Permit to Work approvers & notifications

Permit to Work approvers & notifications

This step of the Permit to Work Info Pack looks at setting up notifications and approvers and the best approach with how to manage. Both steps are crucial to a well-functioning Permit to Work system.

 
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Approvers

Permit approvers are required for the PTW system to function. There’s common misconception between administrators and permit approvers. Permit Approvers need to be existing administrators, however, being an administrator doesn’t guarantee that you’re a permit approver. You must manually enable an administrator as an approver. Plus, adding someone as an approver is completed in a completely different area of the system as opposed to changing the role of an admin.

Who should be an approver?

Clients should select administrators who have a strong understanding of Workplace Health & Safety (WHS) and can accurately judge the risks associated with works on their sites.

When configuring a user as a permit approver, keep the following best practices in mind:
  1. Site-Specific Restrictions are Crucial: Ensure the administrator's profile is restricted ONLY to the specific sites they are responsible for. Because Rapid routes notifications based on an admin's profile settings, they will be bombarded with irrelevant alerts for other locations if their access is too broad.
  2. Streamline the List: Most of the time, clients can assign the exact same list of approvers to every single permit form. The system will automatically do the heavy lifting, only alerting an approver if the submission matches a site assigned to their admin profile.


How to add an approver

  1. Go to Permit → Settings
  2. Enter the Manage Permit Forms area
  3. Press the Approvers button to the right of the relevant permit:



  4. Tick the relevant administrator(s)
  5. Press the Save button:





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Notifications

Permit to Work notifications ensure that permit approvers are alerted the moment a work order changes status, preventing submissions from getting lost and ensuring timely approvals.

Rather than adding administrators individually, the system uses a notification receiver group called Permit Approvers (located within Access -> Site Info). An administrator will automatically receive these alerts if they are configured as an approver for a permit included in the submission, and their profile is linked to that specific site.

 

To ensure approvers stay informed without being overloaded with email noise, it is highly recommended to configure the following three notification types:
  1. Work Order Requires Approval: Instantly alerts the approver when a contractor submits a work order that requires manual review before they can sign in.
  2. Work Order Auto Approved: Notifies the approver when a work order bypasses the manual queue and is automatically approved by the system.
  3. Contractor Work Order Overdue: Triggers an alert if a contractor remains signed into a site past their estimated departure time (plus the buffer set in your site settings).
Info
For new sites, these notification settings are enabled by default.

 

What is the Contractor Work Order Overdue notification?

During a work order submission, the contractor must specify how many hours they estimate the job will take.

 

The Contractor Work Order Overdue setting allows the client to establish a standardised site timeframe for daily works. If a worker stays signed into a work order past their own estimated hours PLUS the duration limit defined in this setting, the system flags them as overdue and alerts the assigned permit approvers to prompt a safety check-in.

 


How to create notifications for permit approvers

  1. Go to Access → Site Info
  2. Select your site
  3. Enter the Notification Settings area
  4. Press the Add New Notification Receiver button
  5. Select Permit Approvers from the Create Notification For: dropdown
  6. Tick the relevant notification types you wish for them to receive
  7. Press the Save button:






Notes
Proceed to the next page in the Permit to Work Information Pack: Activating Permit to Work

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