Approve changes to published shifts
Turn on change approval, see which changes wait for the shift manager, and approve or reject them.
Change approval stops a published shift being re-published after someone who is not a Planning Administrator changed it, until the shift manager agrees. This page is for administrators, who set it up, and for planners and shift managers, who approve.
Who it affects#
Only Planning Administrators and, with the Project bridge, project managers can change a shift's person, time, role or allocated time. Planning Administrators are never held for approval. So in practice the rule applies to project managers changing shifts of their projects. If you do not have the Project bridge, turning this on has no visible effect.
Turn it on#
- Open Planning → Configuration → Settings (you need the Settings administrator right).
- In the Schedule block, tick Approve changes to published shifts.
- Choose a Fallback approver: the user who receives approval requests for shifts that have no shift manager.
- Save.
What happens when a project manager changes a published shift#
A change counts when the person, start, end, allocated time, percentage, role or break changes. Changing only the note does not count.
[planning-approval-status]
- The shift moves to Waiting for Approval (Change Approval field). Its form shows "This published shift was changed and is waiting for the shift manager's approval before it can be published again." and the schedule shows an hourglass.
- A note is added: "User changed this published shift; it needs approval before it is published again."
- The shift manager gets an activity titled Approve shift change. The shift manager defaults to the manager of the employee's department, or else the employee's own manager. If the shift has none, the Fallback approver gets the activity. If there is neither, nobody is asked and only an administrator can approve.
- Publishing skips the shift. The publish message says "n still waiting for change approval."
Approve or reject#
- Open the shift, or its card on the schedule.
- Press Approve Change or Reject Change.
| Button | Result |
|---|---|
| Approve Change | Change Approval becomes Approved, the activity is closed ("Change approved") and a note says "User approved the change." You can now publish the shift. |
| Reject Change | Change Approval becomes Rejected, the activity is closed ("Change rejected") and a note says "User rejected the change. Correct the shift before publishing it again." The change is not undone; correct the shift yourself. |
Only the shift manager or a Planning Administrator may approve or reject. Anybody else gets "Only the shift manager or a planning manager can approve changes."
A shift manager who is not a planner
The Approve Change and Reject Change buttons are shown to planners only. A shift manager who is an ordinary employee user is allowed to approve by the rules, but the form does not show the buttons to them. Ask a Planning Administrator to press the button, or give the shift manager the Administrator right.
Find waiting changes#
- The filter Waiting for Approval in the schedule or the list.
- The column Change Approval in the list view (hidden by default; add it with the column selector).
- The dashboard card Changes awaiting approval.