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Table of Contents
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 Expense requests 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 permissions to submit requests and—if they are team leaders, managers, or otherwise responsible for processing requests from other users—process requests. The very first permission needed to access the Approval System module is HR_ApprovalRequests.
Depending on the configuration of rules, approvers will automatically be able to process requests from those employees designated as subordinates in the Organisation Chart.
Overtime requests' permissions and combinations
Overtime requests' permissions and combinations
Permissions List
Permission | Description |
HR_OvertimeRequest | It provides access to the Overtime page. |
HR_ApplyForOvertime | It allows to submit an overtime request. |
HR_ApplyForOvertimeOnBehalfOf | It allows to apply for overtime on behalf of someone. |
🤔 Remember: For a user to be able to request Overtime, they must also have the checkbox 'Request Overtime' ticked in HR > Employees > Attendance Details. Ticking this checkbox will consume a license.
Combinations
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 apply but can access; user can approve requests if specified by name or occupation in Rules. |
Expense requests' permissions and combinations
Expense requests' permissions and combinations
Permissions List
Permission | Description |
HR_ExpenseRequest | It provides access to the Expense page. |
HR_ApplyForExpenses | It allows to submit an expense request. |
HR_ApplyForExpensesOnBehalfOf | It allows to submit expenses on behalf of someone. |
HR_ExpenseRequestSettings | It allows to access the expense request's settings. |
Combinations
Permissions | Access Given |
HR_ApprovalRequests HR_ApplyForExpenses | Can request only for themselves. |
HR_ApprovalRequests HR_ApplyForExpenses | Can request for themselves and others. |
HR_ApprovalRequests | Can request only for others. |
HR_ApprovalRequests | Cannot apply 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's made up of several tabs which are common to both the Overtime and Expense screens.
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
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
Request States
Pending (yellow): the request has yet to be processed.
Approved (green): the request has been approved.
Cancelled (light grey): 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.
Locked (dark grey): the request is approved and was sent to payroll, thus it can't be modified from the Requests page but only from the Payroll Calculation page.
Rules
Rules tell the system how to behave and what to do according to the scenario. For example, you can decide when the rule applies, or which employees can apply on their own behalf or for others. You can also decide to auto-approve in specific circumstances and who can process requests. You can set up separate rules for both Overtime and Expense Requests.
In the Rules section, you can view, manage and edit your existing rules, and create new ones. To do so, go to Approval System > Overtime (or Expense) > Rules. More about rules here.
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. Any employee within a company can see and choose all the reasons saved for that company. Create or edit your reasons going to Approval System > Overtime (or Expense) > Reasons.
Although you can edit a reason, only the description field can be edited. A reason can be deleted unless it's linked to an existing request. In that case, you can deactivate it to make it unavailable for future requests. They can be made mandatory for requests in the General Settings.
Settings
The Settings section is only available to admin users, and contains general settings and feature-specific settings. Choose Overtime or Expense from the View Type dropdown to proceed with the settings configuration according to your needs.
📋 Note: Before moving to the Overtime Settings, please ask your Payroll Users to proceed as follow:
Set up the Rules within the Approval System
Create a the relevant Shift Presets.
Assign Rewards for the relevant Shift Presets.
Give the company's users access to the Approval System.
Overtime Settings
Overtime Settings
In the Overtime Settings you can set up previously created shift presets to be visible to the employees when submitting an Overtime request. You can also allow or block overlaps in different scenarios as well as allow the selection of a cost centre at the request submission. Last but not least, you can allow the submission of a request even if data has already been sent to payroll. For more details about Overtime Settings please check 👉 this article.
Expense Settings
Expense Settings
After creating pay items specifically for expenses, they'll show automatically as a setting line in the Expense Settings. You'll find them in Approval System > Expense > Settings. Clicking on the ✏️ pencil icon allows you to set up who can use that pay item in their expense requests. For example, you can decide it applies only to a specific cost centre or department (and many other categories), or if it applies to all the employees. Check 👉 this article out to learn more about this section.
General Settings
General Settings can be set for each feature (Overtime and Expense) and contain the same options for Master Role access, Actions, and Notifications.
⚠️ 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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