Processing Rejected or Stopped Routes

If a task is rejected, the system stops the route and notifies the route owner and assignees of current and prior tasks by email. Members of user groups or roles who are assigned tasks are not notified. The system does not activate the remaining tasks in the route until the route owner restarts or resumes the route.

Routes enter the Stopped state when any of these events occur:

  • Route owner manually stops it
  • The object is demoted (for state-based routes)
  • An approver rejects a task
  • If all current order tasks are completed and any assignee of any future order tasks are inactive.

If the route's Auto Stop on Rejection value is Immediate, the route is stopped as soon as a task is rejected. If the route's Auto Stop on Rejection value is Deferred, task assignees can complete other tasks of the same sequence order before the route is stopped.

Before restarting or resuming the route, you can edit the route as needed. For example, you can add, remove, and edit content; define new tasks; and edit task definitions.

Required access roles: You must be the route owner.

Before you begin: Open the required route. See Opening a Route.
  1. Click the Tasks or Tasks (Graphical) page tab.
  2. Review the comment entered by the person who rejected the route.
  3. If needed, click the Content page tab to review the route content.
  4. For instructions on viewing content, see Documents and Content.
  5. Based on the comments, approval statuses, and content, decide how you want to process the rejected route:

    • Resume the route and have the system activate the remaining tasks in the route as it normally would, beginning with the tasks in the sequence order where the route was stopped. See Step 6.
    • Restart the route from its initial task. See Step 6 .
    • Delete the route. You can create a route when you are ready.
    • Leave the route in the Stopped state. You can restart it or delete it at a later date.

  6. To resume or restart a route:
    1. View the properties page for the route. See Route Properties Page.
    2. From the page Actions menu or toolbar, click Resume Route or Restart Route. If the route was stopped because someone rejected a task, you can only restart the route; you cannot resume it from the stopped location.

      A route cannot be started, resumed, or restarted if the current state of any attached content is different from the defined blocking state for the route. For more information, see Specifying a Blocked State for a Route.