Delegation & Escalation

When an approver is unavailable — whether on leave, travelling, or otherwise occupied — documents should not be stuck waiting. PayInvoice Next provides delegation (proactive handover) and escalation (automatic reassignment) to keep approvals moving.

Delegation: Proactive Handover

Delegation allows an approver to temporarily transfer their approval authority to another user for a defined period.

How to Set Up a Delegation

1. Navigate to your Workflow Delegation settings (accessible from your user profile or the main search bar).
2. Click New Delegation.
3. Fill in the delegation details:
   • Delegate To — The user who will receive your pending approvals.
   • From Date / To Date — The period during which the delegation is active.
   • Document Types — Optionally limit the delegation to specific document types (e.g., only Purchase Orders). Leave blank to delegate all approval authority.
4. Save and submit the delegation.

Once active, any document that would normally arrive in your approval queue will go to your delegate instead. The delegate sees these documents marked with a delegation indicator so they know they are acting on your behalf.

Delegation Rules

• Delegations have a start and end date. The system automatically expires delegations at midnight on the end date — you do not need to remember to revoke them.
• A delegate can only approve documents that the original approver has permission to approve. Delegation does not grant additional permissions.
• The audit trail records both the original approver and the delegate, so there is full traceability.
• You can have only one active delegation per document type at a time.

Escalation: Automatic Reassignment

When a document has been sitting in an approval state beyond its SLA limit and the approver has not acted, the system can automatically escalate it. Escalation behaviour depends on your organization's configuration:

Notification escalation — The approver receives reminder notifications. Their manager may also be notified. The document stays with the original approver but the delay is flagged.

Reassignment escalation — After a further timeout, the document may be automatically reassigned to a backup approver or escalated to the next level in the hierarchy.

What Triggers Escalation

The SLA tracking engine checks for breaches every 30 minutes. When it detects that a document has exceeded its SLA:

1. The first notification goes to the approver: "Document X has breached its SLA."
2. If the document remains unactioned after a further period, the notification escalates to the approver's manager.
3. If still unactioned, the system can trigger automatic reassignment (if configured).

Inactive Approver Detection

PayInvoice Next runs a daily check (at 7:00 AM) to identify approvers who have not logged in for a configurable number of days. If an approver is detected as inactive and has pending documents, the system sends a proactive notification to their manager suggesting delegation setup.

This prevents the scenario where an approver leaves unexpectedly and documents accumulate without anyone noticing.

Related Pages

• How Approvals Work — The standard approval process
• SLA Tracking — How turnaround time is monitored
• Understanding SLA Breaches — What happens when SLAs are exceeded
• PO Approval Workflow — Delegation in PO context