Approval delegation

Hand your approval authority to a colleague for a set period, for everything or for one kind of approval, and revoke it when you need to.

A delegation lets a colleague decide your approvals for a period you choose, such as while you are on leave. During that window they can see and decide the approvals waiting on you, either all of them or one kind, and every decision is recorded in both names. It ends on its own, so there is nothing to remember to switch off.

Where to find it#

Go to ApprovalsDelegations. The tab lists delegations you have given and delegations you hold, each with the delegate, what it covers, its start and end, and a badge: Active, Scheduled (not started yet) or Expired.

Who can use it#

Permissions

approval.view

Anyone who can receive approvals can delegate their own. You can’t delegate to yourself, and you can only hand over your own authority, not someone else’s. The delegate must be an active member of your organization.

Create a delegation#

Pick the person
Under Delegate to, choose a colleague. You aren’t listed yourself. If you are the only member of the organization, there is no one to choose.
Decide what it covers
Under Covers, choose:
- Everything I can approve: all of your approvals.
- Only work item: approvals about work items.
- Only document: approvals about documents.
- Only workflow execution: approvals raised by a workflow process.
- Only automation execution: approvals raised by an automation run.
- Only request: approvals on intake requests from forms.
- Another kind…: type the name of another kind of approval, using lowercase letters, digits and underscores only, such as purchase_order.
Set the window
Choose the From and To date and time. The end must be after the start. The delegation does nothing before the start and stops by itself at the end.
Create it
Select Create delegation. It appears in the list as Scheduled or Active.

Hand over only what you mean to

Narrowing the scope means your delegate gets exactly what you intended. To cover two kinds, create two delegations. You can then end one without ending the other.

What your delegate sees#

The approvals your delegation covers appear in your delegate’s own Approvals lists, with the decide buttons available. Single-approver rows say “(you can decide this as their delegate)”.
Approvals outside the scope stay invisible to them.
On multi-approver requests, your step shows your name with “(decided by …)” naming the delegate once they decide.
You are notified every time a decision is made on your behalf.

End a delegation early#

Select Revoke on the delegation. It stops immediately. Only the person who gave a delegation can revoke it. Decisions already made under it stand and are not undone.

Rules at a glance#

A delegation is always for a bounded window with a start and an end.
You can’t delegate to yourself.
A delegate can’t pass your authority on to someone else. Chains would make “who actually decided this?” impossible to answer.
If you have both a narrow and an “everything” delegation to the same person, the narrow one is recorded as the authority used.
Delegations work the same way for single-approver and multi-approver requests.

Questions#

Who does the record say decided it?

Both people. The approval shows whose step it was and who actually decided, and the audit trail records the same pair. A delegated decision never reads as though you made it yourself.

My delegate says they can’t see anything.

Check three things: the delegation is Active (not Scheduled or Expired), its scope matches the kind of approval waiting on you, and the approval is still pending. If the approvals are a different kind, change the scope by revoking and recreating the delegation, or add a second one.

Can I edit a delegation?

No. Revoke it and create a new one with the right person, scope or dates.

Does a delegation stop me deciding my own approvals?

No. You can still decide them yourself while the delegation is active.

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