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Collaboration & approvals

Internal approvals with checkpoints

Require approval from colleagues or teams before a document goes to the other party or to signing.

Written By Sebastian

Last updated About 9 hours ago

Checkpoints are fynk's approval workflow. A document can't move to the next stage until the right people have approved it, and every decision is recorded in the document history.

Available on Essential, Business and Pro · Checkpoints are set up in templates

Set up checkpoints in a template

  1. Open the template and go to the Checkpoints tab (flag icon) in the right-hand panel.
  2. Click Add checkpoint and choose when it applies:
    • Before review: before the document is shared with the other party
    • Before signing: before signing can start
  3. Add the approvers: individual users or a whole team.
  4. If there are several approvers, choose whether one, two or all of them must approve.
  5. Add more steps if approvals should happen one after another, for example first Legal, then the Managing Director. You can reorder steps later.
  6. Click Close and publish the template.

Every document created from this template gets these checkpoints.

How approval works

  1. When someone tries to move the document to the next stage, fynk asks them to start the checkpoint.
  2. The approvers of the first step get an email and a task. Reminders are sent every two days until they decide.
  3. Each approver opens the document and clicks Approve or Reject.
  4. When a step is approved, the next step starts. When the last step is approved, the document moves on.
  5. If anyone rejects, the whole checkpoint is cancelled and the document stays in its stage. Make the changes and start the checkpoint again.

External parties can still read and comment during a checkpoint, but they can't start signing. They can mark the document as ready for signing to let you know.

Checkpoints for uploaded PDFs

To get approval for a PDF you want to have signed, choose a template with checkpoints when you upload it with Sign document. The template can be empty apart from its checkpoints.

Good to know

  • Approvals can't be added to a single document on the fly. For a quick informal OK, mention a colleague in an internal comment.
  • A running checkpoint can't be edited, and approvers can't be replaced. If an approver is away, cancel the checkpoint, adjust it if your role allows, and start again. [CHECK]
  • Approvals can't depend on values automatically, for example only above €50,000. Use separate templates, or a playbook to flag such documents. See Review contracts with playbooks.
  • To make sure every document goes through approval, require a template for every document under Account Settings → Document workflow. See Document workflow settings.
  • Approvals and rejections are recorded in the activity feed.
  • One template can have checkpoints both before review and before signing.
  • You can also add a checkpoint to a playbook, in the playbook's Approvals tab. Documents the playbook runs on then need approval. See Review contracts with playbooks.
  • Open checkpoints are shown on the document's Checkpoints tab (flag icon), with the steps, the approvers and the stage each checkpoint comes before.

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