Requests & Approvals
Delegate your approvals while you are away
Hand your approval steps to a colleague for a date range, so leave requests and hourly permissions keep moving while you are on leave or travelling.
3 min readLast updated
In this article
A delegation lets another user approve on your behalf for a period you choose. Requests do not stall while you are away, and you keep your own rights the whole time: the step stays assigned to you, and your delegate gains the right to act on it while the delegation is in effect.
Before you start
Delegation applies to steps of the HR approval chain, the ones that appear in the approval inbox. It does not grant your other permissions to the delegate.
The delegate must have a user account. Pick someone who is not away at the same time.
Create a delegation
Open People › Requests & Approvals › Approval Delegations. The screen has two lists: My delegations and Delegated to me.
Select New delegation. The Delegate approvals form opens.
In Delegate to, choose the user who will approve for you.
Set the Start date. It must be today or later.
Set the End date. It must be after the start date.
Select Save. The delegation appears under My delegations.
Rules the system applies
One delegation at a time. If a delegation of yours is already in effect today, a new one is refused with "You already have an active delegation."
No chains. You cannot delegate to someone who has an active delegation of their own. The system asks you to pick someone who is available.
Not to yourself. The delegate must be another user.
Dates decide when it works. The delegate can act only between the start and end dates, inclusive. Before the start date and after the end date, the steps are yours alone.
What your delegate sees
Every step assigned to you appears in the delegate's Approval Inbox with an "On behalf of" badge carrying your name.
When a new step is assigned to you during the delegation, the system notifies both you and the delegate.
The delegate's decision is recorded under the delegate's own name, so the request history shows who actually approved.
The delegate sees your delegation under Delegated to me while it is in effect.
Cancel a delegation
In My delegations, find the delegation and select its delete icon.
Confirm with Cancel delegation. The delegate loses the right to act on your steps at once.
Common questions
Do steps move to the delegate permanently? No. The step stays assigned to you. When the delegation ends or you cancel it, you are again the only approver, and nothing needs to be reassigned.
Who can see my delegations? Only you and the delegate. The screen shows your own delegations and the ones given to you; it does not list other people's.
Why does my delegation show as active before the start date? The Active column shows that the delegation has not been cancelled. The delegate can act only from the start date.