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As a manager in absentify, you are responsible for overseeing approval requests for absences within your department. The notification bell in the top-right corner of the navigation bar informs you of requests where you are the designated approver. You can also view requests that other approvers in your department have not yet addressed.
Via Teams or the AI assistant: You can approve or decline from a Teams Bot notification card. If Azure AI is on, you can also do it in the assistant in absentify or in the Teams chat — for example “Approve Sarah’s request” or “Decline Tom’s vacation because of a deadline”.

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Notifications for pending approval requests

If there are pending approval requests where you are the designated approver, the bell icon in the top-right corner of the screen will display a badge with the number of items requiring your attention. Selecting the bell icon takes you straight to the approval list. Admins and all other approvers see the same list. Details opens the requester’s calendar with the request in context. Select Back to open requests at the top to return to the list. This is especially useful in the Microsoft Teams client, where there is no browser back button.

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Open and Processed segments

The approval list has two segments.
  • Open shows pending requests you can act on. The number next to Open matches the list below. When search or filters are on, that number is how many requests match, not the unfiltered total.
  • Processed shows requests that have already been approved, declined, or canceled, along with who decided and when.
The page always opens on Open.

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Sorting, filtering, and view controls

The Open segment has a toolbar for finding and organizing pending requests.
  • Search by employee name or reason. The field says Search employee or reason….
  • Filter by approver. The dropdown starts with All approvers. If you have pending requests assigned to you, your name is at the top of the remaining list, labeled (me).
  • Filter by employee. The dropdown starts with All employees.
  • Sort by Absence start, Created date, or Employee name, in Ascending or Descending order.
  • Switch between Grouped by approver and Flat list. Group headers expand and collapse. A group with more than 10 requests shows a button with the full count so you can expand it.
Urgency hints such as “Starts today”, “Starts in 2 days”, or “Waiting for 15 days” appear on requests that need prompt attention. When you are the assigned approver, the section header is Pending my approval and includes the open count. Representative requests use Pending my approval (as representative). When search or filters are on, the toolbar shows how many of the total requests match and a Reset filters button. If nothing matches, you see No requests match your filters. absentify remembers your search, filters, sort, and view on this browser. They come back the next time you open the page. If you filtered to someone who no longer has a pending request, absentify clears that filter so you still see the remaining list.

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Processed (history) view

The Processed segment lets you review past decisions with its own set of controls:
  • Search by employee name.
  • Status filter — show All statuses, Approved, Declined, or Canceled requests.
  • Sort by absence start, created date, or employee name.
  • Each entry displays a status badge and a line indicating who decided and on what date.
  • Use the Show more button to load additional results.

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Overriding requests in your department

As a manager, you have the ability to override pending requests assigned to other approvers in your department. This ensures that absences are handled promptly, even if the designated approver has not taken action. To override a request:
  1. Select the bell icon to open the approval list.
  2. Locate the request assigned to another approver.
  3. Review the request details.
  4. Approve or decline the request. If declining, provide a reason in the prompt before confirming.
Note: Overriding requests ensures that absences in your department are addressed on time, even if the designated approver has not acted.

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Notifications for overriding requests

When you override a request, all relevant parties are notified:
  • The employee will receive a notification that the manager has taken action.
  • The original approver will also be notified that their responsibility was overridden and that they can no longer take action on the request.
Additionally, override actions are logged for transparency:
  • Excel exports include details of who performed the override.
  • The request details view clearly indicates who overrode the approval process.

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Replacing a representative

When a representative on a pending request has not yet responded (status: Pending) or has declined, you can assign a different person in their place, for a single occurrence or for an entire recurring series. Who can replace a representative:
  • Admins can replace any representative on any pending request.
  • Department managers can replace representatives of employees they directly manage, but cannot assign themselves as the replacement.
How to replace a representative:
  1. Open the request details from the calendar, or select Details on the request in the approval list.
  2. In the Representative status section, find the representative you want to replace.
  3. Select the Replace representative button (swap icon) next to their name.
  4. In the dialog, you will see the currently assigned representative.
  5. For recurring requests, choose whether to replace the representative for Only this occurrence or for the Entire series (all remaining pending occurrences that still have the same representative).
  6. Search for and select the new representative. Only available members are shown — anyone who already has an approved or pending absence overlapping the request period is excluded.
  7. Select Replace representative to confirm.
What happens next:
  • The replaced representative is notified that they have been removed and no longer need to take action.
  • The new representative receives a standard representative approval request (via Teams notification and/or email).
  • The replaced entry stays visible in the approver list with the status Replaced. Hover the status to see who performed the replacement, who the new representative is, and when the change was made.

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Key considerations

  • Visibility: Managers can see and act on requests for all employees in their department, including those assigned to other approvers. If a manager is marked as invisible, their name is still shown as the approver when they approve or decline a request.
  • Notifications: Approval, decline, override, and representative replacement actions trigger notifications to all relevant parties.
  • Audit trail: All actions taken by managers, including overrides and representative replacements, are logged and visible in the system for future reference.
For general information about handling approval requests, refer to the employee approval guide.