In GrantsConnect, approval activity is clearly captured within workflow status/activity history, including timestamps and the user who performed the approval action. However, within the Applications/Nominations reporting area, there is currently a reportable field for Approved Date but no equivalent field for Approved By.

For organizations operating under Delegation of Authority (DOA) or governance approval thresholds, being able to report on who performed the approval is just as critical as when the approval occurred.

Today, administrators must rely on workarounds such as:

• creating form submissions with dropdown fields capturing approver names, or

• manually reviewing activity logs

Even though the system already records the user associated with the approval status/activity change.

Current Limitation:

• Approval date is reportable.

• Approval user (“Approved By”) is not available as a standalone reportable field.

• Approval identity appears to exist only within workflow activity/status logs, not within reporting datasets.

This creates inefficiency and potential control risk when organizations need to validate that approvals align with required authority levels prior to releasing payments.

Example Use Case:

Our organization uses merge documents to generate payment release summaries for internal reviewers. Before releasing funds, we must confirm that the correct approval authority (based on DOA thresholds) completed the approval.

Because “Approved By” is not reportable:

• We currently maintain form-based dropdown fields to capture approver identity.

• This duplicates information already recorded by the platform.

• It introduces unnecessary manual steps and potential inconsistency with the system-of-record approval action.

If “Approved By” were available in Applications/Nominations reporting, it could be incorporated directly into merge documents, payment review workflows, and external reporting.

Business Value:

• Strengthens governance and DOA validation controls prior to payment release

• Reduces reliance on duplicate form fields and manual tracking

• Allows merge documents to reflect authoritative approval data directly from system activity logs

• Improves audit transparency and traceability

• Reinforces GrantsConnect as the system of record (for approval authority, and in totality)