How to deal with multi-step approvals

If your organisation needs a manager or other person to check a leave request before someone else gives the final approval, use the Follower feature as a simple multi-step approval workflow in Leave Dates.

For example, an employee may need their project leader to confirm that the requested dates are suitable, while an HR administrator remains responsible for formally approving the leave request. Instead of HR having to contact the project leader separately to check every request, the project leader can be added as a Follower to the employee’s Leave Dates record. They will then be notified when the employee submits a request and can add a comment confirming whether they are happy for the leave to be approved.

The HR administrator can then use that comment to decide whether to approve or decline the request. This provides an efficient way to involve additional line managers or project leaders in the leave process without giving them approval permissions.

A Follower can view and comment on a leave request, but cannot approve or decline it. The final approval or decline must still be made by an Approver.

How this workflow works

The process is:

Employee submits leave request → Follower is notified → Follower adds a comment to the leave request → Approver reviews the comment → Approver approves or declines the leave request

This is particularly useful where Approvers need to check with other individuals to confirm that an employee can be away on the requested dates. For example, a project leader may need to make sure there’s enough cover from other team members during that period - but the person designated as the employee’s Approver on Leave Dates doesn’t have this oversight.

The Leave Dates setup supports this by allowing non-Approvers to be added as Followers. Followers receive notifications about relevant requests and can view request details, including dates, descriptions and attached files - and can then add a comment to the request confirming whether they are happy for the leave to be approved.

Step 1: Decide who should provide the additional check

First, identify the person who needs to check the leave request before the Approver accepts or declines the request.

This might be:

The employee's line manager
A project leader
A team leader
Another person responsible for coordinating the employee's work

This person does not need to be an Approver if their role is only to provide confirmation or guidance.

You can also designate anybody within the company as a Follower and they don’t need any special permissions in their Leave Dates employee record to fulfil this role.

You can have multiple individuals added as a Follower for one employee. But be careful that this doesn’t become confusing for the final Approver who will then need to wait for multiple comments to be added to the leave request before they approve/decline it. So if you do this, make sure you clarify the multi-step process with everyone involved.

Step 2: Add the person as a Follower

You can add a Follower for an individual employee or configure Followers at department level if actually that person needs to review the leave requests for everyone in the department.

For a specific employee

Go to Settings > Employees.
Select the employee whose leave requests need an additional check.
Open the Employment details tab.
Scroll down to the Follower(s) section.
Select the person who should be notified about the employee's leave requests.
Click Save changes.

For everyone in a department

If the same manager or group of people needs to be notified about leave requests from every employee in a department:

Go to Settings > Departments.
Select the department.
Select one or more people as Followers.
Click Save.

Step 3: The employee submits their leave request

Once the Follower has been configured, the employee can submit their leave request as normal.

The request is still sent to the person responsible for approving their leave. But now, the Follower(s) will also receive a notification at the same time.

Just like Approvers, Followers will receive new-request notifications by email, in Leave Dates and, through the mobile app (depending on their set-up).

Step 4: The Follower reviews the request

The Follower can review the request and determine whether the proposed leave dates work from their perspective.

For example, they might need to check:

Whether the employee is needed for a project during those dates.
Whether other team members are already away.
Whether the requested absence creates a staffing problem.
Whether the employee has discussed the dates with the manager.
Whether the leave can be accommodated from an operational perspective.

The Follower can then comment on the request by adding a message in the Updates section of the leave request.

For example:

"I'm happy with these dates. Please go ahead and approve the leave."

Or, if the dates are not suitable:

"These dates will be difficult because of the project deadline. Please reject the request and I will discuss alternative dates with Jason."

The comment provides the Approver with the additional check they need without requiring a separate email, phone call or message to the Follower - plus it logs all steps of the approval process directly into the employee’s record.

Be aware that the employee will also see all comments made on the leave request!

Step 5: The Approver reviews the comment and makes the final decision

Once the Follower has commented, the Approver can review the request.

If the Follower has confirmed that the leave is suitable, the Approver can click Approve.

If the Follower has raised an issue or does not support the requested dates, the Approver can decline the request or follow up with the employee before making a decision.

This preserves a clear division of responsibilities:

Employee: submits the leave request.
Follower: checks the request and provides guidance through a comment.
Approver: makes the formal approve or decline decision.

Why use Followers instead of adding another Approver?

Adding someone as a Follower is useful when that person needs to have visibility and provide input, but should not have authority to approve leave.

Leave Dates' standard approval setup allows multiple Approvers to be assigned, but only one approval is required per request.

That may not suit organisations where the process is something like:

Manager checks the request.
HR gives the final approval.

In this situation, making the manager an Approver could give them more authority than intended. Using a Follower instead allows the manager to provide the required confirmation while leaving the formal approval with HR.

Keep the discussion on the leave request

One of the main advantages of this approach is that the manager's response can be kept with the leave request itself.

Comments become part of the request's update history, alongside other actions such as the request being made, approved, declined or cancelled. This means HR does not need to keep track of separate email conversations or messages to establish whether a manager has confirmed a request.

For consistency, you may want to ask managers to use a simple response such as:

"Approved from my side – HR can approve."
"Not approved – please contact me."
"Please discuss alternative dates with me."

This makes the manager's position easy for the final Approver to understand.

All comments are also visible to the employee who submitted the request, so you may need to ensure all Followers understand this and don’t include anything in their comments which they don’t want the employee to see.

Set up Followers at the right level

Leave Dates uses a top-down approach to many employee settings. Company settings are configured first, department settings next, and employee-level settings can then be used as exceptions. Department-level settings include both Approvers and Followers.

For this reason, consider setting Followers at department level if the same manager should receive requests for everyone in a department. Use the employee-level setting when only particular employees require an additional check.

If the manager does not respond

Adding someone as a Follower does not make their comment a formal approval step in the system. It is therefore important to agree internally how your organisation will handle requests where the manager does not respond.

For example, you could agree that the Approver will:

Wait for the Follower's comment before approving.
Contact the Follower separately if a response isn’t received within a certain time-frame, or is needed urgently.
Follow the organisation's existing leave policy where no response is received.