---
title: "Approvals"
url: "https://docs.4hse.com/suppliers/approvals"
description: "Why a certificate issued by a supplier is not valid immediately, and who has to confirm it."
---

# Approvals

**Approvals** are the control 4HSE places on documents that come from outside the project.

When a supplier is the recipient of a **procedure** and issues the certificate for it, that certificate does not validate the action straight away. The system starts an **approval**: the certificate goes to a project manager — **Admin** or **Manager** — and the action becomes **[Valid](/scheduler-and-notifications/statuses)** only if the outcome is positive.

## Why it exists

[Section titled “Why it exists”](#why-it-exists)

The evidence of compliance is produced by someone outside your organisation, but the responsibility stays inside it. The approval is where the two meet: the supplier does the work and documents it, the project manager checks the document before it counts.

## What can be assigned to a supplier

[Section titled “What can be assigned to a supplier”](#what-can-be-assigned-to-a-supplier)

Only actions of type **Procedure**. It is the most general of the five action types, which is why it is the one that can be delegated outside — see [Procedures](/procedures/).

Typical cases: specific maintenance work, technical inspections carried out by an external party.

## The two sides

[Section titled “The two sides”](#the-two-sides)

The workflow has two ends, documented separately because they are done by different people:

-   the supplier issues the certificate and submits the request — [Request an approval](/suppliers/approvals/request);
-   the project manager reviews it and accepts or rejects it — [Approve or reject a request](/suppliers/approvals/approve-or-reject).

Both sides work in the same interface, described in [The Approvals interface](/suppliers/approvals/interface).

## Notifications

[Section titled “Notifications”](#notifications)

Every phase is supported by automatic notifications:

-   the **project manager** is notified when a new request is available;
-   the **supplier** is notified of the outcome — accepted or rejected — including any notes.

For the supplier to receive them, an assigned contact must be set: [Set the supplier’s assigned contact](/suppliers/approvals/assigned-contact).

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