How to Find and Manage Approvals in Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a popular project management tool widely used in businesses and organizations. It offers a range of features that help you manage your projects from start to finish, including scheduling, resource allocation, and budgeting. One critical aspect of project management is obtaining approvals from different stakeholders involved in the project. These approvals could be for project plans, budgets, timelines, or changes to any of these. In this article, we’ll discuss how to find and manage approvals in Microsoft Project.

Setting up Approval Processes

Before you can begin managing approvals in Microsoft Project, you need to set up approval processes. An approval process is a predefined sequence of steps that a request goes through before it gets approved. Setting up an approval process involves:

1. Defining the approval workflow: This includes identifying the stakeholders who will approve requests, the order in which they will receive them, and the rules for approving or rejecting them.

2. Creating approval templates: Approval templates are preconfigured workflows that can be applied to different types of requests. You can create templates for different scenarios, such as plan approvals, change requests, or budget approvals.

3. Setting up notifications: Notifications inform stakeholders when a request is waiting for their approval, when it has been approved, or rejected. You can customize notification emails to include relevant information about the request and its status.

Once you’ve set up the approval processes, you can start managing approvals in Microsoft Project.

Finding Pending Approvals

The first step in managing approvals in Microsoft Project is finding pending approvals. Microsoft Project offers several ways to do this:

To view all pending approvals:

1. On the Ribbon, click on the “Approval Center” button.

2. Select “My Approvals” to see all approvals that require your attention.

To view approvals for a specific project:

1. Open the project that you want to view approvals for.

2. On the Ribbon, click on the “Approval Center” button.

3. Select “Project Approvals” to see all approvals related to the project.

To filter approvals:

1. In the Approval Center, select “All Approvals.”

2. Click on the “Filter Applied” drop-down list and choose your filter criteria, such as “Pending,” “Approved,” or “Rejected.”

Approving or Rejecting Requests

Once you’ve found a pending approval, you can approve or reject it. To do this:

1. Click on the approval request in the Approval Center.

2. Review the details of the request, such as the type of request, the requester, and any comments provided.

3. If you want to approve the request, click on the “Approve” button. If you want to reject it, click on the “Reject” button.

4. If you’re rejecting the request, provide a reason for the rejection in the comments section.

5. Click on the “Submit” button to save your decision.

Managing Approval Workflows

Managing approval workflows involves monitoring the progress of requests and ensuring that they are moving through the workflow as expected. Microsoft Project offers several features that help you manage approval workflows:

To view approval history:

1. In the Approval Center, select “All Approvals.”

2. Click on the approval request to view its approval history. This will show you who approved or rejected the request at each step.

To change the approval workflow:

1. Open the project that includes the request you want to modify.

2. Select the “Approval” tab in the Ribbon.

3. Click on “Manage Templates” to edit an existing template or create a new one.

To reroute an approval request:

1. In the Approval Center, select the approval request that you want to reroute.

2. Click on the “Reroute” button and select the new approver.

3. Click on the “Submit” button to save your changes.

Tips for Managing Approvals in Microsoft Project

Managing approvals in Microsoft Project can be challenging, especially if you’re dealing with a large project or multiple stakeholders. Here are some tips that can help:

• Set up approval processes at the beginning of the project to avoid delays later on.

• Customize notification emails to include all relevant information about the request and its status.

• Use filters in the Approval Center to quickly find pending approvals.

• Review approval history regularly to ensure that requests are moving through the workflow as expected.

• Provide clear instructions and guidelines to approvers to avoid confusion and unnecessary delays.

• Use approval templates to streamline the approval process and ensure consistency.

• Utilize integration capabilities with third-party tools like Clarizen, Wrike, Monday.com, ClickUp, GanttPRO, or Smartsheet to streamline workflows further.

Conclusion

In conclusion, managing approvals in Microsoft Project is an essential aspect of project management. Setting up approval processes, finding pendingapprovals, and managing approval workflows are all crucial steps in ensuring that your project runs smoothly. With the tips we’ve provided, you can streamline the approval process and reduce delays, making it easier to complete your projects on time and within budget.

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