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Multi-tier compliance approval

Every compliance submission moves through a chain of reviewers before it counts as approved. The chain has up to three tiers — chapter, regional, org — and each tier is gated to a specific role.

This page walks through the whole cascade, who can act where, what happens on a reject, and the rules for skipping tiers.

The cascade​

When a submission is created, the platform picks an initial tier based on who submitted it:

SubmitterStarts at
Regular chapter memberPending chapter
Chapter officer or presidentPending regional (if the chapter has a region) or Pending org (if it doesn't)

From there, an approval at each tier moves the submission to the next tier. A rejection at any tier ends the cycle — the requirement flips to Rejected and the chapter has to resubmit.

Member submits           Officer submits
      │                         │
      ▼                         │
Pending chapter ─approve────┐   │
      │                     │   │
   reject                   ▼   ▼
      │              Pending regional  ←─── (if chapter has a region)
      ▼                     │
  Rejected               approve ─────┐
      │                     │         │
 (resubmit)              reject       ▼
                            │   Pending org
                            ▼         │
                        Rejected   approve ────► Approved
                                      │
                                   reject
                                      │
                                      ▼
                                  Rejected

If the chapter has no region assigned, the regional tier is skipped entirely — chapter approval (or officer self-submission) routes straight to Pending org.

Tier 1: Chapter review​

Submissions in Pending chapter are reviewed by chapter officers or presidents of that specific chapter. Org admins can also act at this tier — see "Auto-escalation" below.

Who can act​

  • Chapter officers and the chapter president, drawn from active membership in the chapter.
  • Org admins of the chapter's organization.
  • Platform admins (super-admin override; rare).

Regional admins cannot approve at this tier. Officers from a different chapter cannot approve at this tier.

What happens on approve​

The platform stamps the reviewer's name, timestamp, and notes onto the chapter-review fields, then advances the submission to the next tier:

  • Pending regional if the chapter has a region.
  • Pending org if the chapter has no region.

What happens on reject​

The requirement flips to Rejected. The chapter-review reviewer, timestamp, and notes are recorded so the chapter can see who rejected and why. The chapter can submit again — a fresh submission re-enters the workflow at the tier appropriate for the new submitter (chapter for members, regional/org for officers).

Why this tier exists​

Chapter officers catch obvious problems before regional or national staff have to look at the submission — missing attendees, the wrong file, a typo on a count. It also makes officers accountable for what leaves their chapter.

Tier 2: Regional review​

Submissions in Pending regional are reviewed by the regional admin assigned to the chapter's region. This tier only exists when the chapter has a region.

Who can act​

  • Regional admins of the chapter's region.
  • Org admins of the chapter's organization (auto-escalation).
  • Platform admins.

Chapter officers cannot review at this tier — once a submission has cleared their chapter review, it's out of their hands.

What happens on approve​

The reviewer, timestamp, and notes are stamped onto the regional-review fields and the submission advances to Pending org.

What happens on reject​

Same behavior as chapter rejection — the requirement flips to Rejected, the regional-review fields capture who rejected and why, and the chapter can resubmit. The submission does not drop back to chapter review; the chapter has to send a brand new submission.

Why this tier exists​

Regional admins see patterns across their chapters (e.g., "this colony's GPA report doesn't look right compared to its sisters"). They're also a sanity check between local officers and national HQ.

Tier 3: Org review​

Submissions in Pending org are reviewed by national admins of the organization. This is the final tier — an approval here flips the requirement to Approved and it's done.

Who can act​

  • Org / national admins of the chapter's organization.
  • Platform admins.

Nobody else. Regional admins and chapter officers cannot act at this tier.

What happens on approve​

The reviewer, timestamp, and notes are stamped onto the org-review fields and the requirement flips to Approved. For count-tracked requirements, the approved count contributes to the chapter's progress on that template.

What happens on reject​

The requirement flips to Rejected with the org-review fields populated. The chapter can resubmit — and once they do, the new submission has to climb the cascade again from the bottom.

Auto-escalation: org admins acting at any tier​

Org admins are not constrained to the org tier. If you're a national admin reviewing the pending queue and you see a submission still sitting at the chapter or regional tier, you can approve it directly — the platform auto-escalates through all remaining tiers and flips the requirement straight to Approved.

Use this sparingly. It bypasses the chain of checks that exists for a reason. But it's there for backlog clearing, end-of-period crunches, and chapters whose officers or regional admin have gone dark.

When an org admin auto-escalates from the chapter tier, the chapter-review fields are still populated with the org admin's name and notes (so the chapter sees who acted at their tier). The org-review fields are also populated, marking the final approval.

The submitter shortcut​

A submission by a chapter officer skips chapter review entirely. The thinking: an officer wouldn't approve their own submission anyway, so requiring chapter review just creates a self-referential loop. Officer-submitted requirements start at Pending regional (or Pending org if the chapter has no region) and climb from there.

Members submitting through officers is the path for everyone else.

What chapters see at each tier​

Each tier of the cascade is visible on the requirement detail page in the chapter compliance dashboard, as a timeline:

  1. Submitted — when, by whom.
  2. Chapter review — reviewer name + date, or "Skipped" (if officer submitted), or "Pending" (if waiting).
  3. Regional review — reviewer name + date, "N/A" (no region), or pending.
  4. Org review — reviewer name + date, or pending.
  5. Final — Approved or Rejected, with the final reviewer and any rejection notes.

This makes it obvious where a submission is stuck and who needs to act.

the multi-tier approval timeline on a requirement detail the multi-tier approval timeline on a requirement detail

Backlog management​

  • Submissions tab on the org compliance page shows everything currently in any pending state across the org.
  • Submissions on the regional view shows just the regional tier for that region.
  • Reviews can be done from the submission card directly or by drilling into a chapter and expanding the requirement.

There is no bulk-approve UI today. Each submission is reviewed individually so the reviewer has to actually look at the evidence.

Edge cases​

  • Chapter without a region. Tier 2 is skipped. Member submissions go chapter → org; officer submissions go straight to org.
  • Regional admin role removed mid-review. The submission stays at Pending regional but no one can act on it. An org admin can clear it via auto-escalation.
  • Officer who submitted leaves the chapter. No effect on submissions already in flight — they're attached to the submission record, not the user's current role.
  • Closed compliance period. Submissions in a closed period cannot move tiers — the cascade is paused. See Semester management.

Last verified against v0.62.1.