edits").

8. Configuring approval workflow order and behaviour

Approval Order

Enter a number to define when this approval step should occur. Lower numbers go first; negative numbers can be used for steps that should happen before any ad-hoc approvals.

Note: Approvers set with a negative number will be processed before any dynamic or ad-hoc approvers added later in the workflow.

Campus

(Optional) Use this field if your organisation spans multiple campuses. You can restrict the approver to only receive forms submitted from a specific location.

Approve with Unaddressed Required Comments

If ticked, this allows the approver to move the form forward even if some required comments have not been addressed. Use carefully—this bypasses standard form validation.

9. Setting up complete criteria

The Complete Criteria section allows you to set up smart logic to automatically mark a permit as ready for approval—or rejection—based on a user's response to a specific question.

To configure complete criteria, follow these steps:

1. Add any question to the Complete Criteria section. This question becomes required, and the user must answer it before submitting the permit.
2. Set the Confirm Response value. If the user's answer matches this value, the system considers the permit eligible for approval.
3. Set the Deny Response value. If the user's input matches this value instead, the system considers the permit not eligible—and it may be auto-rejected or routed differently depending on your workflow.

Example:

Say your permit asks, "Will radioactive materials be used?"

• If the user selects "No", and that is your Confirm Response, the system knows the permit is good to go
• If the user selects "Yes", and you have set that as the Deny Response, it can trigger extra review steps or hold the submission

Note: You cannot use this option if you have approval steps configured into the form.

Tip: This is great for streamlining approvals when only specific answers need a full review. Just make sure the question is clearly worded so users give the right input.