Reviewing the Approval Log of a Request or Leave
When a request or leave goes through an approval workflow, the system records every approval action in the request log, so you can see who approved the request and at which level. The system never asks an employee to approve their own request; if the requester is the approver at any level, the system skips that level automatically. This guide explains how to review the approval log and understand what appears in it.
Before You Start
- Make sure an approval workflow is set up for leaves or requests, whether a single approval or a multi-level approval.
- Make sure you have permission to view the requests or leaves whose log you want to review.
Steps
- To review a leave log, from the main menu, click Attendance, then select Leave Applications. To review a request log, click Requests, then select Manage Requests.
- Click the leave or request in the list, or click the actions icon next to it and select View, to open its details page.
- Go to the Activity Log tab.
- Review the log entries in order to see who approved the request at each level, and its current status.
One of the following entries may appear in the log upon approval:
| Entry | When It Appears |
|---|---|
| Approved by [Approver Name] | When an approver approves the request at any level, including early approval by an approver at a higher level. |
| Auto-Approved by System The following reason appears below it: “Every approver was the same employee who submitted the request, and no other approver was available.” |
When the request is approved because the requester was the approver at every level, without approval from anyone else. |
How the System Works
- The system removes the requester from the list of approvers at every level, even if their role would make them an approver at that level, such as being the Department Manager or one of the employees named at that level.
- If no approvers remain at a level after removing the requester, the system skips that level and moves to the next one. If there is no next level, the request is approved.
- The same rule applies to single approval: if the only approver is the requester, the request is approved automatically.
- The system still skips any level where the same approver who already approved at an earlier level appears again, and both types of skipping can occur in the same request.
- These rules apply to both leaves and requests, whether the option allowing higher-level approvers to approve early is enabled or disabled.
Examples:
| Approval Workflow Settings | Requester | What Happens | What Appears in the Log |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1: Direct Manager Level 2: Department Manager |
Ahmed, the Engineering Department Manager, whose Direct Manager is Sara. | Sara approves at Level 1, then the system skips Level 2 because the Department Manager is Ahmed himself, and the request is approved. | Approved by Sara |
| Single approval: Department Manager | Mona, the HR Department Manager, submits a leave for herself. | The only approver is Mona herself, so the request is approved automatically. | Auto-Approved by System, with the reason |
| Level 1: Direct Manager Level 2: Department Manager Level 3: Other Employees (Mona) |
Ahmed, whose Direct Manager is Sara, who is also the Engineering Department Manager. | Sara approves at Level 1, then the system skips Level 2 because Sara appears again, and the request is approved only after Mona approves at Level 3. | Approved by Sara, then Approved by Mona |
Validation Rules
- The requester never appears as an approver of their own request at any level.
- The Auto-Approved by System entry is recorded only if the requester was the approver at every level. If anyone else approves at any level, only the regular approval entry appears.
Notes
- This behavior does not change anything in the approval workflow settings; the system applies it automatically when determining the approvers at each level.
- The system does not allow an employee to be their own Direct Manager. Therefore, the system never skips the Direct Manager level for this reason; skipping occurs at levels such as Department Manager or named employees.