Working with approval requests

Overview

Approval requests are how proposed position changes are reviewed before they become approved staffing data. Users prepare position changes first, review the approved-versus-proposed impact, and then submit a request when the change set is ready.

Each request keeps the selected workflow, approval level, requested values, effective dates, impact summary, attachments, comments, decisions, and final applied changes for later review.

Access needed

Prepare proposed changes

Start from the position detail page or the position change request area. Update the values that need review, such as FTE, department, job code, reporting relationship, funding, base wage rate, adjustments, or custom details.

Each requested value has its own effective date. The effective date belongs to the value being changed, not to the approval request itself. This lets one request include changes with more than one effective date while keeping each line clear.

Use the approval summary before submission to review FTE impact, annualized cost, period cost, funding, and pay-range impact.

Submit a request

When the proposed changes are ready, submit the request for review. FTE Tree shows:

• The request type.
• The position or positions included in the request.
• The department used for approval review.
• The selected workflow and approval level.
• Workflow steps and approvers.
• Approved-versus-proposed impact.
• Requested values and effective dates.
• Required and optional attachments.
• Request reason or explanation inputs configured for your organization.

The first requested effective date is used to choose the approval path. Approval level selection uses the aggregate FTE and cost impact across the requested lines. If the request has no department that can be used for approval review, it cannot be submitted.

Request types

Common request types include:

• New position: Create a new approved position.
• Position change: Change an existing position's staffing, department, job, reporting, funding, or detail values.
• Compensation change: Change wage, adjustment, pay range, or related compensation values.
• Replacement or backfill: Replace or backfill an approved position without changing its core FTE, job code, or cost structure.
• Freeze or unfreeze: Pause or resume use of a position.
• Close or eliminate: Close a position or remove it from active position control.

Your organization may use a subset of these request types.

Active request locks

While a position has an active approval request, requested position data is locked from conflicting edits. This protects approvers from reviewing one set of values while another user changes the proposal.

If approved position data changes before a pending request is finished, the request can become stale. A stale request must be refreshed or resubmitted before final approval so the FTE and cost impact and approval history reflect the current approved baseline.

Review and approve

Approvers can review requests from the Dashboard, Approvals, or direct request links. The request detail shows the approval summary, requested values, attachments, comments, workflow, and Activity history.

Approval requests move through the workflow saved at submission:

1. Pending: The request is waiting for the first approver.
2. In process: One or more steps have been reviewed and the request is progressing.
3. Approved: All required approval steps are complete.
4. Denied: An approver denied the request.
5. Cancelled: The request was cancelled before approval.

Assigned approvers can receive email reminders based on your organization's approval settings. The Workflow tab shows the saved approval path, current step, completed decisions, and any reassignment or approve-on-behalf history.

Operations

Approval managers can use Operations to monitor requests that may need attention, such as pending work, stale requests, blocked approval paths, and workload by approver. Operations is intended for reviewing and resolving approval work, not for changing the approved staffing plan directly.

Reassignment and approve-on-behalf

If an assigned approver is unavailable, approval managers can use one of two options:

• Reassign: Move the pending approval task to another eligible user. The new user becomes the approver for that task.
• Approve on behalf: Record a decision for the assigned approver while showing which user made the on-behalf decision and why.

Both actions are included in Activity history and the request approval record. Use reassignment when another user should own the decision. Use approve-on-behalf only when your organization needs to document that a decision was made for the assigned approver.

Separation of duties

The requester should not approve the same request through the normal workflow. If the requester is the only available approver on a step, the request remains blocked until another eligible approver is assigned or an authorized on-behalf action is recorded.

Approval action notes and choices

When approving, denying, cancelling, reassigning, or approving on behalf, users may see a note entry, a reason choice, or both. Your organization's approval audit event settings control which inputs appear and whether they are optional or required.

These action notes are recorded in Activity history with the approval action. They are separate from request comments.

Request comments

Each approval request has a dedicated comments page for discussion. Comments support replies, mentions limited to users who can view the request, follow or mute behavior, notifications, and configurable comment email. This is separate from approve or deny notes.

Cancel or resubmit a request

The submitter or an approval manager may cancel an approval request before it is fully approved. Depending on your organization's settings, a note or reason choice may be required when cancelling.

If a denied, cancelled, or stale request still needs review, resubmit it from the request detail page. Resubmission checks the current approval path and keeps the new review connected to the earlier request history.

Track your requests

The Dashboard shows requests you submitted and requests awaiting your approval. Users with approval management access can use Approvals and Operations to review workload, blocked requests, pending tasks, stale requests, and decision history.

For audit review, approved requests keep an approval record tying together requested values, the approval path, approvers, decisions, notes, attachments, comments, and final applied changes.