In production offices, the "chain of approval" involves a hierarchical process where each submission (like Start Packs, Timesheets, Invoices, etc) is reviewed by one or more approvers or counter-signers to ensure accuracy, compliance, and proper documentation for audits.

Within the Circus platform, each product has its own unique Chain of Approval, allowing individuals to approve submissions relevant to their roles. For instance, a studio executive might be included in the Start Pack's chain of approval to approve deals involving a kit or allowance, but they wouldn't be involved in the Timesheets approval flow. This ensures that approvals are handled by the appropriate personnel.

To create or edit a chain of approval, click on the production from your main dashboard. On the production dashboard, and in the the left-navigation menu, click on the production settings icon. From there you can navigate to any product to edit its chain of approval.

Since each product has its own unique Chain of Approval, each chain can be activated and edited separately.

Although certain products like Invoices or Timesheet can be disabled, thus no chain of approval would be required, for Start Packs it is mandatory to have at least one person in the chain of approval and therefore activated by default since there is always at least one contract signed between the production and worker.

Start Packs reach the chain of approval the moment it is submitted by the Worker. The Start Pack will not be fully executed until each person in each Approver Step has either approved or countersigned the required documents.

To edit the Start Packs chain of approval, click on 'Start Pack Approvals' from the left-menu navigation in the production settings.

When Daily Reports are activated, the production office can indicate who from each department can create and submit a Daily Report. When that Daily Report is submitted, an approval chain can be managed to indicate who should approve each Daily Report, and in what order.

To edit the Daily Reports chain of approval, click on 'Daily Reports' from the left-menu navigation in the production settings, then enable Daily Reports by clicking the toggle on.

When Timesheets are activated, all workers invited as employees will have access to submit a Timesheet from their dashboard. When a Timesheet is submitted, an approval chain can be created to indicate who should approve each Timesheet, and in what order.

To edit the Timesheets chain of approval, click on 'Timesheets' from the left-menu navigation in the production settings, then enable Timesheets by clicking the toggle on.

When Invoices are activated, all workers invited to a production will have access to submit an Invoice from their dashboard. When an Invoice is submitted, an approval chain can be created to indicate who should approve each Invoice, and in what order.

To edit the Invoices chain of approval, click on 'Invoices' from the left-menu navigation in the production settings, then enable Invoices by clicking the toggle on.

Payroll Runs reach the chain of approval the moment it is submitted by the Worker.

Each approver can be added to an 'Approver Step,' which can include multiple people. This way, the whole group acts as a single step in the approval process.

Before adding anyone to the chain of approval, each person must have already been invited to the production, either with or without a Start Pack. When an approver is added to any Approver Step, they are automatically granted Manager Access.

To add an approver into an Approver Step, simply click on the large input, and search for any person already invited to the production by either name, email or role, then click 'Add'. You can continue to add more people to this Approver Step by repeating these steps.

Or, click on the 'Add Approver Group' button below to add another Approver Step.

To re-order an Approver Step, simply click and drag the drag icon to move those approver/s up or down in the chain.

At the moment, responsibilities can only be added to Approver Step in the Start Packs chain of approval. For example, you may want a Studio Executive to countersign a Start Pack if the worker has indicated that they have a conflict of interest on the production because their mother is the director.

The following responsibilities are available with the ability to:

In addition, if anything above is flagged as a unique approve, you can indicate if they need to countersign either:

For certain products, Approvers in the last step of a chain of approval have unique flows.

When Payroll is activated on a production in conjunction with Timesheets, and anyone in the last step in the chain of approval approves a Timesheet, that Timesheet will immediately be added to a draft payroll run.

Also, when Accounts Payable is activated on a production and both the production and worker has connected their bank account, anyone in the last step of the chain of approval has the ability to payout that invoice.

To remove an approver from an Approver Step or to replace them with someone else, simply click on the delete icon next to their name, then follow the steps above to add another approver.

To remove an entire Approver Step, click on the delete icon next to the search input.

If for any reason the Chain of Approval has been altered, there are unique cases where a submission may be in 'limbo', for example, If a Start Pack is labeled as 'Pending Review' with no designated approver or countersigner.

To reset the approval chain of a submission, simply click on the more (3 dots) icon next to the submission, then select 'Reset Approvals'. This will kick the submission back to the first person in the Chain of Approval to ensure they are approved or signed by everyone.

If it's your turn to review, you'll receive an email notification for each submission. If you're already logged in, click the tasks icon in the bottom left of your screen to see all the actions you need to take.

The following roles are authorized to sign Directors Guild of Canada Forms.

Inviting Workers

Backstaging Workers

Managing Permissions

Managing Production Settings