Flow Steps

Flow steps are the basic building blocks of approval workflows. They define who needs to approve a submission and how approvals are collected.

Flow Types

One (one)

Single-person approval where only one member from the assigned group needs to approve.

Behavior:

• Creates a notification for whichever group member is selected on the form
• Submission advances when that single person approves
• The is_ignored option is automatically disabled for this type

Use Case: When you need approval from a specific person chosen by the submitter (e.g., "select your manager to approve this expense").

Multiple (multiple)

Multiple specific people from a group must approve.

Behavior:

• Creates notifications for designated members
• Can be configured to require unanimous approval or just a subset
• Supports the is_ignored option to skip this step under certain conditions

Use Case: When specific individuals need to review (e.g., "both the department head and finance lead must approve").

All (all)

Every member of the assigned group must approve.

Behavior:

• Creates notifications for all members of the group
• Submission only advances when every member has approved
• Supports the is_ignored option to skip this step

Use Case: When consensus from an entire team is required (e.g., "all board members must approve this resolution").

Group Select (group_select)

Allows the submitter to choose which group should handle their submission.

Behavior:

• Presents the user with a selection of pre-configured groups
• The selected group then receives the submission for approval
• Does not use a single group_id - instead uses a many-to-many relationship with selectable groups
• Can optionally auto-share with the selected group via autoshare_selected_group property

Use Case: When submissions can be routed to different departments based on user choice (e.g., "select your regional office for processing").

Configuration Options

Option	Type	Description
name	string	Optional custom display name for the step
group_id	integer	Required group (except for group_select)
unanimous	boolean	If true, all assigned members must approve before advancing
sms	boolean	Enable SMS notifications for this step
is_muted	boolean	Don't send notifications (manual follow-up)
is_ignored	boolean	Skip approval (only for multiple, all)
can_edit_form	boolean	Allow editing the form during this step
is_escalatable	boolean	Allow escalation to another approver
autoshare_group_id	integer	Automatically share with another group when this step completes

Step Sequencing

Flow steps are ordered by their sort column. When a step completes:

1. The system finds the next step in sequence for the same form
2. The next step must have group members (unless it's a special type)

Step Type Constraints:

• one type steps can precede any other step type
• multiple type steps can precede any other step type
• group_select type steps can precede any other step type
• conditional and collective steps can only be followed by all, dynamic, conditional, or collective types