---
title: "Approvals"
description: "Waiting on me, decided by me, everyone's — three scopes, three questions, and the three ways a request gets stuck."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://peoplematter.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Approvals

Leave, overtime and claims are each submitted from their own screens, but **deciding**
happens in one place. Approvals has three views, answering three different questions.

## Waiting on me — the inbox

**Approvals** opens on **Waiting on me**: items you may decide, each row marked with
how long it has been waiting ("Arrived today" / "Waiting N days" / "Overdue") — the
queue is newest-first, so the oldest item doesn't float up on its own; the marker is
what keeps it honest.

Opening a row opens **the request's own panel** — the leave request, overtime claim or
expense claim itself, with the approval section inside it:

- **Approve** — the primary action. The panel gives you the grounds first: who asked,
  the balance after approval (sufficient / exceeds), and who else is off the same day.
- **Reject** — a reason is required, and it isn't ceremony: the reason travels back to
  the requester.
- **Ask for more information** — parks the item on the requester with your question; they reply in
  the same panel.
- Selecting rows raises the bulk-approve bar (capped at 50).

**Decided by me** is your record: what you approved or rejected, and when.

> **Why your queue spans branches**
>
> Whose desk an item lands on is the policy step's to say — holders of a position at the
> request's branch, the requester's manager at the requester's own branch, or one named person
> — never the branch switcher's. So this screen **ignores the branch switcher**: narrowing an
> approver's queue to one branch is precisely how a decision goes unmade.

> **Timeouts reject or escalate**
>
> Every policy step has a time limit, and the hourly sweep enforces it. An overdue item goes
> the way its step's "If late" setting says: **Reject it**, or **Escalate it** — handed to the
> position that step names to escalate to, badged "Escalated" on the row, with the panel
> spelling it out: the previous approver ran out of time, so it moved to you. Escalation happens
> once: an item that runs out of time again after escalating, runs out while waiting on the
> requester's answer, or finds nobody in the Escalate to position at its branch is rejected instead.

## Manager: everyone's

The branch-level **Approvals** console is **every chain at the branch** — in flight,
decided, and the three stuck shapes: parked on the submitter's answer, overdue, or
decided but never applied. **Export CSV** carries exactly the filters the table shows.
The Approvals tab under Company ▸ Oversight is the org-wide version (requires the org-wide
approval read tier).

## Where is *my* request?

Not here — on its own screen: a leave request on [Leave](/en/docs/leave/), an overtime
claim on [Overtime](/en/docs/overtime/), an expense claim on
[Claims](/en/docs/payroll/claims/) — each carrying its own chain, saying whose desk it
is on right now.

Source: https://peoplematter.app/en/docs/approvals/index.mdx