> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://hub.equipme.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://hub.equipme.io/classes/administrative-functions/approve-requests/simple-approval.md).
# Simple Approval
Simple Approval gives companies a structured approval step for marketplace and self service requests without requiring a custom workflow.
Many organizations want requests to be checked before they can become orders. In some cases, this approval should come from a supervisor. In others, it should come from a department manager, location manager, or cost center manager.
Simple Approval covers these common approval cases with predefined approval types that can be activated directly in equipme.
### How Simple Approval works
When Simple Approval is active, new marketplace and self service requests are routed through a predefined approval step.
equipme creates an approval request and makes it available to the responsible approver or approvers. They can review the request and decide whether it should be approved or rejected.
If the request is approved, it moves into the approved order requests. From there, it can be processed and ordered.
If the request is rejected, it is discarded and does not move forward into ordering.
### Available approval types
Simple Approval supports predefined approval types that follow common company responsibilities.
Admins can currently choose from the following options:
**Supervisor Approval**
**Department Manager Approval**
**Location Manager Approval**
**Cost Center Manager Approval**
The selected approval type defines who is responsible for approving incoming requests.
### Approval based on company structure
Simple Approval uses existing responsibilities in equipme to find the right approvers.
For example, if Department Manager Approval is active, equipme checks the requester’s department and routes the approval request to the responsible department manager or managers.
The same principle applies to supervisor, location manager, and cost center manager approval.
This keeps the setup simple. Admins do not need to build a workflow or define each approval route manually. The approval responsibility comes from the structure already maintained in equipme.
### Multiple approvers for one request
In some cases, more than one person can be responsible for the same approval level.
For example, a department can have more than one department manager. In that case, equipme creates one shared approval request and makes it available to the responsible managers.
This does not create separate approval requests for each manager. There is one approval request that can be handled by the responsible approvers.
Once one approver approves or rejects the request, the approval request is resolved.
### Approval on the same level
Simple Approval also includes a setting for approval on the same level.
This setting controls what happens when the requester is also part of the responsible approval group.
By default, if a person would effectively approve their own request, equipme does not create an extra approval step. The request is approved automatically because self approval would not add meaningful control.
If approval on the same level is required, the request can still be routed to other responsible approvers on the same level. This can be useful for larger organizations where several managers share the same responsibility and one manager’s own request should still be reviewed by another manager.
### Approved and pending requests
The order request area separates approved requests from requests that are still waiting for approval.
Pending approvals are requests that still need a decision before they can move forward in the standard ordering process.
Approved requests have already passed the required approval step and can continue in the order process.
This separation helps teams understand which requests are ready to move forward and which ones still require action.
### Notifications
Approvers receive a notification when a request needs their approval.
The requester receives a notification once the request has been approved or rejected.
If more than one approver is assigned to the same request, the request is resolved as soon as one approver makes a decision.
### When Simple Approval is the right choice
Simple Approval is a good fit when your organization needs a clear approval responsibility, but does not need a fully custom approval workflow.
It works well when requests should be checked by a specific role, such as a supervisor, department manager, location manager, or cost center manager.
For more advanced approval rules, such as approval based on specific services, budgets, or other custom conditions, Custom Approval may be the better option.
### Simple Approval compared to other approval modes
equipme supports different approval modes for different levels of control.
Automatic Approval approves requests without a manual approval step.
Simple Approval adds a predefined approval step based on a selected responsibility.
Custom Approval uses workflows for more advanced approval processes.
If your company needs a simple and structured approval step before requests can be ordered, Simple Approval is the right setup.
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