Guides for managers and approvers

These guides are for managers, service owners and anyone else who holds an approver role named in a request type's approval steps. Labels in bold are the texts you see on screen.

Where you decide approvals

Request types can require approval by a manager, a service owner or an administrator. On the current release you decide:

• in the request detail in the IT workspace, with Approve or Reject and an optional comment; or
• directly from an approval card in Slack or Microsoft Teams, when approval cards are switched on (flag chat_inline_approvals).

Notifications link you to the request.

Planned — not yet available. Deciding approvals inside the employee portal, and showing pending approvals in For you and My activity.

Rules that always apply

• You cannot approve your own request. Nobody can approve their own service request, also not through a delegation.
• Your role decides the step. Each approval step names an approver role (for example manager or service owner). Anyone with that role and request.servicerequest.approve, except the requester, can decide at that step.
• Every decision is recorded. Your decision is stored with your name. When a delegate decides, the decision records both people.
• A rejection is final. When all steps are approved, fulfilment starts; a rejection ends the request.

See Approvals for approval steps across TENSOR and Lifecycles and processes for the service request states.

Approve or reject a service request

Decide on a request that needs your approval.

Prerequisites: you hold the approver role named in the request type's approval step and the permission request.servicerequest.approve; you did not raise the request.

1. Open the request from your notification, or in the IT workspace under Service desk → Service Catalog.
2. Review the request, its answers and the Approvals recorded so far.
3. Under Record a decision, optionally add a comment in Comment (optional).
4. Click Approve or Reject.

What happens next: your decision is recorded with your name. When all steps are approved, fulfilment starts; a rejection ends the request and the requester is notified.

Tip: with Slack or Teams approval cards switched on, you can decide directly from the card in your chat tool. The same rules apply.

Delegate your approvals while absent

Let a colleague approve on your behalf for a limited time.

Prerequisites: you are an approver; approval delegation is switched on (flag approval_delegation).

1. Open Approval delegations in your settings.
2. Under Grant a delegation, choose the Approval kind (Change, Service request or All approvals).
3. Select the Delegate (an active colleague, never yourself).
4. Set Valid from and Valid until and enter a Reason.
5. Click Grant delegation.

What happens next: your delegate sees your pending approvals during that window. Each decision records both of you. To end it early, click Revoke and confirm Revoke delegation; past decisions stay on record.

Important: your delegate still cannot approve their own requests.

A typical approver flow

1. You get notified of a pending request.
2. You approve it in the request detail or in Teams.
3. Before your holidays, you set up a delegation so a colleague can decide while you are away.

If you cannot find a request you expect to approve, check that you hold the approver role named in that request type's approval step and that you did not raise the request yourself. See Troubleshooting and FAQ.