If your company set up approval processes and set you as an approver, approval tasks appear in the Inbox widget of your Home. Depending on the approval process you're assigned to, you can receive for tasks for:

• Attendance requests
• Employee data change requests
• Time off requests
• Flexible work schedule requests

Before you start

To receive and action approval tasks, the assigned approvers must have the following permissions:

Approve a time off request

When an employee with Propose permissions requests time off, like holidays, paid leave, or sick days, Personio triggers an approval process. If you're a request approver, the task appears in your Home and Inbox.

Go to your Inbox to see more details about the time off request. You can:

• Approve or reject the request directly from the Inbox.
• Click the request to open a detailed page that includes the date range, a calendar preview that shows possible overlaps with the team, the remaining balance after approval, and visibility into the approval chain if there's more than one step. 
• If an employee requests time off with no end date, this is clearly marked as open-ended time off. Once you know when the employee plans to return, make sure to add an end date. The employee can also do this from their Time off page. Closing the open-ended time off period ensures that time off is accurately reflected in downstream processes such as reporting and payroll.
• Click the eye icon on the right to review the request in your Team calendar.
• When you reject a time off request, you can add an optional comment to explain why. The requester will see your comment in the inbox notification they receive about the rejection.

After you’ve reviewed the request, the employee receives a confirmation email about your decision. When the request is approved, the time off appears in the employee's calendar.

Who approves date changes

If an employee changes the dates of an approved time off period, the request reverts to pending. Personio also sends the approver a new approval task. The approver needs to review and approve the request again.

A few scenarios can affect who receives this task:

• If approval delegation is in place and the approver is absent, the delegate receives the task instead of the original approver.
• If the approval workflow changes after the request is approved, the new approval chain receives the task, not the original approver.
• If the employee's supervisor changes after the request is approved, their new supervisor receives the task, not the previous one.

Who receives notifications about comment changes

Note:
If someone edits the dates and the comment at the same time, the date-change rules above apply. The rules regarding notifications about comment changes, described below, don’t apply.

If an employee adds, edits, or removes a comment on an approved time off period, the original approver receives a notification. The approval itself doesn't change (the period stays approved).

A few scenarios can affect who receives this notification:

• If approval delegation is in place and the original approver is absent, the original approver still receives the notification. Delegation doesn't apply to comment notifications.
• If the approval workflow changes after the request is approved, the original approver still receives the notification. The new approval chain doesn’t receive it.
• If the employee's supervisor changes after the request is approved, the original approver(s) receive the notification. The new supervisor doesn’t receive it.
• If someone other than the employee edits the comment, both the approval chain and the employee receive a notification. They can also see who made the change.

Approve an attendance request

Your company might have set up an approval process to ensure that time entries are confirmed as valid. If you're an approver for other employees' attendance requests, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Inbox.
2. To only see attendance requests, filter by Product Area > Attendance.
3. Requests are grouped by employee. You have three options:
   • To approve requests in bulk, click Approve all.
   • Click a request to view all its details.
   • Hover over an individual request to either approve or reject it directly in the Inbox. If you reject a request, it returns to the requester, so they can edit and resubmit it.

Approve employee attribute update requests

Your employees might be able to propose changes to their own attributes. Your company might have set up an approval process to review these changes before they're effective. If you're an approver for attribute updates, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Inbox and find the approval task.
2. Review the request and either approve or reject it. 
3. When the request is approved, a notification appears for the requester.

Approve a flexible work schedule

Your company might have decided to assign flexible work schedules to your employees, and set up an approval workflow for them. If you’re a reviewer, follow these steps:

1. When an employee submits a flexible work schedule, you receive an email and an inbox notification.
2. Click the link in the email or the notification and review the schedule.
3. If you reject it, the employee can edit the schedule and resubmit it.