Authorisations and permits

Define permit types, let field staff request them from a job, and track validity and expiry in one place.

Permits, clearances and approvals rarely live inside one system — a council grants one, a client emails another. The Authorisations section tracks them all against the jobs they cover: what you hold, what is about to run out, and what is still waiting on a decision.

The Authorisations register: the Active, Expiring soon, Awaiting decision and Expired figures above the list of permits

Set up your types first

Open Authorisations and choose Authorisation types in the header. Type a New type name and choose Create, or pick one under Start from a template. A road opening notice, a hot works permit and a client access approval are each a type.

Each type carries its own fields, using the same seven kinds as job fields (text, number, date, dropdown, checkbox, file and link). Any field can be marked Required. Edit a type to set:

Offered to field staff — "Switch off to stop new requests without losing the records already under it."
Who is notified — the people told about new requests under this type. With nobody picked, everyone who holds Manage compliance is told.
When the work has not got this — how hard a missing permit bites, when a job needs one. What happens is Nothing — just keep track of it, Show a warning, let the work go ahead, Stop the work; a supervisor can allow it or Stop the work; nobody can allow it; From when is As soon as someone is put on the job, When the roster is published or When they start the work. A new type starts on Stop the work; a supervisor can allow it, at the start of the work.

The types list shows each type's setting in a line of its own, for example "Stops the work at the start of the work unless a supervisor allows it" or "Warns at the start of the work; the work can go ahead".

Managing types, adding records and recording decisions all need Manage compliance.

Requesting one from the job

Anyone who can open the job can ask for an authorisation against it:

Office — on the job record, the Authorisations card has a Request button. More actions › Request authorisation does the same.
Phone — the AUTHORISATIONS block on the worker's shift has Request, so the ask comes from the job they are standing on.

The request takes a Type, Work starts, Work ends (optional), the type's own fields and a Note for the admin (optional). On the phone, Work starts is filled in from the shift. Choose Send request.

File fields aren't uploaded by the requester — "the admin attaches this when they action the request" — because the paperwork usually comes back from the authority.

The people the type notifies are told: "Authorization requested: {type}", with who asked, the job number and when the work starts.

Recording the decision

The grant usually happens outside Maliru — a portal, a phone call, an email — so you record the outcome here. What you can do depends on where the record stands:

Requested — Submit (lodged with the authority, waiting), Grant, Reject, Edit or Cancel. Edit changes the Authority, External reference, Location, Notes and the work window.
Submitted — Grant, Reject or Cancel.
Granted — Suspend, Renew or Close.
Suspended — Reactivate, Renew or Close.
Expired, Closed or Rejected — Renew, which starts a fresh request.

Grant shows the window that was asked for ("Requested: Work starts …") above Valid from, Valid until (optional) and Permit / reference number. Reject asks first: "Reject this request? This cannot be undone."

The person who asked is notified of the decision. Tapping the notification opens the authorisation itself, with its status, permit number and validity. Every action lands in the record's Timeline.

An authorisation the worker has asked to end, waiting for the office to Close it or Keep it open

When the work is finished

A worker on site can tap Request to end on a live permit and add a note for the office. The record then reads End requested, counts under Awaiting decision, and shows "End requested by {name}" with the time and their note. Choose Close or Keep open, and the worker is told which.

Closing is always the office's decision. The request puts the ask on the record, with a name and a time, instead of in a phone call nobody logged.

Tracking validity

The four figures at the top — Active, Expiring soon, Awaiting decision and Expired — are also filters: select one to show only those records, and select it again to show everything. The Show filter offers the same and more: All, Awaiting, Active, Expiring soon, Expired, Rejected, Suspended and Closed. Search covers the kind, authority, permit number and job.

The register lists each record's Kind, Authority, Job, Status and Expiry (in 12d, or Expired). Expiring soon means within 30 days.

A granted authorisation warns at 30, 7 and 1 days before it runs out, and again when it does. The warning goes to the person who asked for it and to the office, and names the job.

Each record also carries:

Conditions — a checklist (3/5 met), with evidence attachable to each condition.
Evidence — the permit documents, up to 25 MB per file.
Notes and the full Timeline.

To tidy up, tick rows in the register and choose Close, Cancel or Delete. Deleting one record asks first: "The audit history is kept, but the record is removed."

Permits a workstream always needs

A workstream can list the Authorisations this work needs (see Workstream settings). A site, client or contract can require a permit too, from Eligibility › What work needs (see Eligibility).

Every job they apply to then leads its Authorisations card with what is missing, split by what each type's setting does:

"Cannot start: Road opening notice (not granted)" — types set to stop the work. Nobody can clock in on the job until the permit is granted and in date for the work, unless a supervisor with Override eligibility allows it (and never for nobody can allow it). Depending on From when, putting people on the job or publishing their shifts is refused too.
"Still needed: Traffic plan (expired)" — types set only to warn.

A permit that runs out before the work ends counts as missing. Asking for one isn't holding one: a request still awaiting a decision doesn't let the work start.

Already hold permits from before Maliru?

Use Add to record an existing authorisation with its validity dates, or Import to bring in a spreadsheet of them.

Eligibility

The Eligibility button in the same header opens the rules that decide who may do which work — positions, requirements, people asking to start, and trade packs. See Eligibility: who is allowed to do the work.

Tip: under Notification settings › Authorisations & permits you can choose how you hear about requests, decisions, end requests and expiries, so the right people can follow them without watching the screen.