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A request is one submission of a request workflow’s form. Requests come from the workspace Forms list, the request portal or the API. If the workflow needs approval, the request waits for its designated approvers. When it’s approved, Bentra starts a run.

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The lifecycle

A single rejection ends the request, whatever the other approvers decided. A request for changes sends it back to the submitter the same way.

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Set up approval

Approval settings live on the workflow. Open the workflow, then Settings → Request Settings. You need the Writer or Admin role on the workflow (see Permissions). With Require Approvals off, a request runs as soon as it’s submitted. If Auto-deploy on Approval is also off, it stays Open until someone selects Start run.
If Required Approvals is higher than the number of designated approvers, requests can never be approved. With Require Approvals on and no approvers at all, requests stay Open.

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Designated approvers

Under Designated Approvers, select Add Approver and choose User or Group.
  • Users are any members of the organization, including requesters.
  • Groups add every direct member of the group. Members of nested groups aren’t included. You can’t add a group that has no members.
Bentra stores the group, not a copy of its members. Each request takes the group’s members at the moment it’s submitted, so people who join the group approve requests submitted after they joined, and people who leave stop being approvers on new requests. The list on the page is the effective list: direct approvers first, then group members marked via their group. Someone who is both a direct approver and in an approver group appears once, as direct. Remove the group to take all its members off the list; remove a direct approver and, if they’re also in an approver group, they stay on through the group. To manage approvers from code, see Workflow access.

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Who can do what on a request

Reject and Request Changes need a note explaining why. Approve takes an optional note.
Bentra doesn’t stop a designated approver from approving a request they submitted themselves, and that approval counts. To make sure someone else always reviews, set Required Approvals to 2 or more.
In the app, the request page needs at least the Reader role on the workflow. Approvers without a role on the workflow can decide from the request portal’s Approvals page (on plans that include the portal) or through the API.

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Request changes and resubmit

When an approver selects Request Changes, the request moves to Changes Requested and shows their note. The submitter selects Update details (in the portal) or sends the new answers through the API, and:
  • the old answers are kept as a revision, and the activity shows which fields changed;
  • approvals already given are cleared, because approvers need to review what will actually run;
  • the request goes back to Open and the approvers are emailed again.
The submitter can also update an Open request before anyone decides, with the same effect.

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Comments and activity

The request page has an Add Comment box and an Activity feed. The feed lists everything that happened: submission, status changes, each approver’s decision with their note, comments and revisions. Comments don’t send email.

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Skip approval

Some automation needs to run a request workflow without waiting for people. A request submitted through the API with "skip_approval": true doesn’t need approval and starts running immediately, whatever the workflow’s approval settings. This needs both:
  • the Skip approval permission on the workflow, which comes with the workflow Admin role and with the organization owner and admin roles;
  • an API token with the skip:workflow_approval scope. See API tokens.
There’s no way to skip approval from the form. Bentra records the bypass: the run page shows approval bypassed instead of who approved it. See POST workflows/{id}/submit/.

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Email notifications

Open the workflow, then Settings → Notifications. Each toggle is on by default. Also notify adds extra recipients for one event, on top of the approvers and the submitter. Pick the event (Request submitted, Request approved, Request rejected, Run completed or Run failed), enter an email address and select Add. Any address works, inside or outside your organization, for example a team mailing list. Bentra doesn’t email when changes are requested or when someone comments. Job workflows have no submitter, so they email only the people under Also notify, when a run completes or fails. Emails link to the request. A requester who opens the link lands on the request in the portal.