How to create an approval flow to send a review to different persons

Hi There,

We want to use JotForm for our annual performance reviews. I know we need to make a approval flow for this process to work but I have some other questions in how it works and what would I would like to do.

The supervisor fills out on the form on the employee. We need HR to review the form and make any recommendations or changes. Once they approve the review the form need to go back to the supervisor to review with the employee. The employee or supervise can then (on the same form) fill out the employees goals and any comments they had. Then the employee will sign that they have reviewed the performance reviewed with their supervisor. From there it needs to be resubmitted back to our HR department and the final form sent to the employee and supervisor. Is there a way to make this into a approval flow?

Hi Madison,

Thanks for reaching out to Jotform Support. Yes, this is possible in the approval flow. I’ll need a bit of time to work out a your request and, I’ll get back to you shortly.

Hi Madison,

Thanks for patiently waiting. To clarify, when the HR denies the submission, would the flow stop? Can you explain a bit on what happens when the HR denies? Also do you want the form to return to the employee or just an email stating that hey have completed the review?

I checked your form and I would like to add an email address field for supervisor and signatures fields. This would help with the flow. Let me show you how:

1. In Form builder, click Add Form Element.
2. In Form Elements, click on Basic tab and click on Email.
   
   
3. Then, scroll down and click on Signature.
   

Now we have the email address field for the supervisor and two signature fields. Check out this screenshot of my result:

Now, we add the Get Form Page URL widget. This widget would allow us to know which user is filling the form.

1. In Form Elements, click on Widgets tab.
2. Then on search bar, search Get Form Page.

We now add conditions to show the fields in page 3 if the supervisor is filling.

1. In Form Builder, in the orange navigation bar at the top of the screen, click on Settings.
2. Click on Conditions on the left side of the screen.
3. In Conditions, click on Show/Hide Field.
   
   
4. Then follow this condition:
   IF : Get Page URL
   STATE : Contains
   TARGET : Value
   VALUE : supervisor
   DO: Show Multiple
   Fields:35,36,37,38
   
   

Now, we need to use the edit link to edit the form and then use the approval to send an email to HR.

1. In Approvals, click on your approval element HR and click on gear icon.
   
   
2. In Approval Properties, click General tab.
3. Then, scroll down to Notification Emails and click on Edit Email.
   
   
4. In Email Properties, go to Email content then, add this URL and click on Save.
   https://www.jotform.com/edit/{id}?HR
   
   
5. Add Email Element to be sent to your Supervisor.|
   
   
6. Then, click on Envelope icon.
7. In Email Properties, go to Email content and add this URL.
   https://www.jotform.com/edit/{id}?supervisor
   
8. Click on Save.
   

You can check out my sample form and test it out by cloning it to your form. Here is a guide on how to clone forms.

Give it a try and let us know if this works for you.

Hello @Madison_Jennings,

Creating an approval flow in Jotform to handle your annual performance reviews can be done by following these steps.
Go to the Form Builder, select Settings at the top.

Navigate to Approval Flows on the left.

Click on Create an approval flow. This will open the Jotform Approvals builder with a basic one-step approval setup
kynect

For a more tailored flow, you can start from My Approvals page.

Select Create Approval in the upper-left corner.

Choose to Start From Scratch for a completely custom flow, use a One Step Approval for a basic setup, or Use Template to choose from pre-made approval templates.

In the Jotform Approvals builder, you can add and configure Approval Elements.

Define outcomes such as Approve or Deny, and you can add more outcomes if needed.

You can set up multistep approvals where multiple approvers can review and decide on requests before moving to the next stage

Utilize Jotform Sign to collect legally binding signatures as part of your approval workflow.

Once the employee signs, the form can be set to automatically resubmit back to HR.

After HR’s final approval, the form can be configured to send the final form to both the employee and supervisor.

For your specific scenario, you would create a multistep approval flow that allows HR to review and suggest changes, then send the form back to the supervisor. After the supervisor’s review with the employee, the form can be updated with goals and comments, and then signed by the employee. The final step would involve resubmitting the form to HR for the last review and distribution.

Hi Richie,

Thank you so much for providing these step by step instructions. I am looking forwarding to trying this flow out. To answer your questions.

1) Regarding the flow if the form is initially denied. So, if the form is denied by our HR department it means that they would like to review the form with the supervisor and provide any comments, recommendations, and feedback before the supervisor goes over the review with the employee. Hope that makes sense! The form goes more into a 'pending' stage. After, the supervisor provides the recommended changes it would follow the same flow that you recommended.

2) Once the form is submitted to our HR department (this is after the form has been reviewed by the supervisor and employee together). It would be great if there was an email going to the employee stating that their performance review is complete and copy of their completed review is attached to the email.

Many thanks for your support!

Best,

Madi

Hi Richie,

Thanks for getting back to us. You can enable Request More Information on the Advanced tab. This will allow you to send an email to the respondent and ask them to provide more information without having to restart the whole process. Let me show you how:

1. In Approval Builder, click on one of your approver fields, and then click on the Gear icon to open Approve and Sign Properties.  
2. Under the Advanced tab, toggle Request More Information

As for sending an email to the employee, you can add an Email element on your Form Builder:

Then add a second Email element on your Approval flow for your Employee.  Give it a try and let us know how it goes. 

Hello,

Using Jotform for your annual performance reviews sounds like a great idea! To set up the approval flow you described, you can follow these steps:

1. Initial Form Submission**: The supervisor fills out the performance review form for the employee.

2. HR Review and Approval**: Once submitted, the form is automatically sent to HR for review. HR can make any recommendations or changes and then approve the review.

3. Review with Employee**: After HR approval, the form is sent back to the supervisor for review with the employee.

4. Employee Input**: The employee or supervisor can then fill out the section for the employee's goals and any comments.

5. Employee Signature**: The employee signs the form to acknowledge that they have reviewed the performance review with their supervisor.

6. Final HR Review**: Once completed, the form is resubmitted to HR for final review.

7. Form Distribution**: Finally, the approved form is sent to both the employee and supervisor.

You can set up this workflow using Jotform's features for form routing, conditional logic, and notifications. By configuring the form to trigger actions based on certain conditions (e.g., HR approval), you can automate the entire process.

If you need assistance with setting up specific features or workflows within Jotform, feel free to provide more details, and I can offer further guidance.

BR,

Thank you for all your help! I am getting closer to what I need. However, I am still having trouble on how to step up the flow. Once HR has approved the initial form submission how do I set up the flow for the form to be sent back to the supervisor to finish completing the last section with the employee (goal setting and development planning)? After, they would both sign the form and it would be resubmitted back to the HR department for final review. Ideally, I would like the last section to be hidden during the first submission of the form as to avoid any confusion. Is that a possibility? Again, thank you all your help!

Hi Madison,

Thanks for getting back to us. I’ll need a bit of time to look into this. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Hi Madison,

Thanks for patiently waiting. Based on your requirements, it seems that your workflow requires submission editing so you will need to disable the Jotform Sign Automation in the Signature field. Let me show you how to disable it:

1. Select the Signature field and click the Sign Automation icon.
2. Toggle the Enable Jotform Sign Automation to OFF.
   

Then, you will need to follow my colleague Richie's reply to add an edit link to the Email element in the Approvals to allow the specific users to edit the submission. However, you will need to edit the Show/Hide Field conditional logic and replace the "supervisor" value with "edit". Check out my screenshot below:

Next, add another Approver element for your HR so they can view the submission and approve it if all of the form fields are edited and filled. Check out my screenshot below:

If that’s not exactly what you’re looking for, can you explain a bit more so I can help you better? 

Let us know if you need any more help.