Approval Settings controls who approve the requests your employees submit in AutoCount HRMS. Employees apply for leave, submit claims, and time attendance requests. 

This guide walks you through the setup in the order you should do it:

1. Check the prerequisites.
2. Choose an approval mode for each module.
3. Set up your approvers using department or an approval chart.
4. Set up approval flow.
5. Add safety nets with escalation and a fallback approver.
6. See your setup with Check & Preview before going live.
7. Handle absences with delegation.

Where to find it: Tools > User Settings > Approval Settings.

One card per module: Leave, Claim, and Time Attendance. On each card you choose where approvers come from, see how many approval groups the module has, and open the escalation and fallback settings.

Tabs (bottom)

Note: The mode is chosen separately for each module. For example, Leave can follow the org chart while Claim uses department groups with finance as the approver.

Under each card you will also see:

• "n approval group(s)" with a View link: opens the Approval Groups tab, filtered to that module.
• "No escalation or fallback approver" with a Set up link: opens the escalation settings.

• The condition: leave length, claim amount and claim types, or "Every request".
• Approvers: who receives the requests.
• Departments: which departments the group covers.

1. What does this group approve? Enter a title that describes who and what the group approves, for example "Sales team leave, up to 3 days". Then choose the module under Applies to.
2. When does it apply? Set the condition for the approval group. Available options depend on the selected module. Refer to the Conditions by Module section for details.
3. Who approves? Search for and add one or more approvers.
4. For which departments? Select the departments covered by this approval group. Use Select All or Clear to manage your selections quickly.
5. Click Save group to save the configuration.

Leave: by length of leave

Set a range in days: From a number up to (not including) another number. The range is compared with the number of days applied for.

Example: two groups for the same department.

• If you select specific claim types: The approvers in that group will only approve claims belonging to those selected types.
• If you leave it empty: The group cover all claim types.

Claim Amount

Set the minimum and maximum claim amount that this approver group is responsible for approving. The system will check the total claim amount, for the combined amount of the selected claim types if specific claim types are selected to determine whether the claim falls within the configured range.

Example:

1. If no claim types are selected, the system checks the total amount of the entire claim.
2. If specific claim types are selected, the system checks the combined amount of those claim types only.

Each approver sees and decides only their own approve claim type.

A claim with Medical 120.00, Dental 300.00 and Welfare 50.00 has a total of 470.00 for the selected claim types, so Medical and Dental go to the HR executive, meanwhile Welfare go to the HOD.

1. List your claim types and decide who should approve each one. 
2. Create a claim-type group for each claim type, or set of claim types, that needs a different approver.
3. Give each group a title that names the claim types it covers, for example "Claim: medical and dental", so the group list is easy to read.
4. Test with Who approves? in Check & Preview: choose an employee, select Claim, then enter a claim amount and pick each claim type in turn.

• Do not put the same claim type in two groups for the same department unless their amount ranges do not overlap. Otherwise, it is unclear which group should approve.
• When you add a new claim type, decide whether which approval group should handle it and update Approval Settings at the same time.
• Tell approvers what to expect. An approver in a claim-type group sees only their lines. A claim may still show as pending while another approver reviews its other lines.

• A department is left out. If a department is not ticked in any group for a module, employees in that department have no approver for it.
• Gaps between ranges, for example one group covering 0 up to 3 days and the next starting at 4. A 3-day application then matches neither group.
• The employee approves their own request. If an approver is also in the department they approve for, their own requests may come back to them. The Setup check flags this.

Use this section for every module set to By org chart. A chart follows each employee's reporting line, so the approvers are their superiors, up to the number of levels you set.

1. Enter a Chart name, for example "Company approval chart".
2. Under Modules this chart approves, switch on the modules that should follow this chart.
3. Expand a module (the arrow next to its switch) and click Add range to set how far up the reporting line approval goes. For example, "0 to 365 days, going up 1 level" means the employee's direct superior approves all leave.
4. 1 level is the direct superior; 2 levels are the HOD, then HR. User ranges to send bigger requests further up, for example 1 level for leave under 3 days and 2 levels for 3 day or more.
5. Leave: by length of leave, and Claim: by Claim type and amount also available for approval by org chart.

• Drag an employee onto the person who approves for them.
• Click an employee to see or change their own ranges.
• Follow organisation chart copies the reporting lines from your organisation structure, which is the quickest start.
• Reset changes undoes your unsaved edits.
• Use Find an employee, the zoom controls and Expand all or Collapse all to move around large trees

Fallback approver

Choose who receives a request when the organisation chart finds nobody above the employee with a user account. The default is “Nobody – the request comes back to the employee.” The fallback approver is only used in org chart mode. If the module uses department groups, the setting is kept but has no effect until you switch the module to By org chart.

When an approver will be away, hand their approvals to someone else for that period. Open the 

Delegation tab and click Add delegation.

What happens once you save:

• New requests go to the delegate for the whole period.
• If the delegation starts today, requests already waiting for the approver move to the delegate straight away.
• Nobody is ever asked to approve their own request.
• When the delegation ends, any request the delegate has not acted on goes back to the original approver.

Example

Ahmad is on leave from 15/10 to 31/10, so his approvals are delegated to Mei Ling for that period.

Setup check

The right-hand panel automatically checks every active employee, for each module, for two problems:

• Requests that would find no approver.
• Requests that would come back to the employee who submitted them.

A green message, "Every active employee can submit, and reaches someone other than themselves", means the module is set up correctly. If employees are listed, fix their department, group or reporting line, then click the refresh icon to check again.

Who approves?

Use the left-hand panel to see exactly who a specific request would reach today.

1. Choose an Employee.
2. Choose the Request type: Leave, Claim or Time Attendance.
3. Enter the details: Days of leave, or Claim amount and Claim type.
4. Read the list of approvers that appears.

Pick the scenario closest to your company and follow its steps.

Scenario A: Small company, one approver

A 20-person company where the director approves everything.

1. Set all three module cards to By department.
2. Create one approval group per module (Leave, Claim, Time Attendance). 
3. Approver: the director. Departments: Select all. Leave range: 0 up to 365 days. Claim: no claim types, full amount range.
4. Make sure the director has someone to approve their own requests, for example a second group for the director's department with HR as the approver.
5. Run the Setup check.

Scenario B: Leave by length, claims to finance

Team leads approve short leave, HODs approve long leave, and finance approves all claims.

1. Set Leave and Claim to By department.
2. For each department, create two Leave groups: 0 up to 3 days (team lead), and 3 up to 365 days (HOD).
3. Create one Claim group with the finance manager as approver, no claim types selected, and all departments ticked.
4. Preview 2-day and 3-day leave for one employee to confirm the split.

Scenario C: Reporting line approval

Each employee's direct manager approves, with bigger requests going one level higher.

1. Click Add approval chart, name it, then click Follow organisation chart.
2. Switch on Leave and Claim. Add ranges: Leave 0 up to 3 days, 1 level; 3 up to 365 days, 2 levels.
3. Check the tree for employees without a superior, and fix them by dragging.
4. Save the chart, then set the Leave and Claim cards to By org chart.
5. Click Set up on each card and choose a Fallback approver.
6. Run the Setup check.