Submitting and Approving Milestones

Learn about Milestone Statuses, Blocked Statuses, and how to submit and approve Milestones.

Submitting and approving Milestones are an important part of the workflow for any Template with Milestones enabled. Understanding what status a Milestone is in, who can move it to the next status, and how approvals work is valuable to make sure your projects flow without a hitch. 

This article will cover:

• Understanding a Milestone's status by its icon and color
  • Blocked Statuses
• Submitting Milestones
  • Who can submit a Milestone? 
  • How to submit a Milestone
• Approving Milestones
  
  • Who can approve a Milestone? 
  • How to approve a Milestone from the Item flag
  • How to approve the Milestone from the Panel
  • Why isn't a Milestone submitted for approval? 

Understanding a Milestone's status by its icon and color

The color and icon associated with each Milestone on an Item indicate the Milestone's status. 

Blocked Statuses

Depending on how the Template is configured, certain Milestones may block you from transitioning the Item to one or more Statuses. For example, if a Milestone is blocking the Complete Status, you will not be able to complete an Item until the Milestone is approved. 

When a Milestone is blocking a Status, there will be an exclamation point icon next to the Milestone. 

• Hover over the icon to populate a tooltip that shows which Status the Milestone is blocking. 

If a Milestone is blocking the Complete Status, you will not be able to complete the Item until the Milestone is approved. When you attempt to complete the Item, you will receive a notice informing you of which Milestone is blocking the Item's completion. 

Example of the notice you receive when a Milestone is blocking you from completing an Item. You can easily submit the Milestone for approval from this window. 

Submitting Milestones

There are several ways a Milestone can be submitted for approval. This includes manual submission, Status changes, previous Milestone approvals, and Attributes. 

This section will focus on manually submitting Milestones. If you want to learn more about the ways Milestones can be submitted automatically when other criteria on an Item are met, check out this article. 

Who can Submit a Milestone for Approval?

Anyone with permission to edit the Item can submit a Milestone for Approval. 

Submit a Milestone for Approval

To submit a Milestone for Approval, open the Item and locate the Milestones Panel. If you have the ability to submit the Milestone for approval, there will be a Submit for Milestone Name button beneath the Milestone. 

• When the Submit for Milestone Name button is selected, a gray rotate icon will appear to the right of the Milestone, and the button will disappear. The Milestone name will turn blue.
• Selecting the rotate icon will unsubmit the Milestone. The Submit for Milestone Name button will reappear, and the Milestone will return to blue. 

If the Milestone is denied, the Milestone name will turn red. A gray rotate icon and the Resubmit for Milestone Name button will appear. 

• Selecting the rotate icon will unsubmit the Milestone and return it to the "Not Ready for Approval" status. 
• Selecting the Resubmit for Milestone Name button will resubmit the Milestone for Approval. 

Approving Milestones

Milestone approvals are a key part of projects and complex processes. Because of this, organizations have a lot of control and flexibility over which Users can approve Milestones. Every Milestone can have a unique set of Users eligible to approve it. 

You can even assign specific Milestone Approvers to Milestones so that the entire Item Team is aware of whose responsibility it is to approve a Milestone. 

This section will cover how you can approve Milestones on an Item. 

Who can Approve a Milestone? 

It depends on how the Milestone is configured. 

If Milestone Assignment is enabled on the Milestone, then hovering over the Milestone will populate a tooltip displaying who is responsible for approving the Milestone. Only the listed Users can approve the Milestone. 

If Milestone Assignment is not enabled on the Milestone, then only Users who meet the criteria defined on the Milestone's configuration can approve it. Organizations can define eligible approvers based on System Role, Team Role, individual Users, and more.

If you think you should be able to approve a Milestone, but cannot, we recommend submitting a support ticket to our team. 

Approve a Milestone from the flag

If there is a Milestone ready for approval, a flag letting you know a Milestone is ready for approval will appear at the top of the Item. All Users who can view the Item will see the flag. 

• If you have the ability to approve the current Milestone, the flag will include Approve and Decline action buttons. 
• To approve or decline a Milestone from the flag, select the appropriate action. A pop-up menu will appear showing your selection, and you can enter a Note to provide additional detail on your decision if desired. 

If there are two or more Milestones ready for approval, the flag will let you know there are multiple Milestones ready for approval. 

• Select Show. The flag will expand, and each Milestone ready for approval will be listed. You can also select the caret icon on the far right of the flag to expand the flag. 

Approve a Milestone from the Milestones Panel

If you have permission to approve one or more Milestones on an Item, you’ll see the pencil icon next to the list of Milestones. Select the pencil icon to open the Milestones window.

In the resulting window, the flow of Milestones is displayed at the top. Each Milestone and information about it is listed beneath the Details header. 

• Milestones that you have permission to approve, unapprove, or mark as "not approved" are displayed in black text. Those that you cannot edit or that are not ready for approval are displayed in light gray text.

• Hover over the info icon  next to a milestone to reveal more information about that milestone, as entered by your organization. If you don’t see that icon, no additional information is available.

To take action on a Milestone: 

• Select the Approved checkbox under a Milestone to approve it. 
• Select the Not Approved checkbox under a Milestone to indicate that it has been reviewed and is not approved. 
• Depending on the Milestone's configuration, there may be a Note field that allows you to provide more detail. 
• Select the Email Note(s) Now checkbox to send an email notification to other Users. Any Notes included on the Item's Milestones will be included in the email. 
  
  • Use the resulting field to select which Users should receive the email. 
• Select Save. 

Why isn’t this Milestone submitted for approval?

Do you want to approve a Milestone but don't know why it isn't yet submitted for approval? 

How a Milestone is submitted for approval depends on your organization's configuration for the Milestone. Each Milestone has certain actions that must be completed before it is ready for approval. These actions include: 

• Status changes
• The approval of all previous milestones
• Attribute Value changes
• A person indicates the milestone is ready for approval. NOTE: Only people who can edit the specific item can give this indication.
  • If the Milestone requires a person to indicate it’s submitted for approval, people who can edit the Item will see a blue button displayed below the Milestone. It will say Submit for Milestone Name Approval. 
  • Select the Submit button and, if all other prerequisites for the Milestone have been met, its text will turn blue and it will be ready for approval.

Recommended Reading

Now that you know how to submit and approve Milestones, we recommend checking out these related articles: 

• Optional Milestones
• Milestone Deadlines
• Milestone Approvers
• The Milestone Module
• Filtering Item Lists by Milestone