Approval Settings

Define notifications, actions, and approver sequences for single or multiple levels of approval for requests.

Note:

When Approval Settings have been configured with a Reviewer List and are associated to a Request Subtype:

  • Any Reviewer specified in the Reviewers section of the Reviewer List is authorized to approve the time-off request in both the Control Center and in the Schedule Planner Absence Calendar.
  • Managers specified in the Also Notify (Recipients) section of the Reviewer List receive notifications in the Control Center, but are not authorized to approve the request.

    • Note that in the Control Center panel, even though the Approve and Refuse buttons are active in the notification received by Also Notify managers, their functionality is disabled.

  • If a manager has access to the submitting employee (such as through their employee group or organizational set), but is not a designated approver in the Reviewer List, they cannot approve the request either in the Control Center or in the Schedule Planner Absence Calendar.

If the Request Subtype is configured without being associated to Approval Settings, then:

  • Control Center: Only the direct (Reports To) manager of the submitting employee receives a notification and can approve the employee's request. No other managers (including those who have access to the employee in their employee group) are notified or can approve the request in the Control Center.
  • Absence Calendar: Any managers with access to the submitting employee (such as through their employee group or locations) can approve the employee's request from the Schedule Planner Absence Calendar.
  1. Click Tap Main Menu  > Administration > Application Setup > Employee Self Service > Approval > Approval Setting. 
  2. (Optional) In Filter, select whether to display Active, Inactive, or All settings.
  3. Do one of the following: 

    Best Practice: Because edits can affect pending requests, create new approval settings rather than edit current settings.

    • Click Tap New. Enter a Name .
    • Select one approval setting. Click Tap Edit or Duplicate.
    • Select settings. Click Tap Activate or Inactivate.
    • Select settings. Click Tap Delete. Click Tap Yes to confirm.

      Note: You cannot delete approval settings that are used by a request subtype. First, unassign the approval settings from the subtype. Then delete the approval settings.

  4. (Optional) Enter a Description. 
  5. Select a Default Approval Sequence. Only active sequences for time-off requests are available.

    Best Practice: Do not select an Approval Sequence that contains no reviewers or recipients. Otherwise, the process skips those approval steps that do not have approvers. Also, if an automatic action is selected, the action approves or rejects the request automatically. If no automatic action is selected, the request is rejected automatically.

  6. In Approval Step Settings, define notifications, reminders, and automatic actions for each step in the approval sequence:
    • Select the Default Approval Step Settings. Only active settings are available.
    • Approval Step Settings displays the Steps and <default> for the Approval Step Settings that make up the selected Default Approval Step Settings. To display the label of the Default Approval Step Settings, click tap Save. You can select different Approval Step Settings.

      Tip: The system retains your selections even if you select another Default Approval Step Settings. If you select the edited settings later, your selections remain. To clear the selections, select another Default Approval Step Settings to fill the table with different steps. Then, edit the settings.

  7. In Maximum Number of Approval Steps, select one of the following:
    • Always use all approval steps (default) — Use all active approver steps for all request subtypes. Skip the next step.
    • Request length controls number of approval steps — Define the number of approval steps according to the length of the time-off request.
  8. If the number of approval steps changes by the length of the request, define the following:
    1. Minimum Length (Days) — Enter the shortest time-off request that requires the defined number of approval steps. Enter whole days, greater than or equal to zero (0).

      Minimum Length excludes the length of a request.

    2. Maximum Length (Days) — Enter the longest time-off request that requires the defined number of approval steps. Enter whole days. The maximum length must be longer than the minimum length.
      • Maximum Length includes the length of a request.
      • The system interprets the interval of time as: Minimum Length <= length of request <= Maximum Length
      • But: Minimum Length < Maximum Length
    3. Approval Steps — Enter the number of approval steps. Enter whole numbers, greater than or equal to zero (0). The number of steps must be fewer than the default number of all approval steps.
    4. In the same Approval Settings, you can define approval steps for different-length time-off requests. Click Add a New Row. Repeat this step.

      Example: If the requested time off is:

      Less than 7 days: Complete 1 approval step: Minimum Length = 0 days; Maximum Length = 6 days; Approval Steps = 1 step.

      From 7-14 days: Complete 2 approval steps: Minimum Length = 7 days; Maximum Length = 14 days; Approval Steps = 2 steps.

      Longer than 14 days: Complete 3 approval steps: Minimum Length = 15 days; Maximum Length = 99 days; Approval Steps = 3 steps.

  9. (Optional) In Set an Automatic Action before Request Start Date, select the following:
    1. Automatic Action — Select an action to take if the approver does not approve or refuse a request before the start date of the request.
    2. Before (Days) — Enter the number of days before the start date of the request to take the action. Enter whole days, greater than or equal to zero (0).

      Caution: Make sure that the Reminder Template and Automatic Action Template in the request subtype are consistent with these Approval Settings.

      Tip: To implement multiple levels of approval more easily, use the default versions of the business processes for Automatic Action and Reminder Timer as they are or edit them as needed.

  10. Select the types of notifications.

    Caution: Make sure that the selected notifications are configured for multiple approvals. Otherwise the notifications are not available for request subtypes.

    1. (Optional) Select the type of notification to send to the employee who submitted a request:

      Tip: You must define the notifications for multiple levels of approval before you configure Approval Settings. Name the notifications so that you can identify the correct ones easily.

      • Employee Notification upon Submission — Notify the employee when they submit a request.
      • Employee Notification upon Pending — Notify the employee when a request changes status to pending.
      • Employee Notification upon Final Approval — Notify the employee if a request is approved by all approvers.
      • Employee Notification upon Refusal — Notify the employee if a request is refused by any approver.
      • Employee Notification upon Cancellation — Notify the employee if a request is canceled.
    2. (Optional) Select the type of notification to send to the listeners. Listeners are notified of requests even though they do not approve or refuse the requests.
      • Listeners Notification upon Initial Request — Notify all listeners when a request is submitted.
      • Listeners Notification upon Final Approval — Notify all listeners when a request is approved by all approvers.
      • Listeners Notification upon Refusal — Notify all listeners when a request is refused by any approver.
      • Listeners Notification upon Cancel Submission — Notify all listeners if the employee requests to cancel a request.
      • Listeners Notification upon Cancellation — Notify all listeners if a request is canceled.
      • Listeners Notification upon Deletion — Notify all listeners when a request is deleted due to an employee's termination.
    3. (Optional) Select the type of notification to send to all approvers who have approved the request if the request is automatically approved, canceled, or refused:
      • Approvers Notification upon Auto Approval — Notify all approvers when a request is automatically approved.
      • Approvers Notification upon Refusal — Notify all approvers if a request is refused by any approver.
      • Approvers Notification upon Cancel Submission — Notify all approvers if the employee requests to cancel a request.
      • Approvers Notification upon Cancellation — Notify all approvers if a request is canceled.
      • Approvers Notification upon Deletion — Notify all approvers when a request is deleted due to an employee's termination.
  11. Click Tap Save & Return.