Manager Approvals Queue

When you’ve delegated packing to staff but kept the bigger calls for yourself — refunds, item swaps, return resolutions — the approvals queue is the workflow that lets both sides keep moving without standing over each other’s shoulders.

The big picture

Packsie splits dashboard actions into two groups:

• Self-service — actions any permitted staff member can do without checking with you: marking orders packed, marking items unavailable as backorder, recording inspection condition, leaving notes. These execute immediately for whoever clicks the button.
• Approval-gated — actions that move money or change inventory: refunds, substitutes, return resolutions. For staff who don’t have approval authority, these queue for someone who does. For staff who DO have approval authority, they execute immediately.

The queue is what holds the request between “the packer wants to do X” and “the manager has decided about X”. Pending requests show up in three places, all driven by the same data: a bell icon in the WP admin bar, an Approvals tab in the wp-admin Operations dashboard, and an Approvals tab in the frontend staff dashboard.

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Who can approve?

Approval authority is set per-role in the Tab Permissions matrix at Tracksies > Settings > Packsie > Tab Permissions. There are five columns:

Administrator and Shop Manager get all five by default (because both have manage_woocommerce which Packsie treats as a global override). Other roles get whatever you tick.

The Approvals column is separate from Refunds on purpose. They cover different jobs:

• Refunds only — can issue refunds on their own work without queuing, but doesn’t see other people’s queue. Useful for a Senior Packer who handles their own customer issues.
• Approvals only — sees the queue + approves other people’s requests, but their OWN refund clicks still queue for someone else. Useful for a Returns Lead who reviews everyone else’s work without packing themselves.
• Both ticked — does both jobs.
• Neither — pure packer/inspector role; flags things, gets approval, gets on with the next thing.

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What goes in the queue

For a staff member without the Refunds permission, four kinds of action queue instead of executing:

For staff WITH the Refunds permission, all of these execute immediately (refund fires through WooCommerce, substitute annotates the order, etc.). Same UI either way — only the flow differs.

Other actions (mark packed, contact customer, record inspection condition, add notes) execute immediately for everyone. The queue is only for the money-or-stock moments.

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Three places to action the queue

Bell icon in the WP admin bar

When approval-permitted staff are logged in, a bell icon appears in the top-right WP admin bar with a count badge. The badge shows how many requests are pending across the whole shop.

Hover the bell to drop down a submenu with up to 5 most recent requests, each labeled with action type, item, requester, and age. Click a row to jump straight to that approval in the operations dashboard. Click “View full queue →” at the bottom for the complete list.

The bell appears on every wp-admin page so you can action queued items while you’re doing other admin work — no need to navigate to a specific page.

Approvals tab in wp-admin Operations dashboard

At Operations > Approvals (the third tab next to Packing and Returns), you get the full master-detail view:

• Top: Status filter — Open (currently pending) or Closed for the day (approved or rejected today, so you can see what’s been actioned).
• Left: List of approval cards, each showing the action type pill, item name, requester, and age.
• Right: Full detail of whichever card you’ve selected.

The detail panel shows everything you need to decide: order context, customer name and email, item name and SKU, quantity, amount, reason, requester, age, plus the notes thread.

Approvals tab in the frontend staff dashboard

If you’ve ticked the Approvals permission for any role that uses the frontend dashboard (warehouse tablet), they get the same Approvals tab inline with their other tabs (Orders, Returns, Customers).

Useful for a senior packer or returns lead who’s already on the dashboard packing — they don’t need to switch contexts to wp-admin to action requests.

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The notes thread

Every pending approval has a notes thread. Each note has a visibility setting:

Use Internal when you’re going back-and-forth with the requester (“did you check the back room?”). Use Customer now when your approval reply IS the customer comm (“approved — refund processed today, sorry about the damaged item”).

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Three ways to respond

Each pending approval has three response buttons:

Approve

Do exactly what was requested. The action fires immediately:

• Refund → WooCommerce creates the refund through your normal payment gateway flow
• Substitute → Order item gets a Substitute approved: SKU-XYZ annotation visible to the packer
• Return resolution → Status updates with your name + timestamp on the audit trail

Approve with change

Modify the request before approving. Different prompt depending on action type:

• Refund → “Approved amount” prompt (e.g. requester asked for full refund, you approve a partial)
• Substitute → “Approved substitute SKU” prompt (requester suggested SKU-A, you say “use SKU-B instead”)
• Return resolution → resolution-choice picker

The modified value is what executes, and the audit trail records both the original request and your modification.

Reject

Decline the request with a reason. The reason is captured on the audit trail and visible to the requester so they understand. Common rejection reasons:

• “Don’t substitute — we’ll backorder”
• “Don’t refund full — see my note about partial refund instead”
• “Get me a photo of the damage first”

Rejection clears the pending state on the order item too — so the packer can pick a different action (e.g. backorder instead of substitute) and proceed.

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What the packer sees while pending

When a packer requests something, the order doesn’t get held up. The item that’s pending stays visible in their item list with two visual changes:

• The selectable checkbox is replaced with a small pause icon so they can tell at a glance “I can’t pack this right now”
• A yellow On hold — awaiting [refund/substitute/etc.] approval — requested by [name] [age] ago callout appears under the item’s SKU

The order card in the packing list also gets a yellow N on hold badge alongside the existing badges (priority, customer note, etc.), so packers can scan their list and see at a glance which orders have blocked work.

When you resolve the approval:

• Approved-as-is or rejected → the pending state clears; item returns to its normal state in the packer’s view
• Approved-as-substitute → the item now shows a blue Substitute approved: SKU-XYZ by [your name] callout instead. The packer reads exactly which SKU to use when they pack.

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What gets logged

Every approvals event lands in the Packsie audit log at Operations > Audit Log (or Tracksies > Audit Log depending on your nav setup):

• Request queued (with action type + requester + order/item)
• Note posted (with visibility level)
• Approved (with modification if any + your name)
• Rejected (with reason + your name)

Filterable by event type, user, or date range. So when you’re trying to remember “why did we substitute that item three weeks ago”, the trail is there with names and dates.

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Optional: PIN re-entry on refund

If your shop has the staff PIN gate enabled (see Staff Dashboard Security), you can also turn on PIN re-entry on refund at Tracksies > Settings > Packsie > Security. With it on, every Approve click on a refund request asks you to re-enter your PIN — even if your PIN session is still valid.

The PIN check uses a single-use token that expires in 60 seconds and can’t be replayed. It’s a small confirmation gate at the moment money moves, useful for shops where the same person packs and approves and you want one extra check before pressing Approve on something high-value.

Substitute and return-resolution approvals don’t ask for PIN re-entry (they’re decisions, not money moves). Only refund-shaped approvals do.

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Related

• Staff Dashboard Security — Staff PIN gate, idle lock, and refund PIN re-entry
• Staff Roles & Access Control — Setting up the Approvals permission for custom roles
• Packing Dashboard — How the on-hold UX appears to packers in their order view
• Returns Dashboard — Inspecting returns + how returns resolutions queue for approval