Leave requests are approved using the Leave Requests option.
The leave request approval process follows the hierarchy (approval sequences) as defined with the approval paths. The fields (excluding the Employee and Leave fields for regular leave requests, and the Employee field for FMLA leave requests) can be changed when approving leave requests if the Allow Approver Edit field is selected within the Leave Request Options. Substitutes can also be assigned to leave requests during the approval process if needed.
If a leave request is rejected by one approver on the approval path, the leave request will not proceed to the next approval sequence on the approval path, and will instead be sent back to the submitter (the employee for whom the leave request was made). If a change is made to a leave request (other than a change to the Substitute Needed field or the substitute information) and the Requires Restart of Approval field is selected in the Leave Request Options, the leave request will be sent back to the first sequence on the approval path. If approving leave requests out of the normal sequence order for an approval path, the leave requests will still be pending for the other users with approval sequences preceding and following the particular sequence.
How to approve leave requests:
Select the Leave Requests menu (or select the Leave Requests menu and then Approvals).
On the Leave Requests screen, select the Approvals tab if not already selected.
Note: The Approvals tab is only available if the user has rights to approve leave requests (within the User Security option).
Tip: A user must be assigned to an approval sequence on an approval path, or assigned as the override approver, in the Leave Request Options in order to approve leave requests.
In the You Are Currently Viewing field, specify the type of approvals to process:
Regular Approvals - To view the leave requests currently awaiting approval from the user.
Override Approvals - To view the leave requests awaiting approval from others for which the user is designated as an override approver (as defined in the Override Approver ID field for approval paths in the Leave Request Options).
The That Are field appears to the right of the You Are Currently Viewing field if the Allow Approvals Out of Sequence field is selected in the Leave Request Options. If applicable, in the That Are field, specify which leave requests to process:
In Sequence - To display only the leave requests currently at the user’s sequence.
For All Sequences - To display all leave requests pending approval from the user, including those that are currently awaiting approval from other users first for other sequences on the approval paths and those currently at the user’s sequence.
Tip: Select For All Sequences if the user will soon be gone for a period of time and would like to approve leave requests that will be moving through the approval process and needing approval before the user returns.
If Override Approvals is selected in the You Are Currently Viewing field, the From field displays. If applicable, in the From field, specify the user for which to process their pending leave requests.
Note: Only the users who have leave requests pending their approval for which the current user is designated as an override approver (as defined in the Override Approver ID field in the Leave Request Options) can be entered here.
For the Has Warnings field, select which leave requests to view:
All - To view all leave requests including those with warnings.
Yes - To view only the leave requests that include one or more warnings.
No - To view only the leave requests that do not have any warnings.
Tip: The warnings for the leave requests include:
The leave (or main leave, if applicable) for the entry has a negative balance.
The leave request matches another leave request entry for the employee or an entry in employee absences or pay period entries for the leave and the start date.
The applicable leave requests appear in the list. If desired, change the filters to modify the leave requests displayed on the screen.
Note: The leave requests also display in the calendar at the bottom of the screen (for the number of past years designated in the Leave Request Options and forward). The view options for the calendar are:
Approval Path Employees - displays the leave requests shown in the list, as well as the fully approved and pending leave requests for the employees and leaves for which the user has rights to approve.
All Employees - only available if the Allow Display of All Employees on Approval Calendar in Web Link field is selected in the Leave Request Options; displays the leave requests for all employees and all leaves, including those the user does not have rights to approve.
Tip: The fully approved leave requests show on the calendar in green and pending in orange, while the unsubmitted, rejected, recalled, and cancelled leave requests do not display on the calendar. The events added within the Manage Calendar option display using their designated colors.
Complete the approval process for the desired leave requests:
Complete the steps below to process one leave request at a time with viewing/editing the details:
Click the View/Edit link to the right of a leave request in the list, or double-click on the leave request.
The leave request displays showing all the details, including the applicable year’s balances for the leave (and main leave, if applicable) for the employee:
Current Posted Balance - the total units of the leave available after taking into account all posted entries.
Unposted or Approved Entries - the total of all absence entries for the leave in unposted batches of Employee Absences, Pay Period Entries, and Time Cards, and approved leave request entries not yet brought into a batch.
Pending Approval Entries - the total of the leave request entries for the leave that have been submitted but not yet approved.
Unsubmitted Entries - the total of the leave request entries that have not been submitted (and leave requests that have been rejected or recalled and not yet cancelled or deleted).
Total Balance - reflects the Current Posted Balance, less the Unposted or Approved Entries, less the Pending Approval Entries, less the Unsubmitted Entries.
In the Substitutes section, if needed, enter the substitute information for who will work during the employee’s absence if known at this time:
Enter the ID of the employee who will work in place of the absent employee in the Employee field.
Enter the starting date for when the substitute will work in the Start Date field.
Enter the ending date for when the substitute will work in the End Date field.
If desired, enter the number of units the substitute will work (and be paid) in the Units field.
If desired, enter the ID of the pay code for which to pay the substitute in the Pay Code field.
If desired, enter a comment for the substitute in the Comment field.
Tip: If necessary, multiple lines to record the substitute information can be entered. If needed, to delete a line, click the Delete button to the right of the desired line, and then click the Delete button when prompted.
If desired, to enter a comment for approving or rejecting the leave request, click the Add Comment button, enter the comment, and click the Save button.
Tip: If a leave request will be rejected, it is a good idea to enter the reason for the rejection as a comment so that the submitter will know why it was rejected.
If needed, the other applicable fields can be changed or completed for a leave request at this time (if the Allow Approver Edit field is selected within the Leave Request Options).
Note: The Substitute Needed field is always enabled and can be changed if necessary, even if the Allow Approver Edit field is not selected. Also, the following fields are always disabled and cannot be changed for a leave request when processing the approvals, even if the Allow Approver Edit field is selected:
For regular leave requests: Employee, Is This Request for FMLA, and Leave
For FMLA leave requests: Employee, Is This Request for FMLA, and FMLA Reason
Tip: If a change is made to the leave request, the field that was changed is automatically tracked in the activity log (except for the fields within the Substitutes section). If desired, to view the activity log items for the leave request in addition to the comments, select Comments & Activity Log in the Viewing field.
If changes were made, click the Save button.
Click the Approve button to approve the leave request, or if there are multiple sequences for the user to approve, click the Approve All Sequences button to approve all the sequences at this time; or click the Reject button to reject the leave request.
Tip: The Approve All Sequences button only appears if the Allow Approvals Out of Sequence field is selected in the Leave Request Option and there are multiple sequences for the user to approve for the leave request.
Complete the steps below to process multiple leave requests at a time (if applicable) without viewing/editing the details:
Note: The ability to process multiple leave request approvals at a time is only available if the Allow Mass Approval Process in Web Link is selected in the Leave Request Options.
To approve one more leave requests, select the desired leave requests and then click the Approve button located above the list.
To reject one or more leave requests, select the desired leave requests and then click the Reject button located above the list.
Note: After approving leave requests, notification emails will be sent to the appropriate users (as based on the approval path for the leave request) if designated to do so in the Email Manager option. If there were notification email messages that did not go through, an error will be tracked in the Activity Log option (on the System Log tab) and an alert will appear on the main School Accounting System screen. If an email is rejected, the rejection notice will be sent to the appropriate address for the designated email address in the Email Manager option.