Manage approval bodies, members and signing delegations¶

This guide follows the current approval-body family in 06 Final Screens. It explains the intended experience alongside the implemented business rules. The frontend is still being connected: its sample records and local success messages are not evidence of saved authority changes. Use this guide for the intended journey and verify actual availability in your workspace.

Before you begin¶

You need access to view approval bodies; administration also requires management access. Decide the body's purpose, a recognizable name, a stable reference code and a positive minimum quorum. Know which people may vote, which may sign and when each membership should begin or end. A person can be a member without either permission.

Use the people and roles offered by the current form. Candidate lists can change when staff status or body membership changes. If a person is missing, check their staff availability and existing membership with the appropriate administrator. Do not substitute another person to work around the restriction.

Open and understand a body¶

1. Open Operations, then Approval bodies.
2. In the register, locate the body and choose Open. Review its name, reference, quorum and status before proceeding.
3. Use Overview for purpose and current governance, Members for roles and voting/signing access, and Delegations for delegated signing windows.
4. Compare Active voters with Minimum quorum. Review the chairperson and signing warnings separately. The list's member or signer count cannot substitute for the voter count.

An empty register invites you to create the first body. While the register is loading, wait for the result. If it cannot load, use Try again; do not interpret the failure as an empty register. Restricted access asks you to contact a workspace administrator and provides Back to Operations.

If Staff details temporarily unavailable appears, the authority record may still exist. Retry the view or contact support before changing an identity-sensitive record. Missing display details are not a reason to recreate a member.

Create or edit a body¶

1. From the register, choose Create approval body.
2. Enter Approval body name, Reference code, optional Description, and Minimum quorum. Choose whether Approval body is active.
3. Choose Create body, then open the saved body. Membership is added separately from its Members tab.

Use a name of up to 256 characters and a reference code of up to 64 characters. The code is trimmed and normalized to uppercase; a code already used by another body is rejected. Quorum must be greater than zero. Saving the body does not guarantee that it already has enough voters or any signers.

To edit a saved body, choose Edit details, change the fields available to you and choose Save changes. Review active state and readiness after saving. The reserved organization-head body's reference code and active state are protected. A change in activation or quorum can affect authority checks; do not assume it only changes a label.

Add a member¶

1. Open Members and choose Add member.
2. Search the offered Person candidates and select the intended person.
3. Choose a supported Role, then set Can vote and Can sign independently.
4. Set Effective from and, when appropriate, Effective to. The end cannot precede the start.
5. Choose Add member, then recheck the member's dates and access in the saved body.

The form excludes currently effective members from add-member candidates. A candidate may still fail submission if the proposed period overlaps a retained membership, including an inactive historical record. A second overlapping chairperson is also rejected. If you intend to replace the current chairperson, use the chairperson action instead of adding an overlapping chairperson membership.

A future start does not grant authority immediately. Ending a period is inclusive of its recorded end time. Treat dates in the connected application carefully and confirm the intended local time; a date-only design does not establish how timezone conversion will be presented.

Update voting and signing access¶

Open the relevant member's Manage action and use Update voting and signing access. Check the selected person and current access, adjust Can vote and Can sign, then choose Save access. Recheck both settings afterward.

These changes apply to a currently effective member. To remove signing authority, first end any currently effective signing delegations from that membership. Also review future delegations: an authority change can prevent them from becoming usable. Removing voting access may leave the body below quorum even when the total number of members has not changed.

Change the chairperson¶

1. From Members, choose Change chairperson.
2. Review the current chairperson and select New chairperson from the eligible active members.
3. Set Effective from, then choose Change chairperson.
4. Reopen membership and delegation details to confirm the resulting authority.

The selected member must be effective at the requested time. The change closes the previous chairperson's membership and the selected member's previous membership immediately before the new chairperson period. It does not automatically create a replacement ordinary membership for the outgoing chairperson or transfer delegations to the new membership. This can reduce voter or signer counts. Resolve those consequences before relying on the body for further work.

Choosing the same effective chairperson can leave authority unchanged. A request at a membership's exact start can be rejected because the preceding membership cannot end before it began. Refresh the dates and seek help rather than repeatedly submitting an invalid time.

Add or end a signing delegation¶

1. Open Delegations and choose Add signing delegation.
2. Select Delegating signer, then search and select the eligible Delegate.
3. Set Effective from and the appropriate Effective to.
4. Choose Add delegation and verify the saved people and authority window.

The originating membership must have signing authority. Self-delegation is prohibited. A delegation cannot start before that membership or extend beyond its end; if the membership ends, the delegation needs an end too. The same signer and delegate cannot have overlapping retained delegation periods. Delegation does not grant voting access or replace the originating membership.

For the synchronized organization-head body, the delegate must also be an effective synchronized member. In an ordinary body, an offered delegate need not already be a member of that body.

To end a delegation, use End on its row, review the two people and the current window, then choose End delegation. Check the refreshed authority. Ending one delegation does not remove authority that the person has independently through another membership or delegation.

Deactivate a member¶

Use the member's Manage action, choose Deactivate member, review the affected person and confirm Deactivate member. This removes that membership from effective participation while retaining the record. Delegations relying on it no longer contribute effective signing authority. The current manual-body implementation can deactivate a chairperson; it does not guarantee that a replacement chairperson is already in place. Check quorum and leadership after the operation.

Manual removal is unavailable for synchronized organization-head membership. There is no body-delete journey in the inspected design or controller. Use the supported active-state control for an ordinary body when that matches the intended administrative action.

Recover from an uncertain result¶

Tell support the workspace, body reference, action, approximate time and last confirmed result. Include the displayed error through your organization's approved support channel. Do not treat a success notification, an activity entry or body readiness as proof that a separate approval request or signed document is complete.