The Approval Process decides whose approval a request goes through, and in which order. You build the chain per module; a chain has at most 3 levels. At each level either named employees approve (any one of them is enough) or the requester's Direct Manager approves.
Users with the module's permission-management permission do this (Manage Permissions).
The Approval Process is in the menu of these modules. What a chain is built for depends on the module:
Menu | Chain is set per |
Leave, Expense, Overtime, Applicant Tracking System, Performance, Compensation Management (Compensation and Salary Change) | Department |
E-Welcome | Branch |
Request | Request type |
Levels cannot have conditions based on position, role or amount. The Position field shown when choosing approvers is only a filter to help you find people.
Before you start
You need the module's permission-management permission.
Departments, branches or request types must be defined.
If you will use Direct Manager, the employees' managers must be set in their job details.
Step by step
Building an approval chain
Open Configuration at the bottom of the left menu, choose the module's tab and click Approval process (e.g. Configuration > Leave > Approval process; Configuration page). The page lists the defined chains per department (or branch, request type). In the row above the list, search with the Search by Department name box (Search by Branch name in Onboarding, Search by Request Type name in Requests) and use the Department (or Branch, Request Type) filter next to it to show one chain; the search and the filter work as one criterion, picking one clears the other. The right end of the row shows how many processes were found; Sort or the column header sorts the list by name (ascending, descending, off). Pages and the page size are at the bottom of the list.
Click Add. The Approval Process window opens as a step-by-step wizard.
In the first step, select the departments the chain applies to (branches for E-Welcome, request types for Request) and click Next.
In Level 1, set the approver:
Personnel: narrow the list with Branch, Department and Position, then pick one or more people in Employee. The level is complete when any one of them approves.
Direct Manager: the requester's manager from their job details automatically approves this level; you do not need to pick anyone. (This option is not available for E-Welcome.)
Repeat for Level 2 and Level 3 if needed. A level unlocks only after the previous one is set. Emptying a level also clears the levels after it.
Click Save.
If some of the selected departments already have a chain, the Approval Process Already Defined window opens. If you confirm, those departments are skipped and the chain is created for the rest. If all of them already have one, you must delete the existing chain first.
Adding, replacing and removing approvers
Expand a row in the list to see its levels.
Add Approver (plus icon): adds a person to the level.
Replace Approver: puts someone else in a person's place.
Delete: removes a person when the level has more than one. The last person of a level cannot be removed.
A Direct Manager level cannot be edited.
To change the number or order of levels, delete the chain with Delete Group and build it again.
A chain with pending requests, or the last approver of a level, cannot be deleted; answer the pending requests first.
Result
Once saved, new requests from employees in that department go through approval in this order. When you change a chain, pending requests are re-evaluated against the new chain; no notifications are sent while this happens.
What happens when there is no approver?
Each time a request reaches a level, the system works out that level's approvers and moves on according to these rules:
Situation | What happens |
The level is Direct Manager and the requester has no manager | The level is skipped and the request moves to the next level. |
The requester is one of the level's approvers | The level is skipped (submitting counts as their own approval). |
No levels are left after a skipped level | The chain counts as complete. |
The same person is on two levels | They must approve at each level separately. |
An approver has left the company or the manager's account is inactive | The request waits on that person; update the approver with Replace Approver. |
If no chain is defined, or every level is skipped, the result depends on the module:
Module | Without a chain |
Leave | The request is approved automatically (if the leave type needs a document, it waits until the document is uploaded). |
Overtime | The request is approved automatically. |
Salary Change | The request is approved and the salary record is created. |
Expense | The approval step completes; the request moves on to payment confirmation. |
Request | The approval step completes; the request type's responsible users give the final answer. |
Applicant Tracking System, E-Welcome | The request moves on to the manager approval step. |
Note: For an employee with no manager, a leave or overtime request in a chain made only of a Direct Manager level is approved without anyone approving it. Make sure every employee's manager is set.
Pending approvals
Requests waiting for your approval are listed in the inbox on the home page (Waiting for you > Awaiting your approval). For leave and overtime you decide at once with Approve or the cross on the row; Reply on a request and Review on an expense open the detail window. In the My pending items drawer that See all opens, the same requests are also under the Leaves, Expenses, Demands and Overtimes tabs. The inbox shows only requests from employees in the branches you are responsible for. Hiring, onboarding, compensation and performance approvals are not in the inbox but on their own module screens.
In the leave, expense and request chains, the approver receives an email and an in-app notification when their turn comes; the requester is also told the outcome.
In addition, managers with requests waiting for their approval get a reminder e-mail once a week with the number of pending leave, expense, overtime and other requests (default Monday 09:00). The counts follow the same rule as the inbox on the home page and My approvals. You change the day and hour on the Company Settings screen (Approval reminder).
Common problems
Symptom: A request was approved without reaching anyone.
Cause: No chain is defined, or every level was skipped (e.g. no manager set, the requester is the approver).
Solution: Check the department's chain and set the employee's manager.
Symptom: Deleting shows "There are requests for the approval process you want to delete. Answer the requests first."
Cause: The chain has pending requests.
Solution: Answer the pending requests, then delete.
Symptom: Delete Group shows "3 records of this group are still waiting for approval...".
Cause: Employees of the group have requests (leave, expense ...) in the approval process; deleting the group would count them as approved. The number is how many are waiting.
Solution: Approve or reject them from the inbox on the home page, then delete the group.
Symptom: An approver cannot see a request in the inbox on the home page.
Cause: The requester is outside the branches the approver is responsible for.
Solution: Give the approver responsibility for that branch in Branch Management (Manage Permissions).
Symptom: An approver is shown as User not found (on older records as Manager) in the list although I picked a person.
Cause: The selected person's record can no longer be found (e.g. it was deleted).
Solution: Pick a new person with Replace Approver on that row, or delete the row if the level has another approver.
Symptom: A permission warning when you add a level or remove an approver.
Cause: Only someone with the module's responsibility management permission can change that module's approval process (for example Manage Leave Module for leave). Managing another module is not enough.
Symptom: "Approval levels go from 1 to 3 and a level needs the previous one."
Solution: Add the levels in order: level 2 needs level 1 and level 3 needs level 2. The approver must be an active employee of your company or Manager.
Symptom: The last approver of a compensation, salary change or performance approval process cannot be removed.
Cause: Records are waiting in that process. Removing the approver used to approve them without anyone approving; now the waiting records must be finished first.