Admin Guide

Approval Workflows

Staged sign-off chains for the processes that need more than one pair of eyes — configured once, enforced everywhere.

What can have a workflow

One workflow per process type, from Settings → Workflows: pay runs, timesheets, time-off requests, form submissions, performance reviews, invoices, bulk user updates, employee self-updates, profile updates, and employment history changes. With no workflow configured for a type, that process uses its direct approve/deny buttons — exactly as documented in each module's guide. Configure a workflow, and an Access Workflow button replaces them, routing the decision through your chain instead.

Time off shows this differently A time-off request keeps its own Approve and Deny buttons rather than swapping them for Access Workflow — but they appear only when the workflow accepts that decision from you at this point. Someone later in the chain simply sees no buttons until their stage opens, so the chain is enforced. A separate Workflows button offers View Workflow Status and Run Workflow. See Time Off Requests.

Building the chain

Click Create Workflow and pick the process type (each type can only have one workflow).
Add stages in order. Each stage names an Approver Type — Specific Person(s), a Role, the Initiator, or (for timesheets and time off) the Direct Manager or Department Manager — and the approver itself.
Create Workflow. From that moment, every new submission of that type routes through the chain.

When something is submitted, the first stage's approvers are notified; each approval passes the baton to the next stage, and the underlying record only changes status when the final stage approves. A denial at any stage stops the chain and returns the item with the denial reason. Every workflow keeps its own change history.

Workflows — approval workflows (Leave Request Approval, New Employee Onboarding).

Friction is the feature — apply it where it pays Every stage you add is a delay every single request will wait through. Two stages on time off means vacation requests sit until two people act. The pattern that works: one stage (direct manager) for high-volume items like time off and timesheets, multi-stage only for the money moves — pay runs, compensation, invoices.

Who a stage can be assigned to

Beyond a named person or a role, a stage can be pointed at the requester's own management line, resolved per request: their direct manager, their department manager, and now their division manager. That last one is useful where approval authority sits above the department — a division head signing off anything their departments raise, without you building a separate chain per department.

For the bigger picture

This system handles linear sign-off chains on built-in processes. When you need branching logic, scheduled triggers, or automated actions, that's Workflow Automations — and the Building an Approval Chain guide walks the choice between them.

Workflow Automations →