Team Org: managers, approvers and access rights on a profile
Use the Team Org tab to set who an employee reports to, who approves their leave, attendance, expense and profile change requests, who stands in when they are away, and which colleagues they can see in My Team. Wrong approvers are a common reason a request sits unanswered, so this tab is where to look when someone says "my leave is still pending".
Where: the employee's profile › Team Org
You need: the Team org right. Read to see the tab, edit to change it.
Which tool, when
| You want to | Use |
|---|---|
| Change one person's manager or approvers | This tab |
| Give the same approvers to everyone in a placement | An approval matrix, applied here with Apply matrix template, or automatically by Profile Automations |
| Change managers or approvers for many people now | Bulk Assignments |
| Control what data someone sees, not whom | Their role, on the Access tab and User rights and access control |
How to change someone's manager
- Open the employee's profile on the Team Org tab.
- On the Reporting line card, select Edit.
- Under Reports to, choose the manager. Only people who hold the Manager & Approver right are listed.
- Select Save.
How to set someone's approvers
- On the Approval routing card, select Edit.
- To start from a template, select Apply matrix template and choose one. It fills in every row.
- For each request type, pick approvers under Primary, Secondary and Tertiary. Up to 5 people per tier.
- Tick Manager as primary approver on a row to keep their manager in the Primary slot, even when the manager changes later.
- Select Save.
The rows are My team (profile data requests), Attendance, Leave and Expenses. A row only appears if your company uses that module and you have access to it. Each row lists only people allowed to approve that kind of request: Attendance Manager for Attendance and Leave, Claim Approver for Expenses, and the Personal right for My team.
Requests move across the tiers in order: Primary approves first, then it moves to Secondary, then Tertiary. Within a tier, any one of the people listed can approve.
How to hand someone's approvals to a stand-in
Use this when an approver is on leave.
- Open the approver's own profile, not their team member's, on the Team Org tab.
- On the Approval routing card, select Edit.
- Turn on Delegate Approver.
- Choose the stand-in under Choose a delegate approver. Only people with Manager & Approver are listed.
- Select Save.
While the switch is on, requests that would go to this person go to the stand-in. It has no end date: turn it off when they are back.
How to limit or widen who someone can see in My Team
- On the Access Rights card, select Edit.
- Under Include, add a Subsidiary, Department, Branch, Position, Group or Cost Centre to let them see everyone in it.
- Under Exclude, add a Group whose members they must never see.
- Select Save.
What they can then see:
- Always themselves.
- Their direct reports, if they hold Manager & Approver, and their reports' reports, if they also have the indirect-subordinates right.
- Plus everyone who matches any of the Include filters.
- Minus everyone in an Exclude group, which overrides everything above except themselves.
With no filters, they see only their own team. Someone with the All Employees right sees everyone, and Access Rights make no difference to them.
What Happens Next
- A new manager or approver applies to requests raised from now on. Requests already waiting keep the approvers they had.
- If every approver on a row is removed, requests of that type have nobody to go to. The employee sees "You do not have any approvers. Please contact your support team."
- Changing the manager with Manager as primary approver ticked also changes their Primary approver.
- Access Rights change whom this person sees in My Team straight away.
- Every change is recorded on the Audit tab under Team & Org.
Tips
- Give every row a Primary approver. A row with nobody is a request with nowhere to go.
- Put two people in the Primary tier for anyone whose approvals matter, so one absence does not stall them.
- Use matrix templates for the common case and edit here only for exceptions.
- Turn delegation off when the approver returns. Nothing turns it off for you.
- Use Exclude for sensitive groups, such as executives, rather than trying to build an Include list around them.
Troubleshooting / FAQ
Q: A request is stuck pending. Check the employee's Approval routing row for that request type. If the approver has left or is away, change it, or set a delegate on the approver's profile.
Q: The manager or approver I want is not in the list. They lack the right for it: Manager & Approver to be a manager or delegate, or the approving right for that row. Grant it in their role. Deactivated people are never listed.
Q: It says "Employees cannot manage themselves." You chose the employee as their own manager or delegate. Pick someone else.
Q: A manager cannot see someone in their team. That person is in an Exclude group on the manager's Access Rights, or is not their direct report and matches none of their Include filters.
Q: Someone can see far more people than they should. They have the All Employees right, or an Include filter is broader than you meant. Filters add up: each one adds people.
Q: The Expenses row is missing. Your company or this person does not use Expenses, or you do not have access to it.