The "Settings → Communication → Reasons for cancellation, exemption, and approval" function lists the available reasons for cancellation, approval, declination, and exemption, which are selectable in certain enrolment processes. These reasons are configurable, saved in the order data for a participant for a given Course or Learning Path, and can often be reported on and used in some notifications. Each type of reason is explained below:
Functions of the Reasons for Cancellation, Exemption, and Approval Manager
New
Reason for Approval
Approval reasons are configured to provide default selection values for Supervisors or Administrators when course requests are approved. The available settings and types of approval when creating or editing are described:
Provider
Restricts the selection of the reason so that it can only be selected for training delivered by the assigned providers. The provider assignment uses a multi-selection field, allowing any combination of providers to be assigned to a single reason.
All Providers
A checkbox that, when checked, assigns the reason to all providers regardless of individual provider selection. When the "All Providers" checkbox is active, the provider multi-selection field is disabled (greyed out).
Multi-Selection Behaviour
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked, the provider selection field allows the selection of one or more providers via a multi-selection pop-up window. Only the selected providers will have access to this reason in their respective processes.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is checked, the reason is available for all providers and the multi-selection field is inactive.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked and no providers are selected, the reason is only available for courses that have no provider assigned.
For courses without any provider assigned, only reasons that have no provider selection (i.e., "All Providers" unchecked and no individual providers selected) are available. A reason that has at least one provider assigned will not be displayed for courses without a provider. If the same reason is required for both provider-specific courses and courses without a provider, the reason must be created separately for each scenario.
Types of Approval
Single- or multi-select options can be selected by holding the "Ctrl" key; the options are explained below:
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Approved by the administrator: The request is approved in the "Booking requests" panel or Participant administration "Requests" tab by an Administrator.
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Approved by supervisor: The request is approved in the "Booking requests" panel by either the requestor's direct Supervisor (SUPERIOR_EMAIL attribute), a Supervisor of their assigned BU groups, or a directly selected Supervisor (SUPERIOR_ID attribute).
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Approved (multi-approval): The request is approved in the "Booking requests" area by the approval step defined in the multiple approval process (superior/group).
Status
Selection that determines the status of the reason and whether it can be selected in the approval process.
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Active - Able to be selected
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Inactive - Unable to be selected
Name
The reason is displayed to users when approving, and the displayed value is recorded. This field is available for completion in all activated system languages.
If matching approval reasons are found, a dialogue is shown when a course request is approved via the "Booking Request" panel (ID 173). If no matching course approval reasons are found, the "Reason for approval" select field is not shown, and only the text area can be populated.
Reason for Declination
Declination reasons are configured to provide default reasoning when Supervisors or Administrators decline course requests. The available settings and types of declination when creating or editing are described below:
Provider
Restricts the selection of the reason so that it can only be selected for training delivered by the assigned providers. The provider assignment uses a multi-selection field, allowing any combination of providers to be assigned to a single reason.
All Providers
A checkbox that, when checked, assigns the reason to all providers regardless of individual provider selection. When the "All Providers" checkbox is active, the provider multi-selection field is disabled (greyed out).
Multi-Selection Behaviour
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked, the provider selection field allows the selection of one or more providers via a multi-selection pop-up window. Only the selected providers will have access to this reason in their respective processes.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is checked, the reason is available for all providers and the multi-selection field is inactive.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked and no providers are selected, the reason is only available for courses that have no provider assigned.
For courses without any provider assigned, only reasons that have no provider selection (i.e., "All Providers" unchecked and no individual providers selected) are available. A reason that has at least one provider assigned will not be displayed for courses without a provider. If the same reason is required for both provider-specific courses and courses without a provider, the reason must be created separately for each scenario.
Types of Declination
Single- or multi-select options can be selected by holding the "Ctrl" key; the options are explained below:
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Declined by the administrator: The request is declined in the "Booking requests" panel or participant administration "Requests" tab by an Administrator.
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Declined by supervisor: The request is declined in the "Booking requests" panel by either the requestor's direct Supervisor (SUPERIOR_EMAIL attribute), a Supervisor of their assigned BU groups, or a directly selected Supervisor (SUPERIOR_ID attribute).
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Declined (Multi-approval): The request is declined in the "Booking requests" area by the approval step defined in the multiple approval process (superior/group).
Status
The selection determines the status of the reason and whether it can be selected in the cancellation process.
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Active - Able to be selected
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Inactive - Unable to be selected
Name
The reason is displayed to users when declining a request, and the displayed value is recorded. This field is available for completion in all activated system languages.
If matching declination reasons are found, a dialogue is shown when a course request is declined via the "Booking Request" panel (ID 173). If no matching course declination reasons are found, the "Reason for declining" select field is not shown, and only the text area can be populated.
Cancellation Reasons
Upon cancellation of Courses and Learning Paths, or participant enrolments to them, it is possible to select pre-defined Cancellation Reasons to record and communicate why the cancellation occurred. The selectable Cancellation Reasons can alter depending on the type of cancellation, time of cancellation, which Provider is delivering the training being canceled, and who is performing the cancellation. Cancellation Reasons can also be connected to Cancellation Fees in Course Types or Course Templates by creating "Cancellation-reason dependent" conditions. The available settings and types of cancellations when creating or editing are described:
Provider
Restricts the selection of the reason so that it can only be selected for training delivered by the assigned providers. The provider assignment uses a multi-selection field, allowing any combination of providers to be assigned to a single reason.
All Providers
A checkbox that, when checked, assigns the reason to all providers regardless of individual provider selection. When the "All Providers" checkbox is active, the provider multi-selection field is disabled (greyed out).
Multi-Selection Behaviour
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked, the provider selection field allows the selection of one or more providers via a multi-selection pop-up window. Only the selected providers will have access to this reason in their respective processes.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is checked, the reason is available for all providers and the multi-selection field is inactive.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked and no providers are selected, the reason is only available for courses that have no provider assigned.
For courses without any provider assigned, only reasons that have no provider selection (i.e., "All Providers" unchecked and no individual providers selected) are available. A reason that has at least one provider assigned will not be displayed for courses without a provider. If the same reason is required for both provider-specific courses and courses without a provider, the reason must be created separately for each scenario.
Types of Cancellation
Single- or multi-select options can be selected by holding the "Ctrl" key; the options are explained below:
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Self-cancellation: The reason is selectable when a Participant cancels or requests cancellation of their own enrolment. This requires the Course or Learning Path meta tag "Cancellation type" (ID 10038) to be set to either "Self-cancellation" or "Cancellation request".
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Third-party / Batch cancellation / Cancellation by Supervisor: The reason is selectable when cancellation is manually performed by another user or by a batch file cancellation.
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Cancellation of course: The reason is selectable when an Administrator changes the Course or Learning Path meta tag "Planning status" (ID 10072) to "Cancelled". The reason can be included in a Notification for course cancellation as a variable.
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Automatic cancellation due to unfulfilled prerequisites: In Courses, rules can be defined in the "Prerequisites" tab to determine conditions for a user to self-enrol for a Course. With the meta tags "Prerequisites must have been met at the time of enrolment" (ID 11838), "Automatic cancellation based on not fulfilled prerequisites" (ID 11801), and "Due date for the fulfillment of the mandatory requirements" (ID 12073), self-enrolment can temporarily be enabled for users who do not meet mandatory conditions, provided that the prerequisite conditions are met by a set date. If the mandatory conditions are not met by that date, the users can be cancelled automatically. This workflow requires Schedule Jobs (crons) "PrerequisiteCheck" and "PrerequisitesOverdueCancelJob" to be activated.
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Automatic cancellation from the waiting list: Users who are still on the waiting list are automatically cancelled when the course has the metatag “Automatic cancellation from the waiting list on the start date” enabled and configured (e.g.: 3 days before the course starts, all users on the waiting list are cancelled). This workflow requires Schedule Job (cron) "WaitingListCancellationJob" to be activated.
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Automatic cancellation for inactive users: Users with non-completed enrolment statuses (Enrolled, In progress, Requested, etc.) are automatically cancelled if their Authentication status personal attribute changes from "Active" to "Passive". This workflow requires Schedule Job (cron) "CancelInactiveUsersJob" to be activated.
Status
A selection that determines the status of the reason and whether it can be selected in the cancellation process.
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Active - Able to be selected.
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Inactive - Unable to be selected.
Name
The reason is displayed to users when cancelling, and the displayed value is recorded. This field is available for completion in all activated system languages.
Reasons for Exception
These reasons are used with the automatic enrolment workflow for courses, course templates and learning paths, or with target user assignment.
Provider
Restricts the selection of the reason so that it can only be selected for training delivered by the assigned providers. The provider assignment uses a multi-selection field, allowing any combination of providers to be assigned to a single reason.
All Providers
A checkbox that, when checked, assigns the reason to all providers regardless of individual provider selection. When the "All Providers" checkbox is active, the provider multi-selection field is disabled (greyed out).
Multi-Selection Behaviour
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked, the provider selection field allows the selection of one or more providers via a multi-selection pop-up window. Only the selected providers will have access to this reason in their respective processes.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is checked, the reason is available for all providers and the multi-selection field is inactive.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked and no providers are selected, the reason is only available for courses that have no provider assigned.
For courses without any provider assigned, only reasons that have no provider selection (i.e., "All Providers" unchecked and no individual providers selected) are available. A reason that has at least one provider assigned will not be displayed for courses without a provider. If the same reason is required for both provider-specific courses and courses without a provider, the reason must be created separately for each scenario.
Exception Type
Single- or multi-select options can be selected by holding the "Ctrl" key; the options are explained below:
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Inclusion: The reason is used to include a user in automatic enrolment for a Course, Course template, or Learning Path when the user does not belong to an assigned Group or Job Profile. Likewise, the reason can be applied to manually included users assigned to a Target Group when rule conditions are not met.
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Exclusion by administrator: Reasons can be selected by an administrator to indicate why a user does not need to be automatically enrolled in training or assigned to a target group despite meeting the conditions.
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Exclusion by supervisor: Reasons can be selected by a supervisor to indicate why their staff member does not need to be automatically enrolled in training despite meeting the conditions.
Status
The selection determines the status of the reason and whether it can be selected in the cancellation process.
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Active - Able to be selected
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Inactive - Unable to be selected
Name
Is the reason displayed to users when an exception is made and what is recorded? This field will be available to populate for all activated system languages.
Priority for Multi-approval Workflow
The priorities can be assigned to an approval step of a multiple authorization workflow. The priority helps to decide whether a booking should be rejected or approved.
Provider
Restricts the selection of the reason so that it can only be selected for training delivered by the assigned providers. The provider assignment uses a multi-selection field, allowing any combination of providers to be assigned to a single reason.
All Providers
A checkbox that, when checked, assigns the reason to all providers regardless of individual provider selection. When the "All Providers" checkbox is active, the provider multi-selection field is disabled (greyed out).
Multi-Selection Behaviour
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked, the provider selection field allows the selection of one or more providers via a multi-selection pop-up window. Only the selected providers will have access to this reason in their respective processes.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is checked, the reason is available for all providers and the multi-selection field is inactive.
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When the "All Providers" checkbox is not checked and no providers are selected, the reason is only available for courses that have no provider assigned.
For courses without any provider assigned, only reasons that have no provider selection (i.e., "All Providers" unchecked and no individual providers selected) are available. A reason that has at least one provider assigned will not be displayed for courses without a provider. If the same reason is required for both provider-specific courses and courses without a provider, the reason must be created separately for each scenario.
Types of Priority
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Approval priority: Priority that can be selected as a decision aid for approval during a multi-approval workflow.
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Declination priority: Priority that can be selected as a decision aid for declination during a multi-approval workflow.
Status
Selection that determines the status of the priority and indicates whether it can be selected in the process.
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Active - Able to be selected
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Inactive - Unable to be selected
Value
Two-digit value to express the priority, e.g. 1 = high, 2 = medium, 3 = low.
Name
Is the name of the priority that is displayed to users when a multi-approval workflow is run. This field can be filled in for all activated system languages.
Edit
These reasons may be referenced in active enrolment and approval workflows, so review any current process dependencies before deleting them.
Delete
Deleting a reason can affect workflows, reporting, and notifications that rely on the stored reason value. Confirm that the reason is no longer required before removing it.
Clearances
Hints & Tips
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With new systems check the default reason Status and Provider settings of the default reasons to determine which are required to be "Active".
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Clearances are important to define which users or groups are able to see and edit reasons.
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Many on-screen course reports allow adding a column "Reason for approval/declination/cancellation" that provides valuable information if filtering on users with a "Cancelled" status.
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Enrolment messages and notifications related to cancellation can include the variable $cancellation_reason$ to include the selected cancellation reasons.
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If desiring to use the Prerequisites with automatic cancellation workflow it might be required to add the meta tags to the Course Template before creating the Course. This is because these meta tags would not have been available for customers who implemented their systems prior to 2023. Also, check the required scheduled cron jobs are active as these are not configured by default.
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The provider field supports multi-selection, allowing a single reason to be assigned to multiple providers without creating duplicates. Use the "All Providers" checkbox to quickly make a reason available across all providers. If no providers should be assigned (e.g., for courses without a provider), leave the selection field empty and the checkbox unchecked
Related Functions & Topics
Course Participation Administration