Is it possible to have the substitute approve the request before the main approver?

This feature is currently in beta testing. Interested? Feel free to reach out to us at [e-mail].

Would you like the substitute to confirm first – for example, for the leave type “Vacation” – that they are actually able to take over the coverage during that period before the regular approver reviews the request? That makes sense! You can easily configure this individually for each leave type.

Go to: Settings → Leave Types → Approval Policies and set up this logic.

Make sure to activate the toggle “Requires approval by selected substitute(s)”. After that, you can define the regular approval step. For this, you can choose either: "Approvers of user's department” (see screenshot), or “normal Approvers from user” if users have individual approvers independent of their department.

Afterwards, you need to assign this approval policy to the corresponding leave type.

Once a user is selected in the field “Who will cover you during your absence?” when submitting a leave request, that person will receive an email as well as a notification via the bell icon. Only after the substitute has approved the request (Felix will then receive a confirmation email) will it be forwarded to the user’s regular approver. Before approving, the substitute also has the option to leave a comment (not mandatory).

This comment is currently visible to everyone when you click on the request in the calendar. There, you can also see the current status of the process – in this example, approval by Lisa Leiter is still pending (see screenshot).

Your Team at absence.io!