Approval Settings and Workflows

Introduction

A position control tool provides information on your staffing levels, but it doesn't truly control anything unless changes to those positions go through a tightly controlled approval process. The dynamic and powerful approval workflows built into FTE Tree give your organization the ability to stay on top of changes to your position control, only allowing changes that your leadership approves of.

Your organization can create as many approval workflows as it needs and assign them to any part of your organization. You may create a unique one for each department in your entire organization. We don't limit how many you can create. Our software will track them all and ensure that each change to your approved position control goes through a tightly controlled workflow, automatically managing the paperless approval process for you. Every interaction and part of the approval process is automated and documented with timestamps, allowing you to keep track of exactly who signed off on what and when.

General Approval Settings

Reminder Email Settings

Reminder Email Days: Sets the number of days between reminder emails sent to approvers. For example, if the first request email is sent on Monday and this value is set to 3, a reminder will be sent 72 hours later on Thursday. Defaults to 3.
Reminder Email Total: Limits the total number of emails sent to a user when they are an approver. Includes the first email and reminders. A value of 0 means no emails will be sent. This value is checked each time an approval request is reviewed, so changes take effect immediately. Defaults to 5.
Reminder Email Days Back-off: Increases the delay between each consecutive reminder email. The value is compounding. For example, with a 3-day reminder interval and a 1-day back-off, reminders will be sent on days 3, 7, and 12. Defaults to 1.
Reminder Email Business Days Only: Counts only business days (Monday through Friday) between reminder emails. Holidays are not excluded. Disable this option to use calendar days. Defaults to True.

Approval Behavior Settings

Allow Pre-Approvals: When enabled, allows a user to pre-approve an upcoming request in a step that has not yet been started. When disabled, all previous approval steps must be completed first in sequential order.
Require Comment if Approving Request: When enabled, requires an approver to enter a comment or note when approving a request. Defaults to False.
Require Comment if Denying Request: When enabled, requires an approver to enter a comment or note when denying a request. Defaults to True.
Active Organization User Approvers: When enabled, only active organization users will be included in newly created approval requests. If the inactive user is the only approver in a step, it may result in an auto-approval. Defaults to False to minimize auto-approval risk.

Default Approval Levels

Default Approval Level - Replacement: Sets the approval level used for all position replacement requests. Since replacement requests do not involve attribute changes, a fixed level is used organization-wide rather than being calculated from the request. This must be set before users can submit replacement requests.
Default Approval Level - Elimination: Sets the approval level used for all position elimination requests. Since elimination requests do not involve attribute changes, a fixed level is used organization-wide rather than being calculated from the request. This must be set before users can submit elimination requests.

Request Numbering

Prefix for Request Label: Attaches a prefix when a request number is displayed. For example, a value of 'R' on request #134 will display as 'R134'. Optional.
Number of Digits to Pad for Request Numbers: Pads the sequential request number to a specified number of digits. A value of 4 results in 'R0134'. Set to 0 for no padding. If the number of requests exceeds your setting, this value will be automatically updated unless set to 0.

Escalation Settings

Escalation automatically adds backup approvers to approval request steps that have been pending without action beyond a configurable threshold. When escalation is triggered, users assigned to the escalation role (configured on each organization approval role) are added to the step and notified via email.

Enable Escalation: Enables automatic escalation of approval requests after timeout. Defaults to False.
Escalation Days: The number of days without action before escalation is triggered. Measured from the earliest email sent in the active step. Defaults to 7.
Escalation Business Days Only: Counts only business days (Monday through Friday) for the escalation timeout. Holidays are not excluded. Disable this option to use calendar days. Defaults to True.

Escalation is triggered at most once per approval step. If no eligible backup approvers are found (for example, if no escalation role is configured or all escalation role users are already on the step), the step is marked as escalated and no further attempts are made.

Escalation is also triggered immediately (regardless of the timeout setting) when the requester is the only approver on a step. This ensures separation of duties is maintained by attempting to add backup approvers who can review the request. If no backup approvers are available, the step is auto-approved and logged in the audit trail.

Auto-Approval Daily Limit

Auto-Approval Daily Limit: Sets the maximum number of auto-approvals allowed per user in a 24-hour rolling period. When a user reaches this limit, further auto-approvals are paused and the organization owner receives a dashboard notification. This acts as a circuit breaker to catch misconfigured workflows where a single user is repeatedly the only approver. Set to 0 to disable the limit. Defaults to 0 (disabled).

Configuring for Separation of Duties

To minimize the risk of changes being approved without independent review:

Enable escalation and set an appropriate escalation timeout.
Assign escalation roles to each organization approval role so that backup approvers are always available.
Ensure each workflow step has multiple approvers. If only one user is assigned to a step and that user submits a request, the step will auto-approve unless backup approvers can be found.
Set an auto-approval daily limit to catch patterns of repeated auto-approval.
Review the Self-Approval Activity report periodically to monitor all bypass activity.

Note that users with the Override Approvals permission can also edit position attributes directly in the Operating Budget, bypassing approval workflows and FTE/cost impact thresholds. If impact thresholds are configured, direct edits that would exceed a threshold are blocked and must be submitted through an approval request instead. See Permissions and Roles for best practices on granting override access.

Types of Approval Workflows

Approval workflows are categorized based on the type of position request being made:

Position Change: This type of request is made when changes are made to an existing position's attributes such as FTE amount, job code, pay adjustments, or wage rate. Any change to the position's FTE or cost will require an associated Position Change approval workflow to be assigned. If the department is part of the change request, it will be routed to the approval workflow associated with the new department. The approval level is determined by the highest-level attribute included in the request.
New Position: This type of request is made when a brand new position is being created. All required position attributes must be provided on the request. The approval level is determined by the highest-level attribute included in the request.
Replacement Position: When a user wishes to replace a currently approved position without making any changes to that position's FTE, job code, or cost, they may request routing through a Replacement Position workflow. This type is typically used for a replacement position requisition when someone leaves your organization or takes another position. The approval level is set at the organization level in the general approval settings.
Position Elimination: When a user wishes to eliminate an approved position, they may request routing through a Position Elimination workflow. The approval level is set at the organization level in the general approval settings.

Approval Levels

Approval levels provide a tiered system for routing requests through different workflows based on the significance of the changes being made. Higher levels represent more significant changes and can require more rigorous approval processes.

How Approval Levels Work

Each approval level has a numeric display order and a name. For example, an organization might create four levels:

Display Order	Level Name
0	No Approval Required
1	Standard
2	Elevated
3	Executive

Level 0 is a system-managed level that is automatically created for every organization and cannot be deleted. It represents "No Approval Required", so changes to attributes at level 0 take effect immediately when saved, without creating a draft or requiring an approval request. Every attribute type must be assigned an approval level, and level 0 is the default for attributes that should auto-approve.

Approval levels connect two parts of the system:

Attribute types are each assigned an approval level. This determines how significant a change to that attribute is considered. Attributes at level 0 auto-approve on save. Attributes at level 1 and above create draft changes that require an approval request.
Approval workflows are each assigned an approval level. This determines which tier of changes the workflow is designed to handle.

How Approval Levels Route Requests

When a user submits a position change or new position request, FTE Tree examines the attributes being changed and finds the highest approval level among them. It then selects the appropriate workflow by finding the lowest-level workflow assigned to the department (or its ancestors) that is equal to or greater than the required level.

For example, if a request changes an attribute that requires "Standard" approval but no "Standard" workflow is assigned to the department, FTE Tree will automatically route the request to the next available workflow, such as an "Elevated" workflow. This ensures that requests always receive at least the required level of scrutiny.

For replacement and elimination requests, the approval level does not depend on attribute changes. Instead, a fixed default level is configured in the general approval settings and used for all requests of that type.

Managing Approval Levels

Approval levels are managed from the Approval Settings area in Settings > Approval Requests. Each level requires:

Display Order: A numeric value that determines the level's position in the hierarchy. Lower numbers represent less significant changes.
Level Name: A descriptive name for the level (e.g., "Standard", "Elevated", "Executive").

Both the display order and level name must be unique within your organization. An approval level cannot be deleted if it is currently referenced by any attribute types, workflows, or organization default settings. Level 0 is auto-created for every organization, cannot be deleted, and its level number cannot be changed. Its name can be customized.

Schedule Attribute and FTE Impact

The approval level assigned to the schedule attribute type applies to all schedule changes uniformly. However, not all schedule changes have the same business impact. A schedule reconfiguration that does not change FTE is very different from one that increases headcount.

To route schedule changes based on their actual FTE impact, configure FTE Impact Levels. FTE impact levels supplement the schedule attribute's approval level: the higher of the two always applies. This means you can set the schedule attribute to a lower base approval level and let FTE impact thresholds escalate when the change is more significant.

If the schedule attribute is set to level 0 ("No Approval Required") and no FTE or cost impact thresholds are configured, schedule changes will auto-approve on save like any other level-0 attribute. However, if FTE or cost impact thresholds are configured, they can escalate a schedule change to a higher level even when the schedule attribute itself is at level 0. The final approval level is always the highest across all three dimensions (attribute level, FTE impact, and cost impact).

FTE Impact Levels

FTE impact levels allow your organization to route approval requests based on the actual FTE effect of a schedule change, not just the fact that a schedule was modified. This provides more granular control over which schedule changes require higher-level approval.

How FTE Impact Levels Work

When a schedule change is included in an approval request, FTE Tree computes the FTE impact by comparing the position's scenario FTE to its Operating Budget FTE. These values come from the same calculator used throughout the application, including any adjustments. The change is then classified into one of three impact types:

Net Zero FTE Change: The schedule was modified, but the resulting FTE did not change. For example, switching from a Monday-Friday 8:00-5:00 schedule to a Monday-Thursday 8:00-6:15 schedule with the same weekly hours.
FTE Increase: The schedule change resulted in a higher FTE. For example, changing from a 20-hour/week schedule to a 40-hour/week schedule.
FTE Decrease: The schedule change resulted in a lower FTE. For example, reducing from a full-time to a part-time schedule.

Threshold Bands

FTE Increase and FTE Decrease impact types support multiple hierarchical threshold bands, allowing different magnitudes of change to require different levels of approval. Each threshold band specifies a minimum FTE delta (which must be greater than zero) and the approval level required when that threshold is met.

When evaluating a position, FTE Tree finds the highest threshold band where the position's absolute FTE delta meets or exceeds the minimum. This means thresholds are evaluated from highest to lowest, so a delta of 1.5 FTE will match a 1.0 threshold over a 0.01 threshold.

Net Zero thresholds always have a minimum delta of zero (since FTE did not change) and only allow a single row per organization.

For example:

Impact Type	Minimum FTE Delta	Approval Level
Net Zero	0.00	Standard
FTE Increase	0.01	Elevated
FTE Increase	1.00	Executive
FTE Decrease	0.01	Elevated

In this configuration, a small FTE increase (0.01 to 0.99 FTE) requires "Elevated" approval, while a large increase (1.0 FTE or more) matches the higher 1.0 threshold and requires "Executive" approval. A net-zero schedule change only requires "Standard" approval.

Interaction with Attribute Approval Levels

FTE impact levels supplement, but never replace, the approval levels configured on individual attribute types. When a request is submitted, FTE Tree determines up to three scores:

The highest attribute-based approval level (from the changed attributes)
The highest FTE impact-based approval level (from FTE threshold configuration)
The highest cost impact-based approval level (from cost threshold configuration, see Cost Impact Levels)

The final approval level is the highest of all applicable scores. Each dimension can only escalate the required approval, never reduce it. If no impact thresholds are configured, the system behaves exactly as before.

Per-Position Evaluation

When a request includes multiple positions, each position is classified independently against the threshold bands. The position producing the highest approval level determines the request's overall level. This prevents large offsetting changes from masking each other.

Scoring Breakdown

Every approval request records a scoring breakdown showing exactly how the approval level was determined. This includes each scoring factor (attribute-based, FTE impact-based, and cost impact-based), which position it applies to, and which factor was the winning determinant. The scoring breakdown is visible on the approval request detail page.

The scoring criteria are also shown on the request form itself before submission. The Selection Criteria tab in the Request Summary section updates dynamically as positions are selected, showing which dimensions contributed to the required approval level and which one was the determining factor.

Managing FTE Impact Thresholds

FTE impact thresholds are managed from Settings > Approval Requests > FTE Impact tab on the Impact Levels page. Each threshold requires:

Impact Type: Whether this threshold applies to net-zero, increase, or decrease changes.
Minimum FTE Delta: The minimum absolute FTE change (inclusive) for this threshold to apply. For decrease thresholds, enter a positive number representing the magnitude of the decrease. For example, enter 0.5 to match a decrease of 0.5 FTE or more.
Approval Level: The approval level required when the threshold is matched.

If no thresholds are configured, the feature is inactive and has no effect on approval routing.

Cost Impact Levels

Cost impact levels work identically to FTE impact levels, but operate on the dollar cost change instead of FTE change. This allows your organization to require higher approval for changes that have a significant financial impact, even when FTE may not change (for example, a wage rate increase on an existing schedule).

How Cost Impact Levels Work

FTE Tree computes the cost impact by comparing the position's scenario annual cost to its Operating Budget annual cost. These values come from the same calculator used throughout the application, including wage rate adjustments, FTE-based calculations, and annual adjustments.

The change is classified into one of three impact types:

Net Zero Cost Change: Attributes were modified but the resulting cost did not change.
Cost Increase: The change resulted in a higher annual cost.
Cost Decrease: The change resulted in a lower annual cost.

Threshold Bands and Interaction

Cost impact thresholds use the same hierarchical band matching as FTE impact thresholds. Increase and decrease types support multiple threshold bands with escalating approval levels. Net Zero allows only a single threshold at zero.

When a request is submitted, FTE Tree determines three scores:

The highest attribute-based approval level
The highest FTE impact-based approval level
The highest cost impact-based approval level

The final approval level is the highest of all three. Each dimension can only escalate, never reduce.

Managing Cost Impact Thresholds

Cost impact thresholds are managed from Settings > Approval Requests > Cost Impact tab on the Impact Levels page. Both FTE and Cost impact thresholds are managed from the same page using separate tabs, with a shared Audit History tab that shows changes for the active tab. Each threshold requires:

Impact Type: Whether this threshold applies to net-zero, increase, or decrease changes.
Minimum Cost Delta: The minimum absolute cost change (inclusive) for this threshold to apply. For decrease thresholds, enter a positive number representing the magnitude of the decrease. For example, enter 5000 to match a cost decrease of $5,000 or more.
Approval Level: The approval level required when the threshold is matched.

If no thresholds are configured, cost impact has no effect on approval routing.

Workflow Steps

Each approval workflow consists of one or more steps that define who needs to approve a request and in what order. Steps are processed sequentially, and each step can be assigned to:

Specific users: Individual organization users assigned as approvers.
Approval roles: Dynamic roles that are mapped to users by department, allowing the correct approver to be selected automatically based on the department in the request. See Permissions and Roles for more information on setting up approval roles.

Each step also has the following settings:

Step Name: A label describing the purpose of the step (e.g., "Manager Review", "Finance Approval").
Approvers Required: The number of listed approvers required to approve before the step is marked as approved. Set to a specific number for partial approval (e.g., 2 of 5 assigned approvers), or leave blank to require all assigned approvers. If fewer approvers are assigned to the step than the number specified, all assigned approvers will be required.
Allowed Denial Count: The number of denials allowed before the step is automatically denied. Defaults to 0, meaning any denial will deny the step.

If a step has no roles or users assigned, it will auto-approve. Similarly, if a workflow has no steps at all, requests using that workflow will auto-approve. A step will also auto-approve if the requester is the only assigned approver and no escalation approvers are available, to maintain separation of duties.

When a request is created, the workflow steps and their approvers are copied as a point-in-time snapshot. Changes to the workflow after a request is created do not affect requests that are already in progress.

Auto-Approve Workflows

A workflow with no steps configured will automatically approve any request routed to it. This is displayed on the workflow detail page with an "Auto-Approve" badge. Auto-approve workflows are useful for:

Replacement and elimination requests at level 0 that should be processed without manual review.
Low-impact changes where organizational policy allows automatic approval but you still want the request tracked in the approval history.

To set up an auto-approve workflow, create a workflow at the desired approval level and do not add any approval steps. When a request matches this workflow, it will be immediately approved and the requester will be notified. Auto-approved requests follow the same post-approval processing as manually approved requests, including creating requisitions when applicable.

Workflow Comment and Response Settings

Each approval workflow can be configured with its own comment requirements and response choice groups. These settings control what approvers see and are required to provide when they approve, deny, or cancel a request.

Comment Requirements

Require Comment if Approving: When enabled, the approver must enter a comment when approving a request routed through this workflow. Defaults to False.
Require Comment if Denying: When enabled, the approver must enter a comment when denying a request. Defaults to True.
Require Comment if Cancelling: When enabled, a comment is required when cancelling a request. Defaults to True.

Approval Response Choice Groups

Workflows can optionally be configured with response choice groups that provide approvers with a dropdown of predefined reasons when taking action on a request. This standardizes the reasons for approvals and denials across your organization.

Approve Choice Group: An optional choice group displayed to the approver when approving a request. For example, choices might include "Budget Verified", "Within Headcount Plan", or "Executive Approved".
Deny Choice Group: An optional choice group displayed to the approver when denying a request. For example, choices might include "Over Budget", "Insufficient Justification", or "Position Freeze".

Response choice groups are managed from Settings > Choice Groups under the "Approval Response" category. Each workflow can reference a different set of choices, allowing you to tailor the approval experience for different parts of your organization.

Approval Workflow Attachments

The approval workflow provides support for attaching files to the approval request. These files are mapped to the specific approval workflow and will appear when a user makes a new request.

Each approval workflow file attachment requires:

Attachment Title: A clear description displayed instead of the actual file name.
Required Upload: When enabled, the user must upload a file for this attachment when submitting the request. When disabled, the file upload is optional.
File Instructions: Optional instructions explaining how to use the file.
Display on New Request: Enable to show the attachment on new requests. Disabling does not retroactively remove it from existing requests.

All files within FTE Tree are encrypted in transit and at rest. Download links are time-limited to 15 minutes and restricted to authorized users. For additional details, see Audit and Data Integrity.

Assigning Workflows to Departments

Approval workflows are assigned through the department tree and cascade down similarly to how department roles are assigned. You can assign a specific workflow to the top of your department tree and let it cascade to all child departments, or assign specific workflows to specific departments or branches. In FTE Tree, an approval workflow must be assigned to a department for users to make approval requests.

When assigning workflows to departments, the workflow's approval level determines which requests it handles. A department can have multiple workflows of the same request type assigned at different approval levels, allowing different tiers of changes to follow different approval processes.

Workflow Comments

Each approval workflow detail page includes a Comments button where your users can have conversations about the workflow. Comments support threaded replies and user mentions with email and in-app notifications. Commenting on approval workflows requires the approval request settings permission. For more details, see Messages and Notifications.

Need Help?

If you have any questions about configuring approval workflows, please contact us or email us at support@ftetree.com.