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Approvals and notifications for Smart documents

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Overview

Some businesses need a second pair of eyes before an agreement reaches an employee. Maybe the owner signs off every new hire, or payroll needs a heads-up whenever pay changes. MyHR can build that into your agreement process so it happens automatically, every time.

There are two types of step, and you can use one or both:

  • Approval: the agreement waits until a nominated person approves it. Only then can it be signed and sent to the employee.
  • Notification: a nominated person gets an email about the agreement. Nothing waits, so you can carry on straight away.

💡Approvals and notifications work with Smart Agreements. Not sure if you have Smart Agreements? Get in touch via Ask Us. 

 How approvals work

If you're requesting the agreement

  1. Create the agreement as usual. If an approval applies, you'll see a message saying it needs approval before it can be signed.
  2. Check the agreement over. You can go back and make edits at this point.
  3. When you're happy, select Submit for approval. The approver gets an email with a link straight to the agreement.
  4. While you wait, the agreement shows who it's waiting on.
  5. You'll get an email when the approver makes a decision.
  6. If it's approved, the agreement is ready for you to sign and send to the employee.
  7. If it's declined, you'll see who declined it, when, and any comments they left. Make the changes, then select Resubmit for approval.

If you're the approver

  1. Open the link in the approval email. You'll see the agreement with Approve and Decline buttons.
  2. Read through the agreement.
  3. Select Approve or Decline. Either way, you can leave a comment.
  4. Your decision and comment are emailed to the person who requested the agreement, and recorded on the request.

If you open an agreement that's waiting on someone else, you'll see a message saying who it's waiting on.

 

More than one approver

You can nominate a few people as approvers for the same step. The first person to respond makes the call, so the agreement isn't held up if someone's away. If anyone declines, the agreement goes back to the requester to update and resubmit.

Common examples

  • Every new starter's agreement needs sign-off from the owner or HR manager
  • The new starter's direct manager should sign the agreement, once approved by the Office manager. 

How notifications work

A notification emails a nominated person a link to the agreement. The requester doesn't have to wait for anything.

Notifications can go out before an approval, after an agreement is approved, or on their own with no approval at all. For example, you could let payroll know only once the director has approved a pay increase.

Common examples

  • Payroll hears about every agreement where pay changes
  • The office manager gets a heads-up whenever a new starter's agreement goes out
  • A team lead is told whenever an agreement is created for someone in their team

When a step kicks in

You decide which agreements each step applies to. You can set it up based on:

  • Who made the request (for example, everyone except the owner)
  • Whether it's a new hire agreement or an update to an existing one
  • Whether pay is increasing (update agreements only)
  • Whether the person's department is changing
  • The person's department, job title or employment type
  • Which details have changed

You can have as many rules as you need, each covering a different situation.

Setting up approvals and notifications

Our team sets these up for you. Get in touch via Ask Us and tell us:

  • Who needs to approve or be notified
  • When it should apply (use the list above as a guide)
  • What type of step it is: an approval (the agreement waits for sign-off) or a notification (just a heads-up)

Rules changed? Let us know via Ask Us and we'll update them.

⚠️Anyone you nominate as an approver or notification recipient needs a MyHR login. If they're not set up yet, let us know and we'll help sort that first. 

 FAQs

Can one agreement have both an approval and a notification?

Yes. For example, you could notify payroll and require the owner's approval on the same agreement.

What happens if the approver is away?

The agreement stays on hold until it's approved. Nominating more than one approver avoids this, as the first to respond decides. If something's stuck, get in touch via Ask Us.

What happens if an agreement is declined?

The requester gets an email with the approver's comments. They can edit the agreement and resubmit it for approval.

Can I turn off the approve and decline emails?

No. The person who requested the agreement always gets an email when it's approved or declined, so they know where things are at.

Can a notification be sent when an agreement is declined?

Not at the moment. Notifications can go out before an approval or after one is approved. The requester is always told about a decline.

Who can I nominate?

Anyone with a MyHR login in your account who has visibility to see the person on the request.

Need a hand?

Get in touch via Ask Us in MyHR, or call:

  • NZ: 0800 69 47 69 or +64 9 887 3345
  • AU: 02 7908 2240
  • CA: 1 855 694 7224