A new event starts as a Draft. It’s visible only to you and doesn’t notify anyone. Submitting it moves it to Pending and starts the approval workflow.
Before you submit
Make sure the following are filled in:
- A clear title and description.
- The right event type. The event type controls who the approvers are.
- Start and end times, and the recurrence rule if it repeats.
- Primary location.
- If the event type requires Head of Department approval, the Head/Leader/Dean/Director for Approval field on the Status/Owner section must be set.
- Publish targets (staff, students, parents) so it’s clear who will see the event after approval.
You can keep adding catering, ICT and maintenance requirements after the event has been submitted — see Adding catering, ICT and maintenance requirements.
Submitting
From the event detail page or the event requests list:
- Open the event.
- Choose Submit for approval (or change the status from Draft to Pending).
The event status becomes Pending and notification emails go to the first approval group.
What happens next
The approval chain is configured per event type — see Configuring event types and approval chains. Each step is owned by an approval group (e.g. Head of Department, Deputy Principal).
For each step in order:
- Everyone in the approval group can see the event in their Approvals dashboard.
- Any one of them can take an action: approve, decline, request more information, propose a new date or propose new staff.
- If approved, the event moves to the next step.
- If declined or sent back, it returns to Draft with a note from the approver and the organiser can revise and resubmit.
Once the final step approves, the status becomes Approved and the event is on the calendar.
What you’ll see while it’s pending
- The event appears in your own event requests list with the Pending status.
- The approval trail on the event detail page shows each action taken: who approved, when, with what note.
- If an approver asks for more information or proposes a change, you’ll get an email and the event status returns to Draft so you can respond.
Re-submitting after changes
After a decline or send-back, fix the event and use Resend for approval. The workflow restarts from the first approval step.
If you change the start date or recurrence rule on an event that’s already approved, the event reverts to Draft automatically and you need to resubmit.
Endorsement
Some schools require additional staff to endorse an event after approval. See Adding locations and additional staff. An event that is approved and has all required endorsements becomes Endorsed. Approved and Endorsed events both appear on the calendar.