Alternate Approvals

The Alternate Approvals tab is the location where alternate approving managers can be designated for those situations or periods of time when an approving manager is not available to approve time/expenses. Alternate Approvals work in combination with Approval Workflows.

To better differentiate between approving managers and alternates, this topic uses the term “Primary” approving manager to identify the managers assigned to the actual Approval Workflow. The term “Alternate” is used to identify those who can approve on the Primary manager’s behalf.

Functionality within Alternate Approvals permits an administrator to pre-select the alternate approving managers for a given manager. It allows a primary approving manager to easily switch his/her status (out of the office), and it notifies alternate approving managers, via e-mail, when the primary approving manager’s status has changed.

The following details (1) how to designate one or more alternate approving managers for a primary approver and (2) how to change the primary approver’s status (In/Out).

Simplified alternate approval workflow

How to designate an alternate approving manager:

Select the Alternate Approvals tab in Approval Workspace (Menu > Views tab > Approval Workspace > Alternate Approvals).
Make sure that Approving Managers is selected in the left side drop-down list.

The list contains all managers that are currently assigned as approving managers to any approval workflow - the primary approving managers. Appended to each manager name is the current In/Out status of the manager. The ‘In’ status signifies that the primary manager is available to approve time/expenses and that these entries will not be available to the alternate managers.
Select the primary approving manager from the left side list box.
Select one or more alternate managers from the list box on the right. The list on the right includes all employees with access to administrative functions (assigned to "All" in the employee properties Software access field). When more than one alternate manager is selected, any of the managers are able to approve for the primary approving manager. To approve time and expenses, employees listed as alternate managers should also have a security level giving them access to the Time & Expense approval view.

When a primary approving manager's status is set to 'Out', that manager is still able to approve time and expenses.
Click Apply.

In the example below, Andy and Estelle are designated as alternate approving managers for Rob.

OPTIONAL INSTRUCTIONS
To immediately enable alternate approvals for the primary manager, check the “Allow alternate managers to approve work for..” box. Checking this box sends an e-mail to the alternate managers notifying them to approve time/expenses for the primary manager. Detailed instructions on enabling and disabling alternate approvals and e-mail configurations follow.
Click Apply.

Notes:

Once a submitted sheet is approved by an alternate manager, that sheet is forwarded to the next approving managers if the sheet requires multiple approvals, as designated by the approval workflow.
Considering the note above, it is possible that a manager may have to approve the same sheet twice if, for example, that manager is an alternate for the first approving manager and is also the second approving manager in the approval workflow.

Tips:

You can also designate an alternate approving manager to multiple primary managers in one easy step by switching the left side drop-down list from Approving Manager to Alternate Manager. This effectively switches the assigning logic so that you can select one alternate approving manager and assign him/her as an alternate to multiple primary approving managers.
You can review for whom an alternate manager is approving by picking ‘Alternate Manager’ from the left side drop-down list and then selecting the alternate manager from the list.

Enabling or disabling alternate approvals:

Alternate approvals can be enabled by the primary approving managers when their absence is planned, or can be enabled by any user with Administrator access rights when primary managers are unable to switch their own status. The following assumes that alternate managers have already been designated for the primary approving managers.

Primary approving managers can change their own In/Out status and therefore enable/disable alternate approvers at any time.

Go to the Time & Expenses Approval tab in the Approval Workspace (Menu > Views tab > Approval Workspace > Time & Expense Approval).
Check (or uncheck) the ‘Allow alternate managers to approve my work’ box located in the toolbar near the top of the screen.

- When checked, time or expenses submitted to the primary approving manager are available to the alternate managers. Any existing sheets awaiting approval are also available. An e-mail is sent to the alternate managers advising them to approve entries for the primary approving manager.
- When unchecked, time and expenses available to alternate approving managers are no longer available to them to approve. An e-mail is sent to the alternate managers advising them of their status change.

Administrators can change the In/Out status for any primary approving manager.

Go to the Alternate Approvals tab.
Verify that 'Approving Manager' is chosen from the left side drop-down list.
Select the approving manager from the list.
Check (or uncheck) the ‘Allow alternate managers to approve for …’ box located below the list.
Click Apply.

Notes about e-mail notifications:

The text used in the notification e-mails can be modified using a utility in the Options view.
When adding a manager to an existing set of alternate approving managers, a notification e-mail is not sent to the additional manager.