Approvals workflow with view-only seats for form submitters

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1

Hello

We have an enterprise license with 30 seats for the creative team. We need to be able to take creative work requests from the full organisation via a form submission. The form submitters will only have view-only seats due to cost.

When a view-only person submits a form and a task is created, they are able to add comments to that task by replying to the email that is received when a form is completed. However, as they are view-only members, they are not able to interact with the task in any other way, aside from replying to this first original email.

My goal is to enable view-only members to be able to approve or give feedback on the work produced when their task has been completed by the person assigned (who is a full member).

I haven’t been able to get the Approvals feature to work in this workflow unless the form submitter is a full member.

I have tried a workaround, creating a rule to email the form submitter that a task has status Ready for Review, and including in the text a link to a second form called “Amends requested” - but this means that we’ll be drowning in duplicate tasks as there doesn’t seem to be a way to automatically merge duplicate tasks, and I don’t want to rely on users to manually follow naming conventions (can you dynamically auto-fill part of a form?).

Another thought I had was to create a rule to email the form submitter that a task has status Ready for Review, and in that email, include the replyto email link they would have had access to when replying to the submission received email - but I can’t find a way to make this easy for the user besides asking them to search their own inbox. Do the replyto email addresses for each task follow any specific pattern?

Context: We have a huge org, and to pay for a license with seats for everyone who might only need access once a year isn’t really viable.

Our org is also in the public sector and it’s very difficult to get add ins and extensions approved.

Grateful for any suggestions

2

Sorry to specify, it’s only the form submitter I would expect to be able to add some kind of review/approve comment (like they can direct from the original submission received email), not anyone within the org.

3

Welcome, @Kayley_Dempsey1,

I suspect Asana is only allowing the free View Only licenses for Enterprises because of the limited functionality.

You could create a new topic in English Forum > Product Feedback and vote for it there. Keep it to just one specific request, though, for example “Approver-Only License” and if you have other alternative ideas, add those separately so it’s clear what a vote means.

Thanks,

Larry

4

Hi @Kayley_Dempsey1 :slight_smile: Welcome to the forum!

One solution that could work for you is doing the approvals/feedback in the comments section. It’s not ideal but it does keep all the Approval tracking within Asana.

It could work like this:

  1. The assignee would work the request.
  2. when there is something to share with the requestor, the assignee posts a comment in the task ‘@’ the view only user, requesting review and/or approval.
    1. :glowing_star: to ensure the requestor receives an email notification, the commenter should check the box that says ‘Send response to submitter [name].’
  3. The submitter reviews the work and responds to the most recent email request for feedback from the assignee.

This works and is simple because then the submitter isn’t searching their email for an old submission notification, as they will have a new email to which they can respond with feedback; there will be zero duplication of tasks; and you won’t need to set up any new rules.

I hope this helps! Feel free to let me know if there are additional points you would like help on or troubleshooting. :slight_smile: