How do I create a document reviewal/approval process in SharePoint/MetaShare?

In MetaShare you can submit a document for approval by following these instructions. You can also configure MetaShare to automatically alert you when a document’s due date has passed. Within soon, we will also be adding a similar function that enables users to submit a document for reviewal, with the difference that the final reviewed document will not be published.

In the approval process, when the approvers’ require certain changes to be done to a document, they can create comments inside the document and tag the persons that should edit that section. Automatically an e-mail will be sent to the persons that are tagged, with a link to the document (this is an out-of-the box Microsoft 365 feature).

If these 2 workflows do not fulfill your business needs, you can easily create custom flows that trigger on business rules. Depending on which option you choose, you might need to create one or several of these custom document metadata fields:

1. “Requires approval”
   1. A column that defines whether a document should be sent for approval
   2. Column type: Managed metadata column
   3. Column description: “If you want someone to review and approve the documents.”
   4. Values:
      • “Yes”
      • “No”
   5. Default value: “No”
   6. Allow multiple selections = No
2. “Approval”
   1. A column that defines the approval status of a document
   2. Column type: Managed metadata column
   3. Column description: “Defines the approval status of the document.”
   4. Values:
      • “Does not require approval”
      • “Sent for approval”
      • “Approved”
   5. Default value: “Does not require approval”
   6. Allow multiple selections = No
3. “Approval date”
   1. A column that could be used to define the date when a document should latest be approval
   2. Column type: Date
   3. Column description: “The date when the document latest should be approved.”
4. “Document approver”
   1. A column that defines who should approve a document
   2. Column type: Person or group
   3. Column description: “The persons that should review the document before approval.”
   4. Allow multiple selections = Yes OR No, based on your needs
5. “Approved by”
   1. A column that defines who has approved a document
   2. Column type: Person or group
   3. Column description: “The person that has approved the document.”
   4. Allow multiple selections = Yes OR No, based on your needs
6. “Information owner”
   1. A column that defines who is responsible for the content of the document
   2. Column type: Person or group
   3. Column description: “The person responsible for the content of the document.”
   4. Allow multiple selections = No

You can create a flow from scratch or start with an existing flow template and customize it.

When a document is triggered for approval, the flow can send an e-mail to the document approver(s). The approver(s) could either be fetched from active directory, e.g. the user’s manager, from a static list of approvers for different departments or from an “Approver(s)” field in the document.

Examples of business rules for when a document should be sent for approval could be:

1. when a  document’s “Requires approval” is changed to a “Yes”.
2. when a  document’s “Approval” is changed to a “Sent for reviewal”.
3. when a document is published but only if the document has been tagged with certain metadata values, e.g. that the document’s “Document type” = “Policy” or if the document resides in a specific workspace that requires an approval process.

The documents, in any of the the options above, could have an “Approval date” and if a document has not been approved before this date, an e-mail could be configured to be sent to the document’s author as well as to the document’s “Approver(s)”.

Contact a MetaShare partner or MetaShare support if you need assistance in creating a custom document approval process in your MetaShare.