Approvals and the reporting line
See what needs a signature, who can give it, how the ask reaches them, and what happens when nobody is set to approve.
Some records in SalesYatra don't move until somebody above you signs them. Who that somebody is comes from the reporting line: the Reports to an administrator sets on each employee. This page explains what needs a signature, who may give it, and where they give it.
What needs a signature
| Record | Signatures, in order | Where the signer acts |
|---|---|---|
| Order | 1. The manager approves it and names who packs it. 2. An administrator gives it the final approval. Nobody signs after that: the dispatch is the order's last step. | Portal and Android app |
| Request for self stock, school sampling or a workshop | 1. The manager validates it, naming who packs it if it ships. 2. An administrator gives it the final approval. | Portal |
| Travel plan | 1. The manager approves the trip: its name, dates and budget. 2. After the trip, the manager validates the days and what each one cost. | Portal and Android app |
| A new billing party typed on an order | Decided with the order. The administrator's final approval adds it to the dealer list. See Bill to and ship to. | With the order |
Orders and requests need two signatures, the manager's and then an administrator's. The manager knows the patch; the final approval is a company control. A travel plan's two signatures are both the manager's, and no administrator approves it.
What is not approved
- Visits. A visit is logged, not approved. Managers read their team's visits and comment on them instead, as the last section of this page explains.
- Adoptions and quotations. Nobody signs them. A quotation the school accepts becomes a draft order, which then needs its signatures like any other.
- Daily spend. A claim has no approval of its own. A claim filed on a travel plan's day is part of what the manager validates on that plan. Managers can read their team's claims under Daily Expenses → My team, but not change them. The billing desk pays claims; see Staff claims.
- Returns. The warehouse records books coming back, and the administrators are told. See Returns.
- Collections. Money a rep records on a visit is confirmed by the billing desk against the bank, not approved by a manager. See Collections to confirm.
Who can approve
Only these roles decide on other people's records:
| Role | Decides on |
|---|---|
| Area Sales Manager (ASM) | Anyone below them in the reporting line |
| Deputy General Manager (DGM) | Anyone below them in the reporting line |
| National Sales Head (NSH) | Anyone below them in the reporting line |
| Chief Executive Officer (CEO) | Anyone below them in the reporting line |
| Administrator | Everyone, including their own records. The final approval is theirs alone. |
A Sales Executive and an Assistant Territory Manager (ATM) never approve anything. Dispatch (Warehouse), Accounts (Billing) and Accountant (read-only) sit outside the reporting line, so nobody reports to them and they decide nothing on it.
Three rules follow from the reporting line:
- Below you means every level down. A DGM can decide on a rep who reports to an ASM who reports to the DGM, not only on the ASM.
- Never your own. A manager's own order, request or plan goes to their own manager. If you try, SalesYatra says: "You cannot approve your own order — it goes to your reporting manager."
- Not another team's. A manager can't decide on someone outside their line: "This order is not yours to decide — it belongs to another manager's team."
The CEO is a manager, not an administrator. They decide on their own reporting line, which for the top of the company is most of it. Only an administrator sees every approval in the business.
Who is asked
When you submit something, SalesYatra emails the person who will decide it and puts it in their bell. To find them, it climbs your reporting line from you upwards and stops at the first person who can actually decide:
- someone in a manager role (ASM and above), so an Assistant Territory Manager is passed over,
- who is active,
- and has an email address.
If it reaches the top of the line without finding anyone, the ask goes to every administrator instead. Your record never sits in a queue that nobody was asked to open.
The final approval for orders and requests always goes to the administrators as a group. Any of them can give it, and the first who does closes it for the rest.
Your queue holds more than your inbox
The email goes to one manager, but a manager's Approvals queue lists everything from anyone below them that is waiting at that step. A DGM therefore also sees the orders waiting on the ASMs below them, and can decide them. Whoever acts first decides the record, and the ask closes for everyone who was sent it.
What the person who submits sees
At the foot of the sidebar, under your name and role, a line tells you who your submissions go to:
| The line says | What it means |
|---|---|
| Approvals go to and a name | That manager is asked to decide your orders, requests and plans. |
| Approvals go to the administrators | Nobody up your line can decide, so your records go to the administrators. With only one administrator, the line gives their name. |
| You approve your own records. | You are an administrator with nobody else to ask. |
| No approver is set — ask your administrator. | Nobody can be reached. Ask an administrator before you submit anything. |
The name is the person SalesYatra actually asks, not simply whoever you report to. If your manager has left, or has no email, the line names whoever is next. An order's page also shows Waiting on with the approver's names while it waits for the manager, and an administrator while it waits for the final approval.
When there is no manager
Your records go to the administrators whenever the reporting line doesn't reach a manager who can decide. This happens when:
- nobody is set under Reports to on your employee record,
- nobody up your line is in a manager role (ASM and above),
- every manager up your line has left and been made inactive, or has no email address.
If only your own manager is missing, the ask simply goes to the next manager above them.
Nothing gets stuck: an administrator can decide any record. To route your approvals to the right manager, an administrator sets Reports to on your record in Executives.
If the line under your name doesn't name the manager you expect, ask an administrator to check Reports to on your record before you submit. It is quicker than chasing an order that went to someone else.
Where approvers act
On the portal
Approvals is in the sidebar for managers and administrators. It lists everything your team has raised that is waiting on you, one tab per step:
| Tab | What waits there |
|---|---|
| Pending review | Requests waiting for the manager to validate them |
| Requests to approve | Requests the manager has validated, waiting for an administrator (administrators only) |
| To ship / conduct | Approved requests waiting to be shipped, and workshops waiting to be held |
| Partially shipped | Stock and sampling requests with books still to follow |
| Orders | Orders waiting for the manager's approval |
| Orders to approve | Orders the manager has approved, waiting for an administrator (administrators only) |
| To assign | Approved orders with nobody named to pack them, from the older one-signature flow |
| Travel plans | Plans waiting for approval of the trip, or validation of the days |
A manager doesn't see the administrators' two tabs, because nothing in them is theirs to decide. There is no tab for dispatched orders: the dispatch is an order's last step, and nobody signs it off. See Approvals for the screen itself.
On the Android app
The Approvals tab has Orders, To approve (administrators only) and Plans. Requests are decided on the portal. Someone who approves nothing sees Nothing comes to you for approval. See Approvals on the app.
From an email
Every approval email carries one link. On an Android phone with the SalesYatra app, it opens the app on that record. Otherwise it opens the portal's Approvals page on the right tab, with the record open.
Links outlive the decision. If the record has already been decided, or someone else's queue holds it, the page says That item is no longer waiting on you — it may already have been decided, or it belongs to another queue. Everything still pending is listed below the notice.
What each signature decides
| Step | The signer | Their buttons | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order, first signature | Manager | Approve (with Packed by), Reject | Goes to the administrators to approve |
| Order, final approval | Administrator | Approve (Approve order on the order's page), Reject | Released to the dispatch employee; a typed billing name joins the dealer list |
| Request, first signature | Manager | Validate (with Packed by for stock and sampling), Reject | Goes to the administrators to approve |
| Request, final approval | Administrator | Approve, Reject | A stock or sampling request goes to the dispatch employee; a workshop waits to be held |
| Travel plan, first signature | Manager | Approve, Decline | The rep can fill in the days and claims |
| Travel plan, second signature | Manager | Validate, Reject | Validated is final; rejected opens the days and claims again for the rep to resend |
Each decision takes an optional note, and the person who submitted the record is told the outcome, with the note. A declined travel plan is final: raise a new one if the trip is still needed.
Visits are read, not approved
There is no visit approval queue. A visit is logged when its report is written, and the rep can keep correcting it.
Managers read their team's visits under Visits → My team, and can add a Manager comment to any visit from their own reporting line. Old emailed links from when visits were approved now open the visit itself. See Visits.
Dispatches are not signed off
The warehouse's dispatch is an order's last step. It raises the invoice and ends the order as DISPATCHED, with nothing left for a manager to sign. Old dispatch sign-off links in emails and the bell now open the order itself. See Order lifecycle.
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