This guide explains how to update approvers through employee profiles, cost center policies, and HR integrations, as well as outlines steps for temporary delegation of rights.
For: Account Owners & Admins
Before you start
Requirement | Detail |
Role | Account Owner or Admin : required to change an employee's manager/approver via their profile |
Role (delegation only) | Any approver can delegate their own approval rights, no Admin access needed |
Integration (optional) | An active HR integration can auto-populate the Manager field |
Plan | Available on all Spendesk plans |
Changing Approvers via Employee Profiles
Manual Assignment
Administrators can manually update the approver for a specific employee through the following steps:
Navigate to Settings > Organisation > Members.
Select the employee for whom you wish to change the approver.
Click on Edit member's profile
Update the Manager field in the Information tab to assign a new approver.
Automation with HR Integration
If your organization has enabled HR integration tools:
The Manager field can automatically populate via the HR system.
Updates made in the HR tool will reflect in Spendesk, automatically adjusting the approver.
Temporary Delegation of Approval Rights
For temporary situations, such as an approver going on leave, approval rights can be delegated. The current approver can:
Click their Avatar > My Profile > Role and permissions
Go to Transfer your approval rights and select Delegate your approval rights.
Choose another member to delegate approval rights.
Get your approval rights back → When you're back, simply click the "I'm back" banner at the top of the page to restore your approval rights.
Key Notes and Best Practices
When an employee’s approver changes, existing pending requests will still require approval from the original approver. However, new requests will be routed to the updated approver.
For payment requests following a policy, always update the approval flow via the cost center rather than through individual employee profiles.
By following these guidelines, administrators can streamline approver management in Spendesk efficiently.
Troubleshooting
Symptom: Assigning a "Manager" to an employee doesn't change who approves their requests.
Cause: The approval workflow doesn't include a "Reporting Manager" step. Assigning a manager has no effect on approvals unless a manager-based routing rule exists in the workflow.
Resolution: Go to Settings > Organisation > Approval workflows and confirm a "Reporting Manager" step is configured for the relevant cost centre or spend type before relying on the Manager field for routing.
Symptom: After changing an employee's approver, an older request is still waiting on the previous approver.
Cause: Approver changes apply only to new requests submitted after the change. Requests already pending keep their original approver.
Resolution: Ask the original approver to process the pending request. If they're unavailable, use "Temporarily delegate approval rights" above, or contact Spendesk support.
Symptom: After delegating approval rights, requests on one of your entities still come to you instead of your delegate.
Cause: Delegation is set per entity. A delegation made on one entity doesn't carry over to others.
Resolution: Repeat the delegation steps (avatar > My profile > Role and permissions > Transfer your approval rights) on each entity where you're an approver.
Symptom: An approver sees only a "Cancel" option on a request, with no way to approve it.
Cause: The request may already have been approved by another approver in the workflow, or the workflow logic rerouted it (for example, because the original approver was also the requester).
Resolution: Check the request's current status and assigned approver under Expenditures > Requests. If it was already approved or reassigned, no further action is needed.
💡 Tip: For payment requests that follow a spending policy, update the approval flow via the cost centre rather than through individual employee profiles. This keeps routing consistent as your team changes.