Approvals – checklists and work orders

End-to-end sign-off: how a checklist or a costly repair goes to a manager, gets approved or sent back, and is resubmitted.

AdministratorQuality manager (NABH / NABL)Nursing superintendentHead of departmentBiomedical engineerStaff nurse

CareList has two kinds of approval, and both land on the same screen, More → Approvals:

1. Checklist approval: a completed inspection must be signed off by a manager.
2. Work-order approval: a repair or maintenance job that is expensive or critical must be approved before it closes.

Anyone with manager access can approve: Administrator, Medical director, Quality manager, Nursing superintendent, Head of department and Lab manager (plus the older Manager role). Every one of them is alerted when something is waiting.

Part 1 – Checklist approval

Who does what

1. Switch it on (once per checklist)

1. More → Checklists → Edit on the checklist.
2. Tick Require manager approval of completed inspections.
3. Tap Save.

The ready-made Discharge Readiness Checklist already has this ticked. For NABH / NABL audits, quality managers usually switch it on too. See NABH audit cycle.

2. The staff member submits

1. The assignee opens the task from Tasks and fills it in.
2. They tap Submit inspection. The inspection is saved as completed, and the report shows an amber Pending banner.
3. At the same moment:
   • every manager-access user gets Approval needed: checklist by name
   • the manager who assigned the task also gets "name completed checklist"
   • any Fail answers create deviations and automation rules run
   • if the task repeats, the next one is created. Approval doesn't hold up the schedule.

3. The manager reviews

1. Tap the notification, or open More → Approvals. Home shows a badge on the Approvals tile.
2. Under Inspections awaiting sign-off (n), each card shows the checklist, who did it, the location, when, and the score (green if passed, red if failed).
3. Tap the title to read the full inspection: answers, photos, signatures and the attestation ("Electronically attested by…").
4. Go back to Approvals and choose:
   • Approve: the Note (required to send back) box is optional here.
   • Send back: type a note explaining what to fix first. The note is required.

4a. Approved

• The report banner turns green: Approved by manager time, plus the note if you wrote one.
• The staff member gets Approved: checklist.
• The approval status is included in Export data → Completed inspections.

4b. Sent back

• The inspection reopens (In progress) for the original person. The banner shows Rejected by manager, with the note.
• They get Sent back for changes: checklist — note. Tapping it opens the checklist with their earlier answers.
• They correct it and tap Submit inspection again. It returns to Pending and all managers are alerted again.
• On resubmission, deviations from the first attempt are replaced by any Fail answers still present. Automation rules and the repeat schedule don't run a second time.

Tip: Managers can approve their own submissions, and the system doesn't prevent it. If your quality policy requires a second person, agree that in your SOP.

Part 2 – Work-order approval

1. Set the rules (once)

An administrator (or any manager) opens More → Settings → Maintenance costs & approvals:

• Labor rate (per hour): used to cost the technician's minutes.
• Require approval at cost ≥: for example 20,000. Leave it blank for never.
• Always require approval for critical work orders.

Tap Save settings.

2. The technician completes the job

This is usually the Biomedical engineer or another staff assignee.

1. Open the work order from Orders / More → Work orders.
2. Add any parts used (from stock or a custom part with Unit cost) and tap Add part.
3. Under Update, set Status to Completed, write Work done (required to complete), and enter Labor (min) and Downtime (min).
4. Tap Save.

CareList then works out the cost: parts plus (labour minutes ÷ 60 × labour rate). If the cost reaches the threshold, or the order is Critical and the critical rule is on, the status becomes Awaiting approval instead of Completed:

• The technician sees "Submitted for manager approval." and the order shows Awaiting manager approval.
• Every manager-access user gets Approval needed: WO-nnnn title.
• If the equipment was marked down, it stays down for now.

Note: Approval only applies to staff. When a manager-access user completes a work order themselves, it closes straight away.

3. The manager decides

1. More → Approvals → Work orders awaiting approval (n).
2. Each card shows the order number and title, assignee, equipment, Cost (parts and labour split out) and the work-done note. Tap the title for full details and comments.
3. Choose:
   • Approve & close: the order becomes Completed. The equipment goes back to active if no other open job is holding it down. The technician gets Approved: WO-nnnn title.
   • Send back, with a note: the order returns to In progress and a comment "Sent back: note" is added. The technician gets Sent back for changes: WO-nnnn — note.

4. Resubmit

The technician reads the comment, does the extra work, and sets Status to Completed again. If the cost still meets the rule, it goes back to Awaiting approval.

See Equipment breakdown for the full repair process.

Checking the trail

• More → Audit log, filtered by Inspection or Work_order, shows every approval decision with who and when.
• Export data → Completed inspections includes the approval status column.

Related

• Notifications and reports
• Role guides: Quality manager, Nursing superintendent, Biomedical engineer
• Help center: Approvals, Work orders