# Escalate an approval that has waited more than 3 days

When a document sits on one approval stage past your limit, email the approver's manager and bump the item's priority — an Age of Stage trigger on the approval process plus Send E-mail and Change Priority actions, checked every hour.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.8+ · Audience: catalog-administrator · Time: 20 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/workflow/escalate-an-approval-that-has-waited-too-long

**When you're done, any document that has sat on a given approval stage for more than three days gets its priority raised and an email goes to the person who can unblock it — automatically, every hour, until it moves.**

```plan
scope: document-type
trigger: Approval Processes › Age of Stage | Approval Process: your process · Stage: the one that stalls · Age: 3 Days · Process Interval: Every Hour · Reprocess Matching Records After: 1 Days
action: Approval Process - Change Priority | Priority: Highest
action: Send E-mail | Message Template: "Approval overdue" (Email, Workflow Access)
rule: "Stage waited 3 days → escalate", enabled
```

## Before you build: check what's already there

Open the document type's **Triggers** list. If you see system records named like `[Your Process] Stage 1 Deadline` with **Type** `Approval Processes` and **Sub-Type** `StageAge`, those belong to the approval process's own deadline settings — they can't be deleted and you shouldn't edit them. Build your escalation alongside them with its own name.

## Build the trigger

1. Go to **Administration** > **Catalogs & Document Types**, pick the **Catalog** and **Document Type**, click the **Workflow** tile, then **Triggers** > **New Trigger**.

2. **Type:** `Approval Processes` and `Age of Stage`. **Trigger Name:** `Stage 1 waited 3 days`.

3. **Approval-Process Evaluation:** `Single Approval Process`. **Approval Process:** pick the process. **Stage:** the stage that tends to stall — usually the first.

4. **Age:** `3` `Days`.

5. **Process Interval:** `Every Hour` (**on Minute** `0`). **Process Start:** `On First Interval`.

6. **Reprocess Matching Records After:** `1` `Days` — a still-stuck document escalates again tomorrow, not every hour.

7. Click **Save**.

**What you should see:** a **Scheduled** trigger in the list. It can't fire before the first interval passes.

## Build the actions

1. Click **Actions** > **New Action**. **Type:** `Approval Process - Change Priority`. **Action Name:** `Raise to highest priority`. **Priority:** `Highest`. **Save**.

2. **New Action** again. **Type:** `Send E-mail`. **Action Name:** `Email manager — approval overdue`. **Scope Type:** where your template lives; **Message Template:** the escalation template, whose **To** is the manager and whose body uses insert codes for the document name and how long it has waited. **Save**.

## Wire the rule

1. Click **Rules** > **New Rule**. **Rule Name:** `Stage waited 3 days → escalate`.

2. **Add Trigger:** `Stage 1 waited 3 days`. **Add Action:** `Raise to highest priority`, then **Add Action:** `Email manager — approval overdue`. **Apply**.

## Test it

1. Start the approval on one test document and leave it untouched. To avoid waiting three days, temporarily set the trigger's **Age:** to `5` `Minutes` and **Process Interval:** to `Every 5 Minutes`; restore both afterward.

2. After the interval, check the manager's inbox and the approver's **Queues** > **Approval** tab.

**What you should see:** the email, and the item now sorted to the top of the approver's queue with the raised priority. The document's **View History** lists both actions. If nothing fires, [A document is stuck in — or skipped — approval](/content-central/workflow/document-stuck-in-approval) and [A scheduled workflow didn't run](/content-central/workflow/scheduled-workflow-didnt-run) cover the two halves of the problem.

## Variations

| Want this instead | Change this |
| --- | --- |
| Watch the whole process, not one stage | Sub-type **Age of Process** instead of **Age of Stage** |
| Remind the *approver* first, escalate to the manager later | Two triggers (`1 Days` and `3 Days`), two rules, two templates |
| Skip the approver entirely after a week | Action **Approval Process - Change Stage** with **Stage Change:** `Approve to Member` — only if your policy allows workflow to approve on someone's behalf |
| Watch a group of processes at once | **Approval-Process Evaluation:** `Approval-Process Group` and pick the group |
| Also send an in-product message | Action **Send Internal Message** |
| Count items rather than age ("more than 20 waiting") | Trigger sub-type **Items in Stage** with **Minimum Items on the Stage:** |

## What's next

- [A document is stuck in — or skipped — approval](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/workflow/document-stuck-in-approval)
- [Approval settings that change behavior](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/workflow/approval-settings-that-change-behavior)
- [Cover an absence with user substitution](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/administration/cover-an-absence-with-user-substitution)