What it does

Approval chains define who signs off on benefit requests, in what order, and under what conditions. Administrators configure a chain per benefit category — optionally per program — and reviewers work through pending requests in dedicated time-off and financial approval queues. When no chain applies, requests are approved automatically at submission.

Who it's for

Program administrators and institution administrators configure chains in the admin portal's approval workflow sections. Program directors, coordinators, and any person or role named as an approver decide the requests.

How it works

A chain is an ordered list of steps for one benefit category. Each step names an approver — a specific person or a role (so anyone holding that role in the program can act) — and a condition for when the step applies:

Always — every request passes through this step.
Amount threshold — only requests above a set amount need this step.
Duration — only requests spanning more than a set number of days need this step.

Chains can be institution-wide for a category or scoped to a single program, and the two can coexist. Steps can be activated or deactivated without deleting them.

Routing. When a request is submitted, the platform checks which steps apply based on amount and duration, then routes it to the first applicable approver, who is notified. If no active steps apply, the request is approved and finalized right at submission.

Decisions. Each decision is recorded once per step — approver name, notes, and timestamp — building the request's approval history. Approving the final step finalizes the request: the deduction is posted and the requester is notified.

Rejecting a request requires a written reason, ends the workflow immediately, and returns the reserved amount to the requester's available balance. The requester sees the reason on their request.

Before you start

You need to be named as the approver — by role or by name — on the step that applies to the request, or hold finance administration permission.
Know whether you want to approve or reject before you open the request; rejecting needs a written reason.

Do this

Open the time-off or financial approval queue (/admin/benefits/time-off or /admin/benefits/financial) → you should see pending requests awaiting a decision.
Select Review on a request's row → an approval decision panel expands below it.
To approve, select Approve in the panel, add optional notes, then confirm Approve Request → the request moves to the next step, or finalizes if this was the last one.
To reject, select Reject in the panel, enter a Reason, then confirm Reject Request → the request is rejected immediately and the reserved amount returns to the requester's balance.

You're done when

The request no longer shows as pending in the queue.
An approved request's final step shows the deduction posted; a rejected request shows your reason on the requester's side.

Boundaries and limits

Only requests in the submitted state can be rejected. A request that was already finalized cannot be rejected afterwards.
A step accepts one decision; once recorded it cannot be answered again with a different outcome, though repeat submissions of the same decision are simply acknowledged.
Finalization is permission-checked. Only a user with finance administration permission, or the request's final applicable approver, can complete it, and it enforces the account's balance floor.
Step conditions are evaluated per request. A request below an amount threshold skips that step entirely, rather than waiting on it.
Deleting a chain step removes it from future routing. It does not reopen requests already decided.
If a chain names a role, any active member of the program holding that role can act on the step. The platform does not split the step among them.

Common questions

Q: What happens if we never configured an approval chain? A: Requests for that category are approved automatically the moment they are submitted, and the deduction is posted right away.

Q: Can different programs have different approvers for the same benefit? A: Yes. A chain can be scoped to a program; requests from that program use it, while other programs fall back to the institution-wide chain if one exists.

Q: Can small requests skip senior sign-off? A: Yes. Give the senior step an amount threshold or duration condition; requests below it route past that step.

Q: Is there a record of who approved what? A: Yes. Every decision is stored with the approver's name, step, notes, and timestamp, and is visible as the request's approval history.

Benefit Approval Chains and Review