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My Tasks — approvals, reviews and fixes

In this article

My Task sits at the very top of the left-hand menu, with a number on it when something is waiting. It is one list across every workspace you belong to.

  • A two-minute walkthrough, then why approvals moved out of email
  • The three kinds of task, and which of them come from workflows
  • How to read a request, add a note, and answer it
  • Why a full inbox can look empty, and what you cannot undo

01 · Video

Feature walkthrough

Video · My Tasks in two minutes · 2:00

02 · Why

Why do we have this?

Approvals used to happen in email, which meant nobody could answer "who approved this, and when?" six months later. Everything here is recorded against the record itself, with your note attached.

It is also one list across every workspace you belong to. If you work across three clients, you do not check three inboxes.

03 · Use cases

Use case 1
A manager who approves payments

Requests arrive, you open the record if you need to, you approve or reject with a note. That is the whole job.

Use case 2
An AP clerk whose scan did not read

A document that could not be read turns up here as a Data Correction task, with Retry and Abandon buttons. Retry is worth trying once — most of these are a connection wobble rather than a bad scan. See Fixing a failed extraction.

Use case 3
Someone covering for a colleague

Requests can be sent to a whole department or job title rather than one person, so cover works without reassigning anything.

04 · How

Answer a request

  1. Open My Task from the left-hand menu.
  2. You land on Pending. Tasks are grouped by date — Today at the top, then Older.
  3. Click a group heading to open it. Older is closed when you arrive, so a full inbox can look empty at first glance.
  4. Read the line. It tells you the request, which workspace it came from, which module, and when.
  5. If you need to see the record, press Open record.
  6. To leave a comment with your decision, press Add note and type it.
  7. Press Approve or Reject.

To answer several at once, tick the box on each row and use the buttons that appear. To narrow the list, use the Approval, Review and Data Correction buttons at the top, or the search box.

05 · Expected result

The task disappears from Pending and turns up under Completed, marked Approved or Rejected, with your note underneath it in quotes.

If it was an approval, the workflow that was waiting carries on. Approve and it continues to its next step; reject and it stops there.

06 · Troubleshooting and notes

The list looks empty but the badge says 17

The Older group is collapsed. Click it. This is the single most common reason this page looks broken when it is not.

There are three kinds of task, not one

TypeComes fromYou can
ApprovalA workflow that is paused, waiting for a decisionApprove, Reject
ReviewA workflow asking for a look, without waitingMark reviewed
Data CorrectionA document that failed to readRetry, Abandon

Only the first two come from workflows. Data Correction tasks come from document processing, and retrying one re-reads the document — see Fixing a failed extraction.

I approved it, but nothing happened

Check what came after the approval in the workflow. If the approved branch is empty, approving is recorded but there is nothing else to do.

Can I undo a decision?

No. Completed tasks stay completed. If you approved something by mistake, fix the record itself.

07 · FAQ

Common questions

Why am I seeing tasks from a workspace I do not work in?

The inbox covers every workspace you are a member of. The workspace name is on each line.

Do I have to add a note?

No, it is optional. It is worth it on a rejection — the next person to open the record will see it.

Someone else is also an approver. Do we both need to answer?

Depends how it was set up. Most requests are Any One, so the first answer settles it. Some are All Required. The person who built the workflow chooses — see Ask someone to approve.

What does Abandon do on a failed document?

It gives up on that document and clears the task. Use it for duplicates or junk. If the document matters, fix the file and upload it again.

Will I get an email?

You get an in-app notification. Merchaint cannot currently send you an email about a task.