Approval Step Settings

Approval steps define notifications, reminders, and automatic actions for each step in a multiple-level approval sequence Requests can be configured to require approval by a series of people. Example: A time-off request goes first to the manager, then to human resources, and finally to another supervisor. Each must approve the request.. You can also indicate whether you want approvers of request types associated with an approval step periodically re-evaluated. See Re-Evaluate Approvers for Submitted and Pending Requests for more information.

  1. Click Tap Main Menu  > Administration > Application Setup > Employee Self Service > Approval > Approval Step Setting.
  2. (Optional) In Filter, select whether to display Active, Inactive, or All settings.
  3. Do one of the following: 

    Best Practice: Because edits can affect pending requests, create new approval step settings rather than edit current settings.

    • Click Tap New. Enter a Name .
    • Select one approval step setting. Click Tap Edit or Duplicate.
    • Select settings. Click Tap Activate or Inactivate.
    • Select settings. Click Tap Delete. Click Tap Yes to confirm.

      Note: You cannot delete approval step settings that are used by approval settings. First, unassign the approval step settings from the approval settings. Then delete the approval step settings.

  4. (Optional) Enter a Description. 
  5. In Approver Notification upon Request Reception, select the type of notification to send to approvers when the employee submits a request, or when it is an approver’s turn to approve a request.
    Caution:
    • Select a type of notification. The default value of <none> means that approvers are not notified to approve requests.
    • Make sure that the selected notifications are configured for multiple approvals. Otherwise, the notifications are not available.
  6. In Set a Reminder, specify:
    1. Reminder Message — Select a message to send to remind approvers to approve or refuse a request.
    2. After (Days) — Enter the number of days to wait to send the reminder. Enter whole days from 1—555, inclusive.
  7. In Set an Automatic Action upon Inactivity, specify:
    1. Automatic Action — Select an action to take if approvers neither approve nor refuse a request. In After (Days), enter the number of days to wait to take the action. Enter whole days from 1—555, inclusive. You must specify a value in the After (Days) field if you selected an automatic action.

      Note: If configured, the system re-evaluates request approvers every seven days. Because of this, if the value of the After (Days) field is seven or less, the request re-evaluation will never occur because the specified automatic action will have already been performed.

    2. Inactive Approver Notification — Select a message to send to approvers who do not act upon a request within the allowed time.
    3. Inactive Approver’s Manager Notification — Select a message to send to managers of approvers who do not act upon a request

      4. Note: For these last two options, select the same notification that is configured for the Inactive Requests event type so that these inactive time-off request Request subtypes that employees use to request time off for vacation, illness or recovery, appointments, personal time, or other absences. Time-off requests can be configured to support many different employment scenarios. notifications are routed to the System Messages in the Control Center. See Configure Notifications for Schedule Requests for more information.

  8. Enable Approver Re-evaluation — Select this check box if you want the system to re-evaluate submitted or pending requests for valid approvers. See Re-Evaluate Approvers for Submitted and Pending Requests for more information.

    Note: You can set this option only if you have specified an automatic action.

  9. Click Tap Save & Return.