What is temporary approval?
Approvers aren't always available, they go on leave, travel, or move roles, and business travel doesn't wait for them to be back. Temporary approval lets a super-admin hand off one approver's responsibilities to someone else for a set period of time, without touching any approval rules.
Once it's set up, everything that would normally go to the original approver, is automatically redirected to the replacement for as long as the delegation is active. When the end date passes, everything reverts to the original approver on its own.
How it works and where to manage it
Finding the Approval delegation tab
Go to Travel Ops → Approval settings. You'll see Approval delegation as its own tab, alongside Approval rules and Settings.
Only super-admins can view this tab and set up delegations.
The approver directory
When you open the tab, you'll see a directory listing every named approver in your company — not a blank form. The idea is that you can see at a glance who's covering what, and where the gaps are.
| Column | Shows |
|---|---|
| Approver | The person's name and avatar. Anyone named as a 1st, 2nd, or backup approver on at least one rule, or set as a group's manager, appears here. |
| Group manager | The group(s) this person is the fallback (default) approver for. This is who a booking routes to when no rule condition matches it. |
| Approval rules assigned | Every rule this person is named on directly, tagged 1st / 2nd / backup, with a short summary of the rule's conditions. |
| Active delegation | Whether someone is currently covering for this approver, and for how long — for example, “→ Hugh Batley · 1–20 Jul 2026.” Shows “No delegation set” if there isn't one. |
| Edit | Opens the delegation modal, prefilled with this person as the main approver. |
Setting up a delegation
Click + Add delegation at the top of the list for a blank form, or Edit on a specific approver's row to start prefilled with them as the main approver.
The Set up approval delegation modal has four fields:
- Main approver — the person who's going to be unavailable
- Replacement approver — who'll be covering for them
- Start date — optional; if left blank, the delegation starts immediately
- End date
A few rules apply when setting this up:
- The replacement approver can be anyone with manager or super-admin access.
- The main and replacement approver must be different people.
- One main approver can have only one active replacement at a time.
- A replacement approver can only cover for one main approver at a time. If Hugh is already covering for Sani, he can't also be set up to cover for Sunandar until that delegation ends.
Once you save, every rule where the main approver is named routes to the replacement for the length of the window. If the main approver is also a group's default approver, that role moves to the replacement too, and you'll see it reflected on the Groups page as well. The directory's Active delegation column updates right away.
Limitations
- Only one delegate per approver, and one assignment per delegate. As above — a main approver can only be covered by a single replacement at a time, and a replacement can only stand in for one person at a time.
- New requests only. A delegation applies to booking approval requests submitted after it's set up. Anything already pending stays with the original approver.
- Collisions collapse to a single approval. If redirecting an approver would make the 1st and 2nd approver on a rule resolve to the same person, the 2nd approval automatically routes to that rule's backup approver instead, so a two-person approval still needs two different people. If there's no backup approver configured for that rule, you'll see a warning on the affected slot rather than the approval silently reducing to one person — worth checking your rules have a backup set if you rely on this.
- Multiple delegations can run at once. There's no limit on how many approvers can have an active delegation at the same time.
Where you'll see it
Before booking and at checkout — the approval details section automatically shows the delegate instead of the original approver where a delegation is active. Hovering over their name shows who they're covering for and until when. If there's no active delegation, this section looks exactly as it does today.
Trips page — the approver shown updates the same way; hover for the delegation details if it's a temporary approver.
Approvals — we've also added the temporary approver information to the approval email, approvals list, and approval details page, so it's clear whenever a request reached someone through a delegation.
Reports — reports don't add extra delegated-approval wording; they reflect the approval as usual.
FAQ
Can two people cover for the same approver at once?
No — one main approver can only have one active replacement at a time.
Can the same person cover for more than one approver?
No — a replacement approver can only be set up against one main approver at a time.
What happens to approval requests that are already pending when I set up a delegation?
Nothing — a delegation only applies to new requests submitted after it's created. Anything already awaiting approval stays with the original approver.
Does removing a delegation early, or letting it expire, put things back the way they were?
Yes — every rule and group-manager assignment affected reverts to the original approver automatically.
Can I delegate just one approval rule instead of all of a person's assignments?
Not currently — delegation covers everything the main approver is named on. A narrower, rule-specific option was considered but isn't available in this version.