Document Flow — Overview

What you'll learn#

• What Document Flow is and what kinds of things it handles
• The vocabulary: document types, documents, approval flows, tasks, fields
• The lifecycle a document goes through — from creation to approval or correction
• Where everything lives in the sidebar
• What end users do versus what admins do

---

What Document Flow is#

Document Flow is VAT Portal's approval system. Any document your company wants to route for review can go through Document Flow: vacation requests, supplier invoices, business travel authorizations, expense reports, contracts, anything.

The key idea is configurability. Instead of a fixed set of forms, your admin defines the document types that fit your business, the approval steps for each, and the rules for how documents get routed. End users then use what's been set up — they create documents, respond to tasks assigned to them, and track their own documents' progress.

---

Two kinds of documents#

Document Flow supports two different document kinds, and it's worth understanding the distinction before going further.

File-based documents#

You upload an existing file — typically a PDF, Word document, or scanned image — and route that file through approvals. Use this when the document already exists as a file and you just need people to review and sign off on it. Good for contracts, supplier invoices, scanned receipts.

Request forms#

You fill out a structured form with fields (text, numbers, dates, dropdowns, switches). No file attachment is needed — the form itself is the document. Good for internal requests like vacation days, business travel authorizations, IT equipment requests, expense claims.

Every document in VAT Portal is one or the other. Your admin decides which kind each document type uses when they set it up.

---

The building blocks#

A few terms appear throughout the rest of the Document Flow articles. Learning them now saves a lot of time later.

---

The lifecycle of a document#

Every document moves through a predictable set of statuses:

    Active  ────►  Approving  ────►  Approved
     (draft)       (in review)      (finished)
        ▲              │
        │              ▼
        └──  Rejected  ──  (creator can Make Correction → back to Active)

• Active — just created. The creator can still edit or delete it. No one else sees it in their task list yet.
• Approving — the creator started the approval flow. The document is now moving through tasks. Each assignee acts on their step in turn.
• Approved — every step was approved. The document is final; no more changes.
• Rejected — someone along the way rejected it. The document stops moving. The creator can either delete it or click Make Correction to create a new version, fix the problem, and start the approval flow again.

A single document can go through the Rejected → Correction → Approving loop as many times as needed. Each correction bumps the version (v1 → v2 → v3 …) so the full history is preserved.

---

What makes Document Flow useful#

A few features that come up repeatedly in the task articles:

• Custom fields — every document type has its own set of fields, designed by your admin to capture exactly the data your company needs.
• Conditional routing — an approval flow can take different paths depending on the document's contents. For example, "if the amount is over 10,000 AZN, route to the CEO for an extra signature".
• Delegation — if a task is waiting on you but you can't act on it (you're out of the office, it's not your area), you can delegate it to a colleague. Your admin controls which tasks allow this.
• Discussion board — every document has a built-in thread where approvers can ask questions, and the creator can respond. The full conversation is attached to the document.
• Attachments — besides the main file or form, any document can carry supporting attachments — scans, calculations, related contracts, and so on.
• Version control — corrections create new versions rather than overwriting the old one. You can always see what the document looked like when it was rejected the first time.

---

Where things live in the sidebar#

Inside the Document Flow section of the sidebar:

• Documents — the list of all documents, grouped by status. Starting point for creating new ones or viewing existing ones.
• Document Types (admin) — configure the templates: fields, workflows, filters.
• Approval Flows (admin) — configure the workflow designs: tasks, assignees, conditions.
• My Tasks — the tasks assigned to you personally that need action. This is where end users spend most of their time.
• Workflow Admin (admin only) — a diagnostic tool for troubleshooting approvals that got stuck. Most users never need it.

What you actually see depends on your access — admin-only pages don't appear for regular users. See Navigating the app for how the sidebar is filtered.

---

End users vs. admins#

End users spend most of their time doing three things:

1. Creating documents — filling in a form or uploading a file, then starting the approval flow.
2. Responding to tasks in My Tasks — approving, rejecting, or delegating items routed to them.
3. Tracking their own documents — seeing where their request has reached, answering questions, correcting rejections.

Admins set the system up and keep it healthy:

1. Defining document types and the fields they capture.
2. Designing approval flows — the steps, assignees, conditions, routing rules.
3. Managing users and groups so tasks can be assigned correctly.
4. Fixing stuck approvals via Workflow Admin when something goes wrong (rare but essential).

Most people are end users. Admin configuration is usually handled by one or two people in the organization.

---

Where to go next#

End-user tasks, in rough order of how often you'll do them:

• Creating a document from a file
• Creating a request form
• Starting the approval process
• My Tasks — overview
• Approving a task
• Rejecting a task
• Delegating a task to someone else
• Using the discussion board
• Correcting a rejected document

Admin topics:

• Managing document types
• Adding fields to a document type
• Creating approval workflows
• Using the visual flow editor
• Workflow Admin — fixing stuck workflows

---