Time-off approval policies define the rules for approving employee time-off requests and specify who must approve and who gets notified.
By creating and assigning these policies to employees, you simplify the approval process, ensuring clarity and consistency in time-off management.
Setting up time-off approval policies is available on the Ultimate subscription plan.
Accessing Time-Off Approval Policies
Navigate to Settings > Time Off and scroll to the Time Off Approval Policies section at the bottom.
Click Add Approval Policy to start.
Before You Start
Make sure the Time Off Approval toggle is enabled in your settings. Without it, you won’t see the Approval Policies section!
Creating a New Approval Policy
Add the following information about your policy:
Name: Enter a name for the policy.
Description: Provide a description so users understand the policy’s purpose.
Next, configure the following for each time-off category:
1) People Who Need to Approve
No approval needed
No approval is required for requests in this category.
Any one of the listed approvers
Any listed approver can approve the request.
All approvers
Every listed approver must approve the request.
Tip: You can select a specific user or assign a dynamic "Manager" role as an approver. Learn how to set up managers here.
2) Notify Upon Approval
Add individuals who should receive notifications when the time-off request is approved.
3) Copy to All Categories
Use this option to apply the same approval rules across all time-off categories.
Saving the Policy
After configuring the approvers and subscribers for your time-off categories, click Save to finalize the policy.
Default Approval Policy
Once a policy is created, you can set it as the default approval policy for new users in Productive.
Otherwise, you can select the "No default policy" option so no policy is assigned to new employees.
Visibility and Permissions
Who Can See, Create, and Edit Approval Policies?
Users must have the "Manage time off categories and approval settings" permission enabled to view or edit approval policies in Settings > Time Off.
By default, these are users with Admin permissions.
Who Can Assign Approval Policies?
Only users with the "Add, edit, and delete time off time off allocations, manage approvers and subscribers for time off allocation" permission can assign policies to other employees.
By default, these are users with Admin permissions.
Viewing Approvers and Subscribers
Users with the "View your own time off allocations" permission can see approvers and subscribers in their profile screen.
Users with the "View all users' time off allocations" permission can see approvers and subscribers for all employees.
Managing Existing Approval Policies
Time-Off Approval Policies can be modified or archived to adapt to your organization’s changing needs.
Applying the Policies to Users
Once your policies are set up, assign them to employees in Resourcing > Employees.
