Approval Delegation

[Nilesh Pol]

Hi All,I am working on the scenario: When a manager (approver) is on leave, approvals should not get stuck.
So the manager can assign a delegate for a specific period, and during that time:

Approval requests automatically go to the delegate

System still remembers who the original approver was

Audit/history clearly shows approval was done on behalf of someone.

please assist me with any suggestion will be appreciated.

[Kieran Anson]

Delegation, inclusive of approvals, is an OOTB capability and is available on the docs. Depending on what you're wishing to delegate, granular delegation may also be an option. Depends on the complexity

https://www.servicenow.com/docs/csh?topicname=t_DelegateApprovalsTasks.html&version=latest 

[Vijayc1]

Hi  Nilesh, 

You are used the OOB table sys_user_delegate to handle approvals when an approver is out of office.

How it works:

1. Manager creates a delegation

   • In sys_user_delegate

   • Sets delegate user, start/end date

   • Enables Approval = true

2. Flow runs when approval is needed

   • Flow looks up sys_user_delegate for the primary approver

   • Checks:

     • Active = true

     • Approval = true

     • Today is within start & end dates

3. If delegate found

   • Approval is sent to the delegated user

4. If no delegate found

   • Approval goes to the original approver

5. Approval history

   • Shows approval done by delegate

   • Comment can say:
     “Approved on behalf of Primary Approver”

     If my response helped, please mark it as correct 

      and close the thread 

     — this helps future readers find the solution faster! 

     Regards,
     Vijay Chorge

[adityahubli]

Hello @Nilesh Pol ,

ServiceNow provides an out-of-the-box (OOTB) Delegation feature that allows a user to define a time period during which another user can approve requests on their behalf. Using delegation, you can control from when to when the delegate can act, and also configure whether the delegate should receive approval, notifications and task assignments.

I have attached reference images that demonstrate this configuration for better understanding.

Regards,

Aditya,

Technical Consultant

[Dhanraj B]

Yes you are right, if "Senior Manager" is on leave, the approval should be routed to the "Manager" as per the delegation. But I'm not sure with ServiceNow's logic on this. I think, ServiceNow didn't include the part of checking delegations before sending the approvals.

Or else you can DIY, by adding lookup for the delegates before sending the approval. Use flow variables or something (I just assumed that you are using the flow designer) and assign the approval accordingly.

-Dhanraj.