Overview

When an organisation user submits a New Vendor Request, the request enters an approval workflow and each assigned approver must review and action the request before the vendor invitation can be sent. This article explains how approvers access pending vendor requests, review the submitted business details and custom questions, and use the Approve request, Decline request, or Approve/Decline on behalf actions to progress or conclude the approval workflow.

Who this article is for: This article is for users who have been assigned as approvers in a New Vendor Request approval workflow, and for users who have the Action on behalf of permission to approve or decline on behalf of other approvers.

 

Prerequisites & Permissions

The New Vendor Request approval experience presents approvers with a read-only view of all information submitted by the requester — including vendor business details, custom section responses, and the approval chain — alongside action buttons for approving or declining the request. Each approver can only action the request when it is their active turn in the approval chain. Approvers at the same approval level share an active turn simultaneously.

Before accessing the approver experience, confirm the following:

• You have been assigned as an approver in a New Vendor Request approval workflow, or you have the Action on behalf of permission in your security group.
• The New Vendor Request Approval feature and the Approval Workflows feature are both enabled for your organisation.
• You have received an Approval required notification email indicating it is your turn to action a vendor request. The notification email contains a link to the approval page.

 

Step 1: Access the Vendor Request Approval Page

1. Open the Approval required notification email you received from Felix and click the link provided. The link directs you to the approval page for that specific vendor request.
2. Alternatively, navigate to My Tasks > Approval Instances in the main navigation. The approval instance for the New Vendor Request is listed in the Approval Instances table with a type of New vendor request and a status of Pending. Click the approval instance reference to open the approval page.

 

 

Step 2: Review the Approval Sidebar

The approval page includes a sidebar panel displaying key information about the approval instance. Review the sidebar before taking any action:

• Status — The current status of the approval instance (e.g. Pending, Declined, Sent).
• Requested by — The name of the user who submitted the New Vendor Request.
• Date submitted — The date and time the request was submitted.
• Key actions — Contextual links from the sidebar, such as a link to view the vendor profile if one already exists.

 

 

Step 3: Review the Business Details Section

The Business Details section of the approval page displays the vendor information submitted by the requester in read-only format. This section shows the following fields (where provided):

• Email address — The vendor's contact email address submitted by the requester. This email address will be used to send the invitation to the vendor.
• Operating country — The vendor's primary country of operation.
• Business number — The vendor's business registration number (e.g. ABN for Australian vendors). If the requester submitted the request without a business number (using the Optional Business Number setting), the Business Details section displays an empty state for the business number field.
• Business name — The vendor's registered business name.
• Entity name — The entity name may be populated from the ABR or from the vendor's profile if the vendor is already registered on Felix.

IMPORTANT: In some cases, the approval page may display an error state in the Business Details section that prevents the approval from proceeding. This occurs when the vendor's contact email has become occupied by an incompatible user type since the request was submitted, or when the vendor's ABN has become inactive (cancelled) since submission. When a hard error state is active, the Approve request button is permanently disabled with a tooltip explaining that the request cannot be approved. The Decline request button remains active so the request can be concluded. If you encounter an error, decline the request and ask the requester to raise a new vendor request with a valid email address or business number.

 

Step 4: Review Custom Sections and Questions

If the approval template associated with the approval instance includes custom sections and questions, those sections appear below the Business Details section in read-only format. Each custom section displays:

• The section name and any section description.
• Each question in the section, with the requester's response displayed below the question label.
• If guide text is available, a link to expand it for more context about the question. Guide text is shared between requesters and approvers.

Review all custom section responses to inform your approval decision.

 

Step 5: Review the Approval Details Section

The Approval Details section displays a read-only table of all approvers in the approval chain for this vendor request. The table shows:

• Approver name — The name of each approver.
• Approval group and route — The approval group and route assigned to this instance.
• Level — The approval level (position in the chain) for each approver.
• Status — The action status for each approver's turn (e.g. Pending, Approved, Declined, or the name of the user who approved on behalf).

 

 

Step 6: Populate Invitation Details (if required)

Depending on your organisation's configuration and your role in the approval chain, one or more approvers may be required to assign invitation details before the final approval can proceed. This section — labelled Invitation details or similar — may include the following fields:

• Panel — Select the panel (category grouping) to assign to the vendor.
• Sign-off template — Select the sign-off template to include with the vendor invitation. This may be required based on your panel configuration.
• Tags — Optionally add tags to the vendor.

A panel and sign-off template (if required) must be assigned before the final approver can send the vendor invitation. Any approver in the chain can populate the Invitation details section — the final approver does not need to be the one who sets these values.

 

Step 7: Action the Vendor Request

Depending on your role and turn status in the approval chain, you will see different action buttons at the bottom of the approval page.

 

Understanding Button Visibility

Your situation	Buttons shown
You are an approver on the chain and it is your active turn	Active Approve request and Decline request buttons
You are an approver on the chain but your turn is queued (prior approvers have not yet actioned)	Inactive Approve request and Decline request buttons with a tooltip explaining it is not yet your turn
You have the Action on behalf of permission and another approver's turn is active	Active Approve on behalf and Decline on behalf buttons
You have both a queued approver turn and the Action on behalf of permission	Active Approve on behalf and Decline on behalf buttons (for the approver whose turn is currently active — you cannot action your own queued turn)
The approval instance has concluded (approved and sent, or declined) or you have already actioned your turn	No action buttons shown
A hard error state exists (see Step 3)	Active Decline request button only; Approve request button is permanently disabled

 

Approving the Request (Non-Final Approval Step)

1. When the Approve request button is active and it is your turn, click Approve request.
2. A confirmation modal appears. Optionally, enter a comment in the comment field (comments are optional for approval actions).
3. Click Confirm in the modal to complete the approval action.
4. Your turn status moves to Approved and your comment (if provided) is saved and visible in the approval chain table.
5. A success toast notification is displayed confirming your approval.
6. The next approver(s) in the approval chain receive an Approval required notification email.

 

Approving at the Final Approval Step (Sending the Vendor Invitation)

1. If you are the designated final approver, confirm that all required invitation details — including Panel and Sign-off template, if required — have been populated in the Invitation Details section. The vendor invitation cannot be sent until these required details are assigned.
2. Click Approve request.
3. A confirmation modal appears. Optionally, enter a comment.
4. Click Confirm in the modal to approve the request and send the vendor invitation.
5. A success toast notification appears confirming that the invitation has been sent.
6. The approval action is recorded, the approval instance status updates to Sent (Approved and sent), and the vendor invitation email is sent to the vendor's contact email address. The requester also receives a confirmation email informing them that their vendor request has been approved and the invitation has been sent.
7. You can then use the View vendor profile button in the sidebar to open the newly created vendor profile.

 

Declining the Request

1. When the Decline request button is active and it is your turn (or a hard error state is active), click Decline request.
2. A confirmation modal appears. Enter a decline reason in the mandatory reason field. The decline reason is mandatory and cannot be left blank.
3. Click Confirm in the modal to complete the decline action.
4. Your turn status moves to Declined. The decline reason is saved and visible in the approval chain table.
5. The entire approval instance moves to a status of Declined. Any single decline action concludes the entire workflow — the remaining approvers in the chain do not need to take any further action.
6. A success toast notification is displayed confirming the decline.
7. The original requester receives a Request declined notification email containing the decline reason.

 

 

Approving or Declining on Behalf of Another Approver

Users with the Action on behalf of permission can approve or decline on behalf of an approver whose turn is currently active. This is used when an approver is unavailable or when the approval is stalled because an active-turn approver is inactive or deleted.

1. Click Approve on behalf or Decline on behalf.
2. An on-behalf modal appears. If multiple approvers share the active turn at the same level, select the specific approver you are acting for from the approver selector in the modal.
3. Enter a mandatory reason explaining why you are acting on behalf of the selected approver. The reason field is mandatory and cannot be left blank.
4. Click Confirm in the modal.
5. The selected approver's turn status is updated (to Approved or Declined), and the on-behalf action is recorded as "Approved by [your name]" or "Declined by [your name]" alongside the reason in the approval chain table.
6. A success toast notification is displayed.
7. For Approve on behalf actions: The next approver(s) in the chain receive an Approval required notification email. The original approver receives a notification informing them that their turn was actioned on their behalf.
8. For Decline on behalf actions: The entire approval instance moves to Declined. The original approver and the requester each receive a notification email.

 

Troubleshooting

Issue	Likely cause	Resolution
The Approve request and Decline request buttons do not appear on the approval page	The New Vendor Request Approval or Approval Workflows feature switch has been turned off, or the approval instance has already concluded	Check the approval instance status in the approval sidebar. If the instance has concluded, no further action is needed. If the buttons are missing on a live instance, contact your Felix administrator to confirm the feature switch is enabled
The Approve request button is disabled with a tooltip	Either it is not yet your turn in the approval chain (your turn is queued), or a hard error state exists (email address or ABN is no longer valid)	If it is not your turn, wait for the prior approver(s) to complete their action. If a hard error state is indicated in the Business Details section, decline the request and advise the requester to resubmit with a valid email address or business number
The Confirm button in the Decline modal is not active after entering a reason	The reason field may contain only whitespace, or a system validation error is present	Ensure the decline reason field contains substantive text (not just spaces). If the issue persists, refresh the page and try again
The approval is stalled — the active-turn approver is no longer available	The approver whose turn is active has been deactivated or deleted	A user with the Action on behalf of permission can use the Approve on behalf or Decline on behalf buttons to unblock the workflow
The Approve on behalf or Decline on behalf buttons do not appear	Your security group does not include the Action on behalf of permission, or there are no approvers with an active turn at this time	Contact your organisation administrator to confirm whether the Action on behalf of permission has been assigned to your security group

 

Related Resources

• How to Submit a New Vendor Request
• How to Track the Progress of a New Vendor Request
• How to Configure the New Vendor Request Approval Feature (Administrator Guide)
• Sourcing Approvals vs New Vendor Request Approvals: What's the Difference?
• How to Create and Modify Approval Workflows