Create Approval Tasks from Form Submission (Part 1)

This script creates approval task child records under a parent record based on business rules such as type, category, and value.

Use Case

Use this when you want a form submission or record creation to automatically:

• Route approvals based on conditions
• Create multi-step approval workflows
• Skip approvals for certain cases (small value, pass-through, etc.)

Examples:

• Expense approvals based on amount and department
• Purchase requests routed through finance and leadership
• Vendor onboarding approvals based on category
• Donations or grants requiring multi-level approval

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What It Does

On trigger, the script will:

1. Read the triggering parent record from input.recordId
2. Evaluate whether approval is required
3. If not required:
   • Mark the record as Approved
   • Skip all approval steps
4. If required:
   • Determine the approval path based on record data
   • Create approval task child records
   • Set the first task to Pending Approval
   • Set remaining tasks to Waiting
   • Set the parent record to In Review
   • Set the current approval stage

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Key Concept

Instead of embedding approval logic inside forms or workflows, this approach:

• Models each approval step as a child record
• Uses sequence-based progression
• Keeps a clear audit trail of decisions
• Allows workflows to scale without becoming brittle

This structure works across domains where approvals depend on multiple conditions and stakeholders.

Configuration

Key	Description	Example
parent.fields.donationType	Field storing the type of request	Donation Type
parent.fields.donationCategory	Field storing category used for routing	Donation Category
parent.fields.donationValue	Numeric field used for conditional logic	Donation Value
parent.fields.status	Parent record status field	Status
parent.fields.currentApprovalStage	Tracks current approval stage	Current Approval Stage
parent.statuses.inReview	Status when approvals are in progress	In Review
parent.statuses.approved	Status when auto-approved or completed	Approved
child.type	Child record type for approval steps	Approval Task
child.fields.approval	Field storing approval state	Approval
child.fields.sequence	Field storing step order	Seq
child.fields.approvalStage	Field storing step name	Approval Stage
child.fields.department	Field storing assigned department	Department
child.statuses.pending	Active approval step	Pending Approval
child.statuses.waiting	Future steps not yet active	Waiting

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Inputs

Input	Required	Description
recordId	Yes	Parent record ID from the workflow trigger

---

Outputs

Output	Description
createdCount	Number of approval task records created

Script

const CONFIG = {
  parent: {
    fields: {
      donationType: "Donation Type",
      donationCategory: "Donation Category",
      donationValue: "Donation Value",
      status: "Status",
      currentApprovalStage: "Current Approval Stage",
    },
    statuses: {
      inReview: "In Review",
      approved: "Approved",
    },
  },

  child: {
    type: "Approval Task",
    fields: {
      approval: "Approval",
      sequence: "Seq",
      approvalStage: "Approval Stage",
      department: "Department",
    },
    statuses: {
      waiting: "Waiting",
      pending: "Pending Approval",
    },
  },
};

if (!input.recordId) {
  throw new Error("No Donation record ID provided.");
}

const donation = await anydb.getRecordById(input.recordId);

if (!donation) {
  throw new Error(`Donation not found: ${input.recordId}`);
}

const values = donation.cellValues || {};

const donationType = String(values[CONFIG.parent.fields.donationType] || "").toLowerCase();
const donationCategory = String(values[CONFIG.parent.fields.donationCategory] || "").toLowerCase();
const donationValue = Number(values[CONFIG.parent.fields.donationValue] || 0);

function getDepartment(category) {
  const map = {
    media: "Media & Ed Tech",
    supplies: "Curriculum & Instruction",
    tech: "IT Office",
    pe: "PE / Health / Dance",
    other: "Safety / Risk",
    fac: "School Facilities",
  };
  return map[category] || "Department Approval";
}

function addStep(steps, stage, department) {
  steps.push({
    sequence: steps.length + 1,
    stage,
    department,
  });
}

const approvalSteps = [];

// Gate checks
const approvalNotRequired =
  donationType === "pass-through" ||
  donationType === "vehicle" ||
  donationValue < 500;

if (approvalNotRequired) {
  await anydb.updateRecord({
    adoid: donation.id,
    cellValues: {
      [CONFIG.parent.fields.status]: CONFIG.parent.statuses.approved,
      [CONFIG.parent.fields.currentApprovalStage]: "No approval required",
    },
  });

  output.set("createdCount", 0);
  return;
}

// Routing
if (donationType === "cash") {
  addStep(approvalSteps, "Finance Approval", "Finance");
  addStep(approvalSteps, "Division of Schools Approval", "Division of Schools");
  addStep(approvalSteps, "Board Acceptance", "Board of Education");
} else if (donationType === "non-cash") {
  const dept = getDepartment(donationCategory);

  addStep(approvalSteps, "Department Approval", dept);
  addStep(approvalSteps, "Division of Schools Approval", "Division of Schools");
  addStep(approvalSteps, "Board Acceptance", "Board of Education");
}

// Create tasks
let createdCount = 0;

for (const step of approvalSteps) {
  await anydb.yield();

  const status =
    step.sequence === 1
      ? CONFIG.child.statuses.pending
      : CONFIG.child.statuses.waiting;

  await anydb.createRecord({
    name: `${step.sequence}. ${step.stage}`,
    parentid: donation.id,
    typename: CONFIG.child.type,
    cellValues: {
      [CONFIG.child.fields.approval]: status,
      [CONFIG.child.fields.sequence]: step.sequence,
      [CONFIG.child.fields.approvalStage]: step.stage,
      [CONFIG.child.fields.department]: step.department,
    },
  });

  createdCount++;
}

// Update parent
await anydb.updateRecord({
  adoid: donation.id,
  cellValues: {
    [CONFIG.parent.fields.status]: CONFIG.parent.statuses.inReview,
    [CONFIG.parent.fields.currentApprovalStage]: approvalSteps[0].stage,
  },
});

output.set("createdCount", createdCount);