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Review & Approvals

Overview

The Review & Approvals Task allows users to review, compare, comment on, and approve entity, product, document, related party, and risk information within a journey.

It provides a collaborative, auditable environment for cross-team review and sign-off, reducing reliance on external communication channels and maintaining full traceability within Fenergo.

The feature supports multiple configurable review types - including Entity Data, Documents, Related Parties, Products, and Risk Assessments - and enables real-time commenting, tagging, and approvals based on configured rules and profiles.

The Problem It Solves

Historically, reviews and approvals were often performed outside Fenergo (e.g. via email or offline documents). This created several issues:

  • Limited or fragmented auditability of who approved what, when, and why
  • Lost context across long email threads and multiple stakeholders
  • Inconsistent decision logic applied by different teams or jurisdictions
  • Slow approvals due to manual routing, unclear ownership, and lack of structured workflows

The Review & Approvals Task addresses these pain points:

  • Capturing every decision, comment, and supporting snapshot inside Fenergo.
  • Providing a single place for collaboration between users & teams within Fenergo.
  • Enforcing configurable approval and escalation rules.
  • Supporting straight-through processing (STP) via optional auto-approvals and random sampling.

Key Benefits

  • Centralised collaboration: Brings different stakeholders and teams into a single review task.
  • In-platform communication: Eliminates email-based review threads by embedding comments and topics directly into the task.
  • Data comparison: Provides a clear view of new, changed, and unchanged data at field level.
  • Traceable approvals: Every outcome is captured with versioning, timestamps, and decision details.
  • Configurable workflow control: Approval outcomes can drive escalation, notifications, and next-stage tasks.
  • Profile-based visibility: Different teams see only the sections and data relevant to them.

Key Functional Areas

The Review & Approvals Task introduces several core capabilities:

  • Data Comparison

    • Displays field-level differences between draft (in-flight) and verified data.
    • Marks each field or record as New, Changed, or Unchanged.
    • Supports comparison for entity data, related parties, and products.
  • Commenting & Topics

    • Threaded comments on individual fields, data group records, and documents.
    • Mentions for users (@username) and teams (#teamname).
    • Configurable topics (e.g. AML Red Flag, FCC Review, Outstanding Issues).
    • Comments can be edited, deleted (by their author), and resolved.
    • Optional enforcement that all comments must be resolved before task completion.
  • Approval Options & Escalations

    • Configurable decision set: Approve, Reject, Revise, Refer.
    • Each decision records an outcome, reason, and notes.
    • Outcomes can be used to drive multi-level approvals, escalations, or downstream tasks.
  • Automation & Random Sampling

    • Supports auto-completion based on configured sampling probabilities.
    • Enables audit-compliant sampling for STP, while still retaining full traceability.
  • Snapshots & Audit Trail

    • Captures a snapshot of all reviewed data at the moment of task completion.
    • Ensures historical decisions can be re-evaluated even if live data changes later.

Permissions

To use the Review & Approvals Task, users require a combination of operational and configuration permissions per the use case being solved.

Operational Permissions

These permissions apply to users who work on Review & Approvals Tasks as part of their daily role.

PermissionDescription
Review & Approval AccessView the task and any associated data points or comments/topics
Review & Approval CommentAdd comments or topics within the task
Review & Approval Resolve CommentsResolve or close comment threads and topics
Review & Approval DecisionRecord task decisions to close the task (Approve, Reject etc)

Note: Without Review & Approval Access, a user cannot see the task comments or topics at all.

Configuration Permissions

These permissions are intended for configurators, administrators, or power users responsible for setting up Review & Approvals Profiles which will then be used to drive the desired task behaviour.

PermissionDescription
Review & Approval Configuration AccessAccess and view Review & Approvals configuration
Review & Approval Configuration CreateCreate new Review & Approvals Profiles
Review & Approval Configuration EditEdit existing Review & Approvals Profiles
Review & Approval Configuration DeleteDelete existing Review & Approvals Profiles

Configuration of Review & Approvals Profiles

Configuration is managed in the Review and Approvals Configuration section under the Journey configuration area. This is where you define:

  • What each Profile can see
  • Which sections (Entity Data, Products, etc.) are in scope
  • How approval decisions should be captured
  • Whether comments must be resolved before task completion

These profiles are then tied against the "Review & Approval" Task Type within Journey Builder. Here, further functionality such as auto-sampling, team assignment and SLA assignment can be applied. The Journey Builder configuration will also cover the triggering of additional tasks based on the action taken within the Review & Approval task.

Profile Configuration

In order to configure a Review & Approval Profile, there is a mandatory, eponymous lookup that must be created within Reference Data. This lookup will drive the available options within the "Profile" dropdown on this screen. To configure this:

  1. Navigate to your Reference Data list
  2. Create a new lookup called "Review & Approvals Profiles"
  3. Add your required values
  4. Publish your lookup
  5. The "Profiles" dropdown in "Review & Approvals" will then display the configured lookup's values

Review and Approval Lookup

Profiles are central to how Review & Approvals behaves. They determine who sees what, ensuring each team or role only interacts with relevant data within the task. This is controlled by the "Show changes for" multi-select dropdown.

A profile can be configured to include:

  • Entity Data Categories

    • This can be used to control which entity data sections (e.g. Basic Details, AML, Tax, etc.) are visible.
  • Document Categories

    • Define which document types or categories are presented for review (e.g. KYC documents, Sanctions documents).
  • Related Party Categories and Scoping Rules

    • Specify which related party types or roles (e.g. UBOs, Directors, Guarantors) are included.
    • Apply scoping rules to filter related parties via the logic engine.
  • Product Categories and Scoping Rules

    • Choose which product types appear in the Products panel.
    • Apply scoping rules to limit products based on risk, geography, product family, etc.
  • Topics Lookup List

    • Configure the list of available topics for comment grouping (e.g. “AML Red Flag", “KYC Review", “FCC Review").
    • This list helps to standardise how discussions are categorised across the organisation.
  • Risk Details

    • If selected, this will display all of the risk assessments that have taken place in that journey. This will only display the "Risk Assessment Policy Output" task type, and will not include other risk task types like Product Risk or Related Party Risk.
  • Approval and Reasoning Configuration

    • Tailor the available decision options, reason lists, and mandatory fields for each decision.

Within "Approval Configuration", there are several other configuration options available. The first is "Require Resolution of All Comments Before Completion". As the name suggests, this ensures that every comment made is resolved before the task may be completed. After this is the "Topics" lookup list. Within the Review & Approvals task, there can be comments that are made at an overall level, rather than at a lower-level data point. To guide this conversation, configurators can pick a lookup that will drive the available topics to be discussed within a task. This can be any lookup within your tenant.

Finally, the "Approval Options" available to a user must be selected. This is as follows:

  • Define the decision set (Approve, Reject, Revise, Refer).
    • This will drive the available buttons within the task regarding task closure.
  • Configure the Reason input type for decisions, such as:
    • Text (free-form reason)
    • Lookup (standardised reasons maintained via reference data)
    • Linked Lookup (contextual reasons linked to other configuration)

Review and Approval Configured Profile

Please note that Review & Approval Profiles are not versioned.

Task Configuration

Once the profile configuration has been completed, you can now assign the appropriate profile to the "Review & Approval" task type in Journey Builder. Once this task is selected, turn on the Enable V2 toggle. A new mandatory dropdown will be displayed, entitled "Show Changes For". This will display all configured Review & Approvals Profiles configured in your tenant.

Any other task behaviour - things like Team Assignment, SLA Assignment or conditionality around the task triggering or not - can be configured as normal at this point.

There exists a V1 of this task, which requires different mandatory information. This will be covered at the end of this user guide.

baseTaskConfiguration

Conditional Logic and Escalations

Review & Approvals outcomes can be used to shape and direct journey behaviour through Scoping Rules in Journey Builder. By using the results of an approval task - such as Approve, Reject, Revise, or Refer - you can influence how the journey progresses, ensuring that each case follows the appropriate operational pathway based on the actions taken in a previous Review & Approval Task.

To configure this, navigate to the object (Task, Process or Stage) that should trigger as a result of this review and open the Scoping Conditions section. From there, create a condition that uses Review and Approval as the Source and select the desired "Decision Outcome". These outcomes become the key decision points that drive what happens next in the journey.

Once the condition is set, define the Action that should occur when that outcome is reached. This may involve triggering an escalation to a more senior approver, generating a follow-up task, transitioning the journey into a new stage, or even completing it entirely. By aligning each action with a specific outcome, the workflow becomes responsive and controlled, ensuring that the right individuals and steps are engaged at the right time.

Review and Approval Conditionality Driving

Automation and Random Sampling

The Review & Approvals Task supports automated completion through a configurable sampling rate, allowing organisations to blend straight-through processing with targeted manual oversight. By adjusting this sampling rate, you can determine the proportion of tasks that require human review versus those that the system will complete automatically.

For example, a sampling rate of 1 is interpreted as 1 out of every 100 tasks being routed for manual review. Under this configuration, approximately 1% of tasks are directed to a Review & Approvals step, while the remaining 99% are automatically completed by the system. This ensures that a small, controlled subset of cases receives manual scrutiny without creating unnecessary operational workload.

When a task is auto-completed, the system records an automatic approval and applies a standard reason such as “Not Sampled". Even though the task is completed without human intervention, all relevant data is still captured in the audit trail to support reporting, quality assurance, and regulatory reviews.

This approach provides a balanced mechanism for implementing regulatory-compliant random sampling while keeping operational overhead manageable and ensuring that oversight remains both targeted and effective. The functionality is not mandatory.

Task Structure and Panels

The Review & Approvals Task is composed of multiple review panels, each providing a different view of data and context.

PanelDescription
Entity DataCompares draft vs verified data
DocumentsReview documents and document requirements
Related PartiesSee associations with change markers
ProductsView product attributes & product-specific associations
Risk DetailsView prior risk assessments
TopicsComment threads grouped by a topic

Each panel behaves according to the Profile in use, so different users may see different subsets of panels or data within them.

Review and Approval Functional View

For fields of type "Rich Text Area", the content can be accessed by selecting the "Show Content" hyperlink. The information contained within your Rich Text Area field type will then display.

Comments and Topics

Comments allow users to collaborate and capture rationale directly against the data being reviewed, ensuring discussions remain contextual and transparent. Each comment is tied to a specific element - whether that be a field, a data group record, or a document - so users can engage in focused dialogue where the information actually sits. These comments are organised into threaded discussions, with each thread supporting multiple replies to facilitate clear, structured back-and-forth exchanges.

View of Comments All Round

The commenting framework also supports mentions, enabling users to notify individuals or entire teams by using @username or #teamname. This ensures the right people are brought into the conversation promptly and can contribute without delay. Users retain control over their own contributions by being able to edit comments to correct or clarify statements, or delete them if they were added in error. This is dependent on the permissions assigned to them. Once a discussion reaches its conclusion, comments can be marked as resolved. Resolved threads remain visible for audit purposes but are clearly flagged as closed.

Resolved and Open Comments

Topics provide an additional layer of structure by allowing comments to be organised around defined themes or workstreams. Each task begins with a default topic, such as "General". Beyond this, users can select from a configurable list of topics defined per profile, and, where permitted, they may create custom ad-hoc topics to support more specific discussions. Topics that contain no comments can be removed, while those with active commentary are preserved to maintain audit integrity. If enabled in the configuration of the profile, further validation can also be applied so that a task cannot be completed while any comment or topic still contains unresolved comments, ensuring that all outstanding issues are addressed before the process moves forward.

Topics Interaction

Any outstanding, unresolved comments or topics can be accessed through the final icon visible within the task. This ensures that any missing comments or topics can be found quickly, without having to navigate through every page visible within the task. Each Unresolved Comment will be headed with where that comment was placed - for example "Client Data - Date of Birth":

Unresolved Comments

Decision Options and Decision History

When completing a Review & Approvals Task, the user must choose a single decision outcome from a configurable list. These outcomes typically include Approve, Reject, Revise, and Refer, each carrying a distinct operational meaning. Approve confirms that the data has been reviewed and accepted. Reject either ends the process or returns it to an earlier stage, depending on how the workflow is designed. Revise routes the task back to the appropriate user or team for correction. Refer escalates the task to another reviewer or team, such as a senior approver.

For every decision taken, the system captures a structured set of data to ensure clarity and traceability. This includes the selected outcome itself, along with a reason - either entered as free text, chosen from a dropdown of standardised lookup values, or selected from a contextual linked list. Users may also add supporting notes to provide additional narrative detail or justification. Each decision is versioned and timestamped to maintain a complete and reliable audit trail.

All of this information is consolidated within the Decision History. Each time a decision is made, the system records both the latest version and all historical versions, ensuring that no previous decisions are overwritten or lost. The Decision History displays the decision outcome, any reasons or notes provided, the user who made the decision, and the exact date and time it was recorded. This creates a transparent and sequential record, enabling auditors, reviewers, or remediation teams to fully reconstruct how the current state was reached and understand the rationale behind each decision along the way.

Decision Outcome and Audit

Each time a Review & Approvals Task is completed, the system captures a snapshot of all data that was included in the review. This snapshot encompasses entity information, related parties, products, and any additional sections that have been configured as in scope for the relevant profile. By preserving this set of data, the system ensures that the full context of the review is retained exactly as it existed at the moment the decision was made.

These snapshots represent the precise state of the data at the point of approval or any other decision outcome. They remain accessible for downstream investigations, regulatory assessments, and internal audits, providing a reliable reference point even if the live data has since been amended, corrected, or enriched. This ensures that reviewers and auditors can always reconstruct what was seen and assessed during the original review.

When combined with the Decision History and any associated comment threads, these snapshots form a complete and robust audit trail for the review and approval process. They offer full transparency into what was reviewed, who reviewed it, what decision was taken, and why - supporting regulatory compliance, operational oversight, and long-term assurance.

If the task is reopened, then this snapshot will be wiped and replaced with the latest data available from that new instance of the task.

Important Notes

When working with the Review & Approvals Task, there are several limitations to keep in mind to ensure correct configuration. Product scoping rules are not yet supported within Config Exchange, meaning that any product-related visibility or scoping must be handled through configuration in the target tenant rather than through the exchange mechanism.

Both V1 and V2 task implementations remain available, with V1 relying on data-key–based configuration and V2 operating on profile-based configuration. Although V1 tasks are still supported for legacy scenarios, new journeys should be built using the V2 approach to take advantage of the full set of current capabilities and enhancements.

Review & Approvals V1

The Review & Approvals feature allows the following tasks to be viewed in a read-only format in a consolidated view:

  • Data
  • Related Parties
  • Documents
  • Risk

The data can be reviewed, after which the task can then be completed.

Review & Approvals V1 Configuration

Ensure you have the required Review & Approvals permissions assigned to your profile before configuring. Configuring the Review & Approvals task is solely from the Journey Builder.

Review&ApprovalsPic1

This configuration will only be available if the "Enable V2" toggle is disabled.

Once the Review & Approval task has been selected, four Task DataKey fields will be visible. Assign the Task DataKey of the Task that is desired to be reviewed in the Review & Approval task. Only one Task DataKey can be used. Multiple Review & Approvals tasks can be configured in a single journey with different DataKeys.

Review & Approval V1 Task View

Once the Review & Approval task has been configured, the in-task view will look as follows:

Review&ApprovalsPic2

The left-hand pane is used to traverse between the four available tasks for review. The right-hand side will show all available data in an entirely read-only view. Once the review has been completed, the task can be completed via the Complete button at the top right-hand corner.