1. go to Settings > Select a service > Approvals > Add Approval. For example in the Leave service, you can find Approvals here:
   
   
   
2. Select the form for which you are configuring the approval and give a name and description for the approval process.
   
   
   
3. If you want to set criteria, click the button and select the applicable criteria fields. For this example, we will select Team Member role as the applicable criteria for this approval. Multiple conditions can be configured with the Add Condition button, and the pattern of verifying the criteria can be customized (click Edit button). 
   

When configuring criteria you have 4 options (System Field, Cumulative Field, Service Field, and Employee Field).
System Field - Lists generic system fields such as designation, role, etc.
Cumulative Field - Service specific fields with varied options based on the form you are trying to configure the approval for. (For example, for the Leave service, you will have options such as leave balance before submitting a request and current leave type balance.)
Service Name Field (Form Fields) - This lists fields that are specific to the form you are configuring approval for, such as added by. (For example, on the Leave form you will have options such as leave count and reason for leave)
Employee ID - Employee specific fields such as name, ID, etc.

4. Under Approvals, you can choose from Auto Approve or Auto Reject, or click Configure Approver.
   
5. For this example, let us set the reporting manager as the approver (options include Reporting To, Department Lead of Login User, Approval based on Role, Department Head, Department Members, Employee, Project Manager based approval, Form Field* and allowing employees to choose the approver when adding a record.) You can create up to ten levels of approval.
   
6. You can also check the box if you would like to do a follow-up for approval. If you want to send the follow-up email only once, select One-time. Enter the number of days after which this mail should go and at what time.
   
   If time is not entered, then the time at which the request was submitted for approval will be considered. (Select Repeat if you want the follow-up emails to be sent repeatedly until the request is approved.)
   
   

*Form fields are helpful in scenarios where you want to select the approver based on the fields of a particular form. For example, assume that you are configuring an approval for a travel form, and the travel form has a field called 'Travel team head'. If you want the travel requests to be approved by both the reporting manager and the head of the travel team, then you can configure a two-level approver. In the first level, you can select Reporting To and in the second level, you can select Form Field and select 'Travel head' from the drop-down.

7. Enter the approval related message you want to include in the email. (You have options to add CC, BCC, Reply To, and Edit Email Template to customize the email that will be sent, read the below note for more details.)
   
   
   
8. If you want any attachment to be sent along with the approval, it can be included as well.
   
9. Finally, click Add to save the approval process.
   

When selecting the recipient ("To" address) you have a few system options available to use, this note explains these options:

System options:

Current Approver - If you select this option, the email will go to the current approver with whom the approval process is pending. 

Previous Approver - If you select this option, the email will go to the approver preceding the approver who has completed the approval process. This action will be useful in cases of more than two approvers. It helps to inform the previous approver of the progress in the approval process. 

Acted Approvers - If you select this option, the email will go out to all the approvers who have completed their approval process.

Let us assume A has sent a leave request and B, C, and D are the three levels of approvers. When A is sending the leave request, the current approver will be B. Once B has approved, the request goes to C and once again when C has approved, the request goes to D. In this case, B becomes the previous approver who is informed of the progress in the approval process and B and C become the acted approvers. Once D has completed the approval process, then B, C, and D become the acted approvers. 

Team email ID of the person performing this action - If you select this option, the follow-up email will be sent to the team email ID of the person who submitted the approval request.

The person performing this action - This action refers to the user who is triggering the action like requestor (create/edit actions), approver (approve/reject actions).

In case of reminders "Person performing this action" refers to the employee's record (the user whose record is in question).

Reporting manager of login user - If you select this option, the email will be sent to the reporting manager of the person who submitted the approval request.

User list -This option pulls out the list of all users. You can select the person who needs to receive the follow-up email. You can also search users here.

Role list -This option pulls out the list of all roles. You can select the role to which the follow-up email needs to be sent to. You can also search here.

Department list - If you select this option, the email will be sent to the respective department head.

Form Fields - If you select this option, all the lookup fields of the selected form will be displayed. 

You can select the Notify All if required.

Approval Settings

To further fine-tune the approval process and for additional settings such as setting up a backup process, making comments mandatory, enforcing a turn-around time, approval cancellation, and more, click on Approval Settings adjacent to the form name. For example, in the leave service, you can find the option here:

> The approval settings are applicable only when there is an approval configured. The approval configuration can, however, be done before or after completing the Approval settings. If you have defined an approver for criteria mismatch or for no approver but there is no approval configured, then the settings will not be applicable.

> In case there is more than one level of approvers, and there is no approver found for the first level, then the request will go to the second level of approver. It will only follow the order of approvers as per the approval configuration. Only when there is no approver available for all the levels in the approval configuration, the request will abide by the rule set under Approval settings.

Approving Requests

To approve requests, click on the notification received in email or through the bell icon (  notification tray).

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2. Approval requests can only be forwarded once.
3. Approvals meant for group approval cannot be forwarded. (For example, if all HR department members can approve, then it cannot be forwarded). Only approval meant for specific approvers can be forwarded.
4. If an employee with pending approval resigns or is terminated (employee status update) a pop-up will be presented to select who will be handling their approvals.