You can now name a stand-in for an approver who is away, so approvals keep moving instead of sitting in someone's queue while they're on holiday or out sick.
What this article covers
Who can set up a substitute, and for whom
Temporary vs permanent substitutions
What happens to approvals already waiting when cover starts or ends
Where the substitute shows up across the app
What happens if someone loses folder access
Setting up a substitute
Substitutes live in Folder Menu → Approval → Substitutes.
This tab lists every substitution in the folder, with the away approver, the substitute, the dates, a status (Active, Scheduled, Paused, or Ended), an optional note, and who set it up.
👉 Who can set up a substitute?
Folder admins can set up a substitute for anyone in the folder.
A folder user can only set up a substitute for themselves.
Approver-only members can't open the Substitutes tab at all.
👉 Can I pick anyone as a substitute?
Only someone who is already a member of the folder.
Note: Each approver can have only one substitute per folder at a time.
The substitute form also refuses to save if:
the dates overlap an existing substitution
the substitute is already covering (or being covered by) someone else
the end date is before the start date or in the past.
Temporary vs permanent substitutions
A substitution is either:
Temporary - runs from a first day away to a last day away. The end date is optional.
Permanent - runs until someone switches it off.
👉 Can I change a substitution once it's running?
Not the away approver, the substitute, the start date, or the note - the form shows a notice explaining this is locked while the substitution is active.
You can only extend the end date, or switch the substitution off to edit the other details.
It also can't be deleted while active; the delete icon is disabled until you switch it off.
What happens to approvals already waiting
Turning a substitution on or off asks what to do with documents awaiting approval (pending approvals) impacted by the substitution.
You have two options: move pending approvals, or leave them where they are and only change the routing of new approvals.
Switching on and delegate: The away approver's pending approvals are given to the substitute.
Switching off and hand back: The pending approvals the substitute picked up on the away approver's behalf are handed back to them.
👉 What if a pending approval can't be delegated/handed back? If an approval has already moved on, been signed, or the target person is no longer a folder member, just as the delegate/hand back request was placed, it stays where it is and a "Handoff skipped" entry appears in that document's audit trail, with the reason.
Where the substitute shows up
Wherever an approver is named, a substitute covering for them is shown as such - the substitute's name, alongside the approver they're covering.
Folder approvals list, the workflow status card, and the "Will go to" preview in the document all show this.
On mobile, the approval card shows a short badge naming the approver whose place you're holding. This only appears to the substitute themselves, never to other people.
The audit trail attributes a substitute's decision to them and names who they acted for. It also carries into the audit trail PDF.
👉 Who gets the notification while a substitution is active?
The substitute does. Assignment emails and the digest follow whoever is actually holding the seat, not the away approver.
Reassigning to someone who's away
If an admin wants to manually reassign an approval to someone who currently has a substitute, the dropdown says so: "Name (away, covered by Substitute)" or "Name (away until DATE, covered by Substitute)".
When a substitution ends automatically
A substitution switches itself off if either person loses access to the folder - whether they're removed individually, removed in bulk by an admin, deactivated, or deleted. This applies whether they were the away approver or the substitute.
Finding cover at a glance
The folder's Users list has a Cover column. It shows a pill on any member who currently has, or has scheduled, a substitute, naming the substitute and the dates, and links through to the Substitutes tab.
Frequently Asked Questions
👉 Does a substitution end by itself when the away approver comes back?
A temporary substitution with an end date will end on its own, however documents awaiting approval are not automatically handed back over to the away approver.
To end a permanent or a temporary substitution with no end date, switch it off in Folder Menu → Approval → Substitutes.
👉 Can an approver-only member set up their own substitute?
No. Approver-only members can't open the Substitutes tab at all - only a folder admin can set up a substitute for them.
👉 Does the substitute need to already be an approver? They need to already be a member of the folder. Adding them as a substitute doesn't grant them any new access - if they're not a folder member yet, add them to the folder first.
👉 What happens to approvals if I remove the substitute from the folder while they're covering someone? The substitution switches itself off automatically, whether the substitute or the away approver is the one who loses folder access.