Internal Flows allow Community Owners to create customizable approval workflows for Parent Specifications within their community. These workflows provide a structured process for reviewing and approving Parent Specifications before they are assigned to supplier or internal locations for acknowledgment.
Every community includes a default Internal Flow, but you can also create custom flows with additional approval steps to align with your organization's internal review process.
Setup an Internal Flow
-
Navigate to the Specification Admin area — hover over Specifications in the left nav, click the cog wheel icon
Select Internal Flows in the top ribbon
Click Add Internal Flow (blue button, upper right)
When you create a new flow, three default steps are added automatically:
Awaiting Approval (first step — cannot be deleted; this is where specs start when created)
Approved
Rejected
Configure the Internal Approval Flow
For each step, you define:
Step name — editable (rename to match your process)
Who gets notified — select the user role(s) that should receive a notification to review
Who can transition — which role(s) can move the spec out of that step
Transition buttons — what the button labels say (e.g., "Approve", "Send Back")
Next step — which step the button points to
You can also add additional steps beyond the three defaults via the "Add Step" functionality.
Click Save when your flow is complete.
Important
Notification emails are only sent when a Parent Specification transitions from one approval step to the next. When a new Parent Specification is created, it is placed directly into the first approval step (Awaiting Approval), so no notification is sent. The first notification is triggered only after a user moves the specification to the next step using the Actions menu.