Setting up Approval Sharing

• 18/02/2025
• 7 minutes to read

You can automatically forward all of your approval tasks to another approver if you cannot approve documents for a period of time. By sharing your approval tasks with a designated approver, they can operate as your substitute until you return to approve documents yourself.

Set up approval sharing

Approval sharing works well if you're out of office and want to avoid bottlenecking approval processes. A designated approver is an admin.

To set up approval sharing:

1. Search for Approval Sharing, then choose the related link.
2. On the action bar, select Edit List.
3. In the Owner User ID column, enter the user ID of the person who is sharing approval tasks
4. In the Shared to User ID column, enter the user ID of the person who will be the substitute approver.
5. In the Sharing Type column, select Normal.

   Note

   If it's necessary for an admin set up out of office approval on behalf of a user, the admin must select Out of Office instead of Normal so the user can edit the entry later, if need be.

6. In the Valid From and Valid To columns, enter or select the start and end dates of the period where the approval tasks are shared.
7. If you want the substitute approver to inherit your limits and permissions, select the Use Owners Limits & Permissions checkbox.
8. Specify who will receive approval emails during the specified time. For Send Email To, choose :
   
   • Only Owner
   • Only Shared To User
   • Both Users

Set up a fictional user as a group

In situations where you must manage multi-person approvals, you can create a new fictional user and use the account as a group approver. Use this solution too if there's a company policy that requires top-level approvers to have their own approval requests approved by someone other than themself.

The approval limit set for the group (the fictional user) overrides the individual approval limit set for each user in the group. You must be an admin for this process.

To create a new fictional user that you can use as a group:

1. Search for Continia User Setup, then choose the related link.
2. On the action bar, select New.
3. Under General, in the Continia User ID field, select the menu (...) and either choose an existing User ID or, on the action bar, select New and create a new User ID.
4. Fill in the Name field.

4. Under Expense Management > Approval Limit, either toggle Unlimited or specify the approval limit in the Amount field.

Now you have a new fictional user that you can use as a group.

Add users to the group

To add users to the group you just created:

1. Search for Approval sharing, then choose the related link.
2. On the action bar, click Edit List.
3. In the Owner User ID column, choose the user you created in the previous step.
4. In the Shared to User ID column, choose a user that you want include in the approval sharing group.
5. In the Sharing Type column, choose Normal.
6. In the Use Owner's Limits and Permissions column, select the checkbox.
7. In the Send Email To column, choose:
   
   • Only Owner
   • Only Shared To User
   • Both Users
8. Repeat these steps for each user you want to add to the group.

You can see the number of users who have been added to the group on the Continia Users page under Shared to this User.

Set up out of office approval sharing

You do not need to be an admin for this process, as individual users can also set up approval sharing for when they're out of office.

To set up approval sharing yourself:

1. Search for Expense Management Approval Entries, then choose the related link.
2. On the action bar, select Out of Office Setup.
3. Under General in the Forward from date and Forward to date fields, enter or select the start and end dates of the period where your approval tasks will be shared.
4. In the Forward to field, enter the user ID of the substitute approver that you want your approval tasks forwarded to.
5. If you want to share your approval tasks for all companies where you and the substitute approver are present, select the Copy to All Companies checkbox. If you don't select this checkbox, the out of office approval sharing you're setting up will only apply to the company that you're currently in.