The Approvals hub

Approvals gathers everything in the business waiting on a decision. What you see depends on your role: an approver gets a decision queue, everyone else gets My requests, showing what they raised and where it sits.

Tabs run across the top of the page, one for each queue you can open: Requests, Reports, Photos and Safety documents (and Xero invoices where your business uses that queue). A number appears on a tab when something is waiting in it. A line above the page title, N waiting on you, adds them up.

On an iPhone

The ONYX1 approvals widget is available to owners, admins, dispatchers and office staff. It shows the pending count, counts by request kind, the oldest request age and up to three safe top-item labels. Each label contains only the allowlisted approval kind (for example, Variation, Purchase request or Timesheet) and, when the request belongs to a job, its job number. It never includes descriptions, customer names, addresses or phone numbers. Phase A does not put request amounts or customer detail in the widget. It is read-only; tap it to open Approvals at /approvals.

The footer says Updated h:mm am/pm in New Zealand time, for example Updated 3:30 pm. If it says the queue is stale, open ONYX1 before relying on it. A signed-out or unauthorized person sees Open ONYX1 to sign in instead of the queue.

Requests

The Requests tab lists variations, timesheets, leave, purchases and equipment requests together, with tabs to filter by type. Every row names who raised it.

If you approve requests, each row offers:

• Approve, for everything except a timesheet, which instead offers Review and opens the full week, since a week's pay needs more than one line to decide.
• Decline, which asks for a reason. The reason is required for a variation, timesheet, purchase or equipment request; for leave it's optional.
• Need detail, on a variation, purchase or general purchase request, which sends the request back to whoever raised it with your question attached, until they answer.
• Ask, to add a note without deciding anything yet.

If you raised a request, your row shows where it stands: waiting, needs your detail (select Add detail to answer and send it back), or its final decision. If nothing is waiting on you, the page says so; if your business has timesheets nobody has submitted yet for the period that just closed, it names them here instead of saying everything is clear.

Approve several at once

Tick the box on each request you want to approve, or select Select all to tick every request currently on screen, then select Approve N in the bar that appears. A sheet lists what you ticked (what it is, who asked, and the amount where there is one); select Approve N again to confirm.

Each request is approved the same way as pressing Approve on its own row, so the same rules apply: a timesheet has no box, because a week's pay still needs the full Review screen; your own request has no box either, with a note explaining why. If anything changed since you ticked it, such as someone else already deciding it, that one stays in the list with its own reason and the rest still go through. Bulk approve only approves: declining, asking for more detail and marking a general purchase Not bought still need you to open the request and give a reason.

General purchases

The General purchases tab is for requests that are not tied to a job or equipment. It is separate from job material purchases. The owner is the only person who can approve, decline, request more detail, or mark one Not bought.

Use the category buttons under the tab to filter Training/course, Subscription, Office, Tools and equipment, Travel, or Other. The row also shows who raised the request, who it is for, and the needed-by date.

The person who raised a request can open it from My requests. The employee it is for can also see the request, its costs, and its files. Once the owner approves it, the requester or a business role can add the receipt and actual cost. The request changes to Bought only when both are saved.

Reports to approve

Only the owner or admins see the Reports tab, and only when your workspace has the Site reports module. It works like an inbox: the queue of submitted reports is on the left and the selected report, with its answers, photos and signatures, is on the right. Approve it or send it back from the bottom of the page, and the next report opens. You can also tick several reports in the queue and approve them together; see Approve and send site reports for the buttons, bulk approve and the keyboard shortcuts.

Photos to check

Business roles and site supervisors see the Photos tab: photos already saved on a job whose files carry no information about where or when they were taken, so only someone who knows the job can judge them. Select Looks right to clear one, or Remove photo to take it down; Select all on this page clears a whole page of clean photos at once.

Safety documents

Only the owner sees the Safety documents tab, and only jobs waiting on an approval decision appear here. See Job safety documents and owner approval for how to approve, request changes, or turn on the setting that puts jobs here in the first place.