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Understanding the Watcher role and permissions

Updated over a week ago

What is a Watcher?

A Watcher in ApprovalMax is added to a request so that they can monitor and stay informed about its progress although they're not involved in the approval process.

This role is ideal for team members who need visibility into approval activities without taking action themselves.

Watchers receive notifications and updates related to the request they’re following, making it easy to stay in the loop and ensure oversight.

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Key features of the Watcher role

Notifications - Watchers are automatically notified by email when key events happen, including:

  • Approvals and rejections

  • Post-approval changes

  • Rework of approval decisions

  • Comments added to the request

  • Status changes (e.g. Purchase Orders marked as Billed, or Bills marked as Paid)

Visibility - Watchers can view the entire progress of the approval request, including:

  • The current approval status

  • A full comment history

  • Any other relevant request updates

Although Watchers can't take action or influence the approval flow, they have full read-only visibility into the process.

The following users can add Watchers to a request

  • Other Watchers

  • Requesters

  • Any Approver of the request (in any approval step)

  • Organisation Administrators

If users have an Organisation-based role (e.g. Auditor, Workflow Manager), they will be able to add Watchers to a request if they are also its Requester or Approver or Watcher, or an Organisation Administrator.

Users who can be added as Watchers

Account Owners and Administrators can add users from the same Organisation to a request as a Watcher. This ensures they’ll receive relevant notifications and updates about the request’s progress.

Please note: The following users cannot be added as Watchers:

  • Approvers of the request

  • Reviewers

  • Auditors

  • Requesters

Editing or deleting Watchers

The following users are allowed to edit or remove Watchers from a request:

  • Watchers themselves (they can remove themselves)

  • Organisation Administrators

  • The user who originally added the Watcher

What you can do as a Watcher

As a Watcher in ApprovalMax, you have certain capabilities and restrictions. Here's a breakdown of what Watchers can and cannot do:

Watchers can

Watchers cannot

View the document details

Change the status of a document (approve or reject)

Receive document-related notifications about:
Approvals
Rejections
Comments
Post-approval changes
Revoked decisions
Changes to the Approvers
Markings as Billed/Paid
Adding of Watcher

Match Bills to Purchase Orders

Write comments

Change a document

View the Watcher list

Change the Approvers

Stop watching a document

Be an Approver of a request they are watching

Add new Watchers

Be a Reviewer of a request they are watching

View and download the attachments



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