Approval circuits and notifications
Approval circuits formalise validations: who must approve a request with a safety impact, a hot work permit, the freeze of a shutdown, in which order and within which delay. They are fully configurable by the administrator, without development.
Configuring a circuit
Administration > Approval circuits > New circuit:
- Target: work request, work permit or shutdown;
- Site: the circuit only applies to this site, or to all;
- Conditions: minimum urgency (for requests), safety impact only, permit type;
- ordered Steps: name, approver (a role — the first user of the role who decides closes the step — or a named user), delay in hours and escalation role.
When several active circuits match, the most specific applies (site, then permit type or safety impact, then urgency, then order). A circuit without steps does not apply.
How it runs
- A created request, a permit moved to Requested, a shutdown submitted to the circuit start an instance at step 1; the approvers of the step are notified.
- In My approvals, each approver sees the files they can handle, with the entity, the step, the age, and decides: Approve moves to the next step (or applies the final effect), Reject (reason mandatory) closes the circuit and rejects the entity.
- The History tab shows all the site's instances with their outcome.
- The Approval circuit panel in permit and shutdown records shows completed and current steps; the requester, the supervisor or the administrator can cancel a circuit in progress.
- Administrators can always decide, whoever the planned approver is.
Circuits designed in Elsa Studio
For circuits that are more than a sequence of steps (conditions on priority or contract, branches, notifications, reminders), a circuit can reference an Elsa workflow (Elsa workflow field of the circuit, Open Elsa Studio link). The workflow, designed in Elsa Studio with the Softic GMAO activities (Approval step, Apply decision, Notify), declares each step itself: approvers find it in My approvals and decide as usual; the approval panel shows Driven by Elsa. A template is shipped: gmao-double-approval (contractor validation then asset owner approval). The administrator enables this in Settings > Elsa workflows.
Escalation
The gmao-approval-escalation job (hourly) spots the steps whose delay is exceeded and notifies the step's escalation role (or Approval.EscalationRole, Administrator by default). The step remains pending: the escalation warns, it does not decide in place of the approver.
Notifications
The bell in the top bar groups personal notifications: expected approvals, the outcome of circuits you started, escalations, SCADA alerts, AI budget overrun. The counter shows unread ones; Mark all as read clears them; a click on a notification opens the relevant screen.