An approval workflow defines the approvers of a contract, and the approval process it has to go through. You can create multiple approval workflows and choose a workflow for each contract type. 

There are two types of approval workflows. 

• Sequential
  
• Parallel
  

Parallel Workflow: In a parallel approval workflow, the approval request is sent to all the approvers simultaneously. The contract only moves to the Approved state after all the approvers approve the contract. 

Note: 

• It is not mandatory to have an approval workflow for every contract type. 
  
• Contract owners can send the contracts directly for negotiation after completing the draft if no approval workflow is associated.
  
• In parallel workflow, a contract does not move to the draft state after one of the approvers reject the contract. It only does so after all the approvers complete their review. 
  

To learn more about the approval process in Zoho Contracts, see Approval Overview. 

Create a Parallel Workflow

1. Select the Admin tab at the top of the page. 
   
2. Select Approval Workflows from the left panel. 
   
3. Click New Approval Workflow at the top-right of the Approval Workflows page. 
   
4. Enter the Workflow Name and Description in the New Approval Workflow page. 
   
5. Choose Parallel from the Approval Type section. 
   
6. Click  in the Approvers section.
   
7. Select the approvers, then click Add.
   
8. Click Save at the top-right.  
   

You can find the newly added workflow in the Approval Workflows list page. To learn how to associate the workflow with a contract type, see Managing Contract Types. 

Create a Sequential Workflow

1. Select the Admin tab at the top of the page. 
   
2. Select Approval Workflows from the left panel. 
   
3. Click New Approval Workflow at the top-right of the Approval Workflows page. 
   
4. Enter the Workflow Name and Description in the New Approval Workflow page. 
   
5. Choose Sequential from the Approval Type section. 
   
6. Click  in the Approvers section.
   
7. Select the approvers for the respective level, then click Add. 
   
8. Click Add Next Level to add another level. 
   
9. Repeat steps 6 and 7 to add approvers to the new level. 
   
10. Click Save at the top-right corner after adding all the approvers.
    

You can find the newly added workflow in the Approval Workflows list page. To learn how to associate the workflow with a contract type, see Managing Contract Types. 

View Approval Workflow Details

1. Select the Admin tab at the top of the page. 
   
2. Select Approval Workflows from the left panel. 
   
3. In the Approval Workflows page, click the name of the approval workflow whose details you want to view.
   

Associate an Approval Workflow with a Contract Type

1. Select the Admin tab at the top of the page. 
   
2. Select Contract Types from the left panel. 
   
3. Click to open the contract type with which you want to associate the approval workflow. 
   
4. Click Edit  under Approval Workflow in the Contract Type Details panel on the right. 
   
5. Choose the approval workflow from the picklist field, and then click Update. 
   

Tip: You can also associate an approval workflow to a contract type at the time of contract type creation. To learn more, see Creating Contract Types and Building Templates. 

Note: Suppose the contract type had a different approval workflow before you edited and associated the new workflow. In that case, contracts with this contract type in the pending approval state will follow the old workflow until they complete the current approval cycle.