Auto-Approval Workflows

Overview

Auto-Approval Workflows let specific headcount requests bypass the manual approval loop and move directly to Approved status when they meet criteria you define, like backfills where the base salary of the headcount is matching the base salary of the departing employee or internal transfers. This removes manual bottlenecks for standard, low-risk requests so Finance and Leadership can focus their review on requests that actually need a decision.

This feature is available to users with the Admin role, who configure the auto-approval rules. All requesters benefit from faster turnaround on requests that match a rule.

Prerequisites

• Admin role required to create and manage auto-approval rules

How It Works

Matching Criteria

Auto-approval rules are built on the same conditions used in standard approval policies: headcount type, department, budget threshold, location, and similar attributes. When a new or changed request matches an active rule, it is auto-approved instead of routing to a human approver.

State Transitions

Requests that match an auto-approval rule skip the In Approval state entirely and move directly from Draft to Approved.

Notifications

Standard "Approval Request" notifications are suppressed for auto-approved requests, since there is no approver action needed. Instead:

• The Requester receives an "Approved" notification as soon as the request is finalized.

• Any Notifiers configured on the rule are alerted immediately, so designated stakeholders stay in the loop even when the manual approval step is skipped.

Important: Configure Notifiers on every auto-approval rule. Since the manual approval step is skipped, Notifiers are your primary mechanism for maintaining oversight of what's being auto-approved.

Audit Trail

Every auto-approved request is logged in the activity history with an auto-approved: true tag in the metadata, so you have full transparency into which requests were approved automatically versus manually. No separate reporting needed.

Scope

Auto-approval is available for the following request types:

• New Headcount

• Backfills

• Change Requests

• Internal Transfers

• Terminations

Note: Auto-approval rules are evaluated in priority order. When a request matches more than one rule, the highest-priority rule applies.

Important: Auto-approval rules do not apply retroactively. Requests already in the In Approval state when a new rule is created or changed will continue through their original approval path.

Use Cases

Finance sets an auto-approval rule for backfills that fall within the approved department budget, so routine replacement hires no longer wait in a Finance approval queue.

HR/People Ops sets an auto-approval rule for internal transfers with no compensation change, so lateral moves aren't held up by an approval step that rarely results in a rejection anyway.

Admin reviews the activity log filtered to auto-approved: true to confirm auto-approval rules are firing as expected and no unintended requests are slipping through.