Using openbranchhq
Approvals
Decide on the leave requests waiting on you, and hand your approvals to someone else while you're away.
- Where
- Sidebar → People → Approvals
- How to enable
- Always on. The sidebar entry appears once requests can come to you.
openbranchhq has no manager role. Requests come to you through the reporting line: if people report to you, you approve their leave. Approval chains and delegations can also send requests your way. The Approvals entry only shows in the sidebar for people who can receive requests.
How it works
- Who approves. By default, a request goes to the employee's direct manager. On Pro and Enterprise, a leave policy can use an approval chain instead, with several levels in order. If there's no chain and no manager, or if the leave type auto-approves, the request is approved without anyone deciding.
- Your queue. You only see a request once it reaches your level of the chain. Each request shows its dates, length, stage, note and any blackout it falls in. You can also approve from your dashboard.
- Deciding. You can approve a request, or decline it with an optional reason. A decline at any level ends the request. The balance is checked again and deducted only when the final level approves. Either way, the employee gets an email.
- Delegation. Before you go away, you can hand your approvals to another member for a date range. While the delegation is active, new requests that would come to you go to that person instead, and they get an email when you set it up.
- Reminders. If a request has waited 48 hours, the current approver gets a reminder email, then another every day until someone decides.
Good to know
- A delegation applies to requests submitted while it's active. Requests already in your queue stay with you.
- If dates fall inside a blackout period that needs approval, a person always has to decide. If the employee has no manager and no chain, every owner, admin and HR member can decide, and the first decision counts.