Introduction
You've been through it before. Every morning, you clear a mountain ⛰️ of emails and breathe a sigh of relief , only to return from lunch to a barrage of new requests sitting smugly in your inbox 📧 - most of which are competing for Weirdest Wording of the Week 🤓.
Here at Indigo, we know how overwhelming and tedious it can be to keep track of every step in processes that need your clearance. Whether it's simplifying how your employees make requests from management, or ensuring you see every request in good time, we've got the perfect tool 🔧 that gathers all requests and approvals in one place without missing a beat - and without flooding 🌊 your inbox!
What is the Approval System?
The Approval System is aimed at handling any kind of request requiring approval throughout Indigo, like a one-stop shop. It functions per company rather than per tenant, which means that each company can have its own rules and settings for any Indigo request that is processed through the Approval System.
💡 Note: Currently, the Approval System takes care of Overtime requests and approvals.
The Approval System is made up of four sections: Requests, Rules, Reasons, and Settings.
Who can access the Approval System?
Once the Approval System has been set up, users can be given permission to submit requests and - if they are team leaders, managers, or otherwise responsible for processing requests from other users - process requests.
The permission to access the Approval System is HR_ApprovalRequests.
The permissions for employees to access and request Overtime in the Approval System are HR_OvertimeRequest and HR_ApplyForOvertime.
Employees whose duties include being able to apply for overtime on behalf of other employees (such as managers and team leaders) will also need the permission HR_ApplyForOvertimeOnBehalfOf.
🤔 Remember: For a user to be able to request Overtime, they must also have the checkbox 'Request Overtime' ticked in HR > Employees > Attendance Details.
(Note: Ticking this checkbox will consume a license.)
Depending on the configuration of rules, approvers will automatically be able to process requests from those employees designated as subordinates in the Organisation Chart.
Permissions | 'Requests Overtime' Checkbox | Access Given |
HR_ApprovalRequests HR_ApplyForOvertime | ✔️ | Can request only for themselves. |
HR_ApprovalRequests HR_ApplyForOvertime | ✔️ | Can request for themselves and others. |
HR_ApprovalRequests | ✔️ | Can request only for others. |
HR_ApprovalRequests | ✖️ | Cannot request but can access; user can approve requests if specified by name or occupation in Rules. |
💡 Note: The Approval System is fully audited, ensuring that you can see the full history of each submitted request.
Requests
The Requests section is where users can submit and view requests. It is made up of several tabs:
Approvals: only visible to approvers. Any request awaiting the user's approval is listed here.
My Pending Requests: this shows any requests pending approval.
My Requests: all of a user's pending and processed requests are shown here.
My Team: only visible to approvers with subordinates in the Organisation Chart. This shows all requests made by the user's team.
On Behalf Of: only visible to approvers with permission to submit requests on behalf of others. Any requests submitted by the user on behalf of someone else will be listed here.
All: only visible when more than one request have been submitted. This shows all requests - pending or approved, submitted by the user or by someone else, made on behalf of the user or on behalf of someone else - that the user has permission to view.
Each entry listed in the grid will show the dates, the type of request, and the request state.
Request States:
Pending (yellow): the request has yet to be processed.
Approved (green): the request has been approved.
Cancelled: the employee has cancelled their request, it no longer needs any action.
Resubmitted: the employee resubmitted their request after editing it.
Declined (red): the request was declined.
Rules
Rules tell the system how to behave and what to do, like when the rule applies, auto-approving in specific circumstances, which employees can apply on their own behalf or for others, and who can process requests.
In the Rules section, you can view, manage and edit your existing rules, and create new ones.
Reasons
You can create and 'view reasons' for requests in the Reasons section. Reasons are created and available on a company basis rather than for a whole tenant, and any employee within a company can see and choose all the reasons saved for that company.
Choose which type of reason to view using the View Type dropdown. Although you can edit a reason, only the description field can be edited. While you can delete reasons, if a reason is linked to existing requests then it cannot be deleted. Instead, you can deactivate it to make it unavailable for future requests.
Settings
The Settings section is only available to admin users, and contains general settings and feature-specific settings.
The General Settings can be set for each feature, but contain the same options for Master Role access, Actions, and Notifications.
A Note on Setting up the Approval System
To set up the Approval System, the company's Payroll user must carry out the following steps in this order:
Set up the Rules within the Approval System
Configure the relevant Shift Presets.
Assign Rewards for the relevant Shift Presets.
Configure the Settings within the Approval System.
Give the company's users access to the Approval System.
⚠️ Attention: Any settings configured in the Approval System will only apply to the currently selected company. Make sure to select the correct company from the company dropdown before editing any of the Approval System's settings.
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