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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aptlydone.com/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

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Overview

Actions are Aptly’s workflow engine. They represent work to be done on a record (Decision, Delegation, Document, Matrix, or a generic task) and they power system-driven steps such as Delegation Requests, Approvals, Change Approval, Acceptance, Role Acknowledgements, and Document Oversight. Admins can also define custom Action Types, reusable Action Templates for recurring tasks (e.g., annual authority acknowledgements, matrix approval cycles), and — for tenants requiring extension beyond the baseline — leverage Aptly’s custom workflow builder for bespoke triggers, schedules, and integrations with external systems.

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⚡ When Actions Are Generated

Actions may be system-generated (when enabled in System Settings) or manually created by authorized users.

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System-generated workflows

  • Delegation Requests — Users request authority from a Decision or Delegation; an Action routes to the Decision Owner/Creator (from a Decision) or to the selected party — Issuer, Recipient, or both — on a Delegation.
  • Delegation Approvals — Newly issued delegations can require approval before they become operational; an Approval Action is assigned to all eligible approvers (see Approver Eligibility below).
  • Change Approval — When enabled, substantive edits to an already-Issued delegation also generate an Approval Action; the delegation remains Issued with a Pending Re-approval indicator while the change is reviewed.
  • Delegation Acceptance — When enabled, recipients must Accept or Reject an issued delegation; an Acceptance Action is assigned to each recipient.
  • Role Acknowledgement — When Roles (e.g., Consulted, Informed, Co-Signer) are used on Decisions or Delegations, an Acknowledgement Action prompts the assignee to confirm their role.
  • Document Oversight
    • Generate Approval Action — creates an approval task for the document’s Approver(s) when a document is published or re-edited.
    • Generate Review Action — creates initial or periodic review tasks for the document’s Reviewer(s).
See Delegation Approvals & Logic for the full approval and change-approval flow, including how the Pending Re-approval state preserves authority continuity during review.

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Manual workflows

Authorized users can create ad-hoc Actions (e.g., “Confirm signatory list for EMEA subsidiaries”) with custom titles, descriptions, types, due dates, and assignees — or use Action Templates to prefill standardized title, description, type, priority, and due-date rules.

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📋 Action Anatomy

Each Action includes:
  • Title & Description — clear, outcome-oriented text. Templates can prefill standard language.
  • Linked Record (optional) — Decision, Delegation, Document, or Matrix; or leave unlinked for generic tasks.
  • Type — category, e.g., Approval, Review, Acknowledgement, Task (customizable; see Action Types below).
  • Status — To Do, In Progress, Overdue, Complete, Cancelled (system may auto-set Overdue).
  • Priority — Low, Medium, High (optional).
  • Owner — the user who created or owns the action.
  • Assignee(s) — the user or users responsible for completing it. Some flows assign multiple users (e.g., multi-recipient acceptance, eligible approvers).
  • Due date — optional; can be set by template or system rules (e.g., “7 days to accept”).
  • Audit trail — timestamps, status changes, and completion details captured for every Action.
Notifications for creation, assignment, due-soon, and overdue events are governed by tenant notification settings and individual user preferences. See Notifications on the System Settings page for tenant-level configuration.

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👥 Approver Eligibility (Delegation Approvals)

When a delegation requires approval — at original issuance or on a substantive change — Aptly assigns the Approval Action to all eligible approvers based on each user’s role permission for Approve Delegation and their group scope:
  • Approve Delegation = All — eligible to approve any delegation in the tenant.
  • Approve Delegation = Groups — eligible only when their assigned Groups overlap with the delegation’s assigned Groups (parent groups inherit their child group assignments).
The first eligible approver to act completes the action for all assignees.

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Issuer guardrail

A designated approver cannot approve a delegation on which they are also the Issuer, even if they otherwise qualify. This safeguards segregation of duties.
Exception: When the Root Authority option is used to issue a Root Delegation, the approval action is assigned to all eligible approvers per the standard permission model — including the user who created the Root Delegation — because Root Authority delegations originate from the system itself rather than from another delegation in a chain.
Group membership, role changes, or group hierarchy edits may change a user’s eligibility over time. Aptly verifies eligibility at action time to ensure only currently eligible approvers can complete an approval.
See Delegation Approvals & Logic for the full approver assignment model.

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🔒 Permissions & Access

  • Create / Edit / Delete — governed by create_actions, edit_actions, delete_actions.
  • Owner / Assignee variants — owners and assignees may have additional, record-scoped powers (e.g., delete_owner_actions, delete_assignee_actions).
  • Group scope — role permissions can be tenant-wide or group-scoped (e.g., only see/manage Actions tied to assigned groups).
  • Record capacities — for Actions linked to Decisions, Delegations, Documents, or Matrices, the user’s capacity on the record (Owner / Issuer / Recipient / Approver / Reviewer / Responsible / Shared user/group) can unlock or restrict what they can do.
See Roles & Permissions for the full permission model.

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🏷 Action Types

Action Types categorize actions (e.g., Approval, Review, Acknowledgement, Task).
  • System default types are fixed and cannot be edited or disabled.
  • Admins can add custom types to match the organization’s workflow vocabulary (e.g., Payment Approvals, Authority Assertion, Vendor Review).
  • Types appear in filters, reports, and templates.

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📄 Action Templates

Use templates to standardize recurring work and reduce setup time for common tasks.

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What templates can set

  • Type (e.g., Annual Authority Acknowledgement, Matrix Approval Cycle)
  • Title & Description — with reusable, standardized phrasing
  • Relative due-date rules (e.g., “Due 30 days after creation”)
  • Priority
  • Default assignee or assignment rules (optional)

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Where templates are used

  • Manual creation dialog — choose a template when creating a new Action
  • Automated routines — scheduled tasks generated via internal automation or integration
System templates (used by system-generated workflows like Delegation Approval and Document Review) cannot be disabled; admins can edit their description text but not the underlying type or trigger behavior.

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🔄 Status Lifecycle

Typical Action transitions:
  • To Do → In Progress → Complete
  • To Do / In Progress → Overdue (auto-set when past the due date)
  • Any active → Cancelled (with reason captured)
System jobs evaluate due dates daily to mark tasks Overdue. Notification preferences govern reminders for due-soon and overdue events.

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📦 Bulk Operations

Authorized users can perform bulk updates on Actions (subject to permissions):
  • Reassign multiple actions (e.g., team reorganization)
  • Update status (e.g., close a completed batch)
  • Cancel or duplicate groups of actions
  • Search & filter by type, status, assignee, due date, linked record, and group

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🛠 Custom Workflow Builder

Aptly’s standard system-generated and manual workflows cover the most common governance patterns out of the box. For organizations that need to extend Aptly with logic beyond the baseline configurable settings — bespoke event triggers, scheduled automations, or integrations with internal systems — Aptly offers a custom workflow builder as a fully supported, native platform capability. The custom workflow builder is available per tenant when custom workflow capabilities are required, and is generally included with the Enterprise subscription tier. Tenants on other tiers can engage with the Aptly account team to discuss enablement options.

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What you can build

  • Event-driven workflows — Trigger custom logic on Aptly events such as a new delegation issued, a status change, a document published, or a user added.
  • Scheduled workflows — Run automated routines on a recurring cadence (daily, weekly, monthly, custom).
  • Webhook-triggered workflows — Initiate workflows from events in external systems.
  • Data integration & transformation — Sync data into and out of Aptly with external systems (HRIS, ERP, identity providers, partner platforms), with configurable field mappings, normalization, concatenation, splitting, and conditional logic.
  • Reusable templates — Build workflows from reusable templates customized via configuration variables, or design from scratch.
  • Logging & monitoring — Workflow execution history, error tracking, and operational alerts.

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When to use the custom workflow builder

The standard Action Settings cover most governance workflows — delegation requests, approvals, change approvals, acceptance, role acknowledgements, document oversight, and recurring task templates. The custom workflow builder is appropriate when:
  • Bespoke synchronization with internal systems is required beyond standard integrations
  • A workflow must fire on a schedule rather than a system event
  • Logic must respond to webhook events from external platforms
  • Multi-step orchestration involving Aptly + external systems is needed
  • Data transformations or routing rules go beyond the baseline configurable settings
To discuss your custom workflow requirements and confirm enablement on your tenant, contact support@aptlydone.com or visit the Aptly Support Portal.

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💡 Best Practices

  • Template everything recurring — approvals calendars, annual attestations, quarterly signatory reviews, matrix attestations.
  • Keep types meaningful — short labels that make dashboards and reports self-explanatory.
  • Use due-date rules — give recipients clear SLA windows (e.g., 7 or 15 days).
  • Leverage group scope — limit noise; route work to the right region, entity, or department.
  • Tie actions to records — link to Decisions, Delegations, Documents, or Matrices for full context and audit traceability.
  • Use the custom workflow builder for true extension cases — keep configurable system settings for everything they cover; use custom workflows when logic must reach beyond the baseline.

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🧭 Related Pages

Need help designing workflows, configuring approvals, or scoping a custom workflow build for your tenant? Contact support@aptlydone.com or visit the Aptly Support Portal.