Set up approval delegation

What this achieves

A delegation rule sends approval tasks to someone else while their usual approver is unavailable. It is set up in advance, so nothing sits waiting for a person who is not there.

Required role: Administrator or Manager.

Steps

Go to Approvals → Delegation.
Select New Rule.
Choose the Delegator — the person whose approvals are being handed over.
Choose the Delegate — the person who will receive them. The two must be different people.
Choose the Rule type.
For an out-of-office or scheduled rule, set the Start and End dates. Out-of-office rules require both.
Narrow the rule if you need to, using Workflow types and Max SLA hours. Both are optional.
Leave Active on, and save.

Rule types

Option	Description
Out of Office (auto)	Runs for a fixed absence. Both a start and an end date are required, and the rule applies between them.
Manual	Runs while the rule is active, with no dates of its own. Use it for an open-ended hand-over and turn it off when it ends.
Schedule-based	Runs against the dates you set, for a planned rather than an unplanned absence.

Example: Olivia Bennett is away from 3 to 14 August 2026. An out-of-office rule delegating to Daniel Okonkwo over those dates means her Engineering team’s requests reach him for that fortnight and revert to her afterwards, with nothing needing to be reassigned by hand.

Narrowing what a rule covers

Option	Description
Workflow types	Restricts the rule to particular request types, entered separated by commas. Leave it empty and the rule covers every approval that would reach the delegator.
Max SLA hours	Narrows the rule by the deadline on the step. Leave it empty and the rule applies regardless of how long the step allows.

Example: HC Corp delegates Daniel Okonkwo’s promotion and transfer approvals to Sophie Clarke during a two-week absence, but not his payroll approvals, by naming only those two request types on the rule.

Narrow a rule when the delegate should not inherit everything. A finance approver who delegates without narrowing has handed over their spending authority for the duration.

What routing does with a rule

An approval that would reach the delegator goes to the delegate instead, at the point the task is created. Nothing has to be configured on the approval step for this to happen, and no approver has to remember to act on it.

The decision is recorded as the delegate’s, made on the delegator’s behalf, so an audit shows who actually decided rather than who was originally named.

Managing rules

The list shows each rule’s delegator, delegate, type, and what triggers it. Two controls sit on the row:

Option	Description
Active	Turns the rule on and off in place. Use this for a rule you will need again.
Delete	Removes the rule. Use it for a rule that was wrong, not for one that has run its course.

What happens next

Requests raised while an active rule covers them route to the delegate from the moment they are created. Delegation does not extend a deadline: a delegated task carries the same time limit and escalates the same way if it is not acted on.