Workflow Builder: Setting up Approve & Sign step with email notifications and PDF delivery

Hello,

I hope you are well. I am trying to set up a workflow that actually functions as intended for my "Whitefield Academy Missing Receipt" Form. Once the form is submitted, I need it to go to the "Supervisor Email" from the form. That recipient needs to either "Approve" or "Deny" the form. Regardless of the selected outcome, the "Employee Email" from the form needs to receive a PDF copy of the completed form with the "approve" or "deny" status.

Here are the instructions I am giving the AI.

Create a workflow for a Missing Receipt Form with the following requirements:

1. Trigger:

• The workflow starts when the form is submitted.

1. Approval Step:

• Add an “Approve & Sign” step.
• Route the approval request to the email address in the field labeled “Supervisor Email”.
• Require the supervisor to review the submission and choose either Approve or Deny.
• Require supervisor signature as part of the approval step.

1. After Approval Step:

• Do NOT create branching or conditional logic in the workflow canvas.
• Do NOT use conditional branches or approval status conditions.

1. Email Delivery:

• Configure the Approve & Sign element to send a notification email to the employee after the approval process is completed.
• The email recipient must be the “Employee Email” field.
• Attach the generated PDF of the completed form to the email.

1. Rejection Handling:

• If the submission is denied, send a notification email to the employee informing them the form was not approved.
• This notification must also be configured within the Approve & Sign element settings (not as a separate workflow step).

1. Output Requirement:

• The final approved submission must generate a PDF that includes:
• Employee details
• Transaction details
• Employee signature
• Supervisor approval and signature
• The employee receives the final PDF for upload to the Truist Enterprise Spend Platform.

1. Constraints:

• Do not use Workflow Builder conditional branches.
• Do not use separate approval routing elements.
• Do not require external document signing tools (such as Jotform Sign).
• All approval logic must remain inside the Approve & Sign element configuration.

What am I doing wrong? I am uploading a screenshot of the workflow I am working on and a link to the form. Thank you for your help.

Hi Whitefield_Academy,

Thanks for reaching out to Jotform Support. I'm an AI assistant here to assist you.

You are very close, but the workflow needs to be set up with the right element settings. Based on the available information, the Approve & Sign element can require a signature, and its settings can be configured for approvers and notification emails.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Add an Approve & Sign element in Workflow Builder.
2. Open the element’s gear icon to view its properties.
3. Set the approver email under Signers by selecting the form field mapping option and choosing Supervisor Email.
4. Choose the outcomes that require a signature so the supervisor must sign when approving or denying.
5. Open Notification Emails in the element properties and use Edit to customize the email sent after the approval task is completed.
6. Select the Employee Email field as the recipient for that email.
7. Enable Attach PDF in the email or workflow email advanced settings so the completed submission is sent as a PDF attachment.

The information available also confirms that:

• Approve & Sign supports requiring a signature for approvers.
• Approval elements let you define Approve and Deny outcomes.
• Email elements can send a PDF copy of the submission as an attachment.

If your current setup is using separate branching or extra routing elements, that is likely where the workflow is going off track. The available information does not confirm a way to keep all approval logic, outcome handling, and employee PDF delivery entirely inside one Approve & Sign configuration without using workflow routing.

I don't know this information and our support team will handle your request.

Reach out again if you need any other help.

Hi Whitefield_Academy,

I checked the workflow you shared, and the setup is very close. The main thing to keep in mind is that the Approve & Sign element handles the supervisor’s decision, while the approved and denied notifications are sent through separate Email elements connected to each outcome. Here’s how you can set it up:

1. In Workflow Builder, add an Approve & Sign element under your starting form.

2. Open the Approve and Sign Properties by clicking on the Gear icon.

3. Now, click on the Field menu.

4. Select the Supervisor Email.

5. From the Approve outcome, add an Email element from the left-side panel.

6. Click on the Envelope icon to open the Settings and then set the recipient to Employee Email.

7. In the Advanced tab, attach the PDF so the employee receives a copy of the completed form with the approval result. Finally, click on the Save button.

8. From the Deny outcome, repeat steps 5 through 7 so the employee also receives the denied result by email.

This setup should allow the supervisor to approve or deny the request, while the employee receives the correct email based on the selected outcome.

Give it a try and let us know if you need any help.

I think I have it working, but it requires the "supervisor email" to log in to complete the approval. We do not want people to have to create an account. Can that be fixed?

Hi Whitefield_Academy,

Yes, you can disable that requirement. Here's how to do so.

• Open up the workflow.
• Click the gear icon next to the approval step.
• Go down to "Require Login for Approver" and toggle the setting off.

Hope that all makes sense! Let us know if you have any questions.

It does make sense, and I am not requiring a signature in the settings, but it is still asking people to login.

Hi Whitefield_Academy,

When I checked your approval notification email, I noticed it doesn’t include Approve or Deny buttons, only the Go to Inbox button is available. Take a look at the screenshot below:

When the user clicks the Go to Inbox button, they’re redirected to the Jotform Inbox, which they don’t have access to. That’s why they’re prompted to log in to their Jotform account. To fix this, you’ll need to configure the Approve and Deny buttons directly in your approval notification email content. Let me show you how:

1. In Workflow Builder, select the Approval element and click on the Gear icon.
2. Then, click on the Edit Email button in the Notification Emails and put your mouse cursor beside the Go to Inbox button.
3. Finally, click on the Eye icon in the navigation bar, select the Approve and Deny option in the Show/Hide Task Actions menu and click on the Save button.

Take a look at the screencast of the result below:

That’s it. Let us know if you have any other questions.

That worked! Thank you so much!

All the best,

Hi Whitefield Academy,

Your request has been answered and the thread is closed.

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