📎NOTE: These steps apply to Sage HR users with the Leave Management module. If you use Sage HR Essentials, some options work differently, so use our Sage HR Essentials article to manage time off approvers instead.

A time off approver is the person you choose to approve an employee’s time off requests.

The person who becomes an employee’s approver depends on the options you select in your time off approver settings. When you assign someone as an approver, they receive a notification each time an employee sends a request. They can then approve or decline it.

You can make someone an approver for an employee by:

Making an employee's time off approver be an admin user, then make someone an admin
Making an employee's time off approver be their direct manager, then making someone their direct manager
Making an employee's time off approver be their team manager, then making someone their team manager
Selecting someone to be an individual approver for that employee

📎NOTE: You can select a mixture of these options. For example, you can have select to have both any admins and the employee's direct manager be the employee's time off approver.

Where are the time off approver settings?

As an admin user, click your name in the top right, then click Settings.
On the settings menu, click Time off, then click Time off approvers.

You'll see a list of employees. Alongside each employee are columns showing the following options:

Admins

When you choose an Admin as someone’s time off approver, Sage HR marks Admins as Yes. By default, every employee starts with Admins set to Yes for time off approvals.

While Admins stay turned on, all Admin users receive that employee’s time off requests.

When you turn Admins off, Admin users stop getting those notifications, and Sage HR shows Admins as No in the approver settings.

📎NOTE: Admins can edit any time off request even if they aren't a time off approver.

Direct manager

Set Direct Manager to Yes to let a direct manager approve the employee’s time off. When the direct manager changes, Sage HR automatically switches approvals to the new one.

Sage HR sets Direct Manager to No by default for employee time‑off approvals.

Team managers

📎NOTE: Team managers aren't available as a time off approver option for Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.

Sage HR sets Team Managers to No by default. Team managers come from your team settings.

When you turn Team Manager to Yes for an employee, their team manager can approve that employee’s time off. A team can have more than one team manager. If the team manager changes, Sage HR automatically assigns the new manager as the time off approver.

📎NOTE: Team Managers, even if they aren't approvers, are still able to edit requests.

Individual approvers

📎NOTE: Individual approvers aren't available as a time off approver option for Sage HR Essentials or Basic HR.

An individual approver is an employee you select to receive and respond to another employee’s time off requests.

By default, Sage HR leaves Individual approvers empty. You can add as many employees as you want, and you can choose anyone in the company.

Once you add an individual approver, Sage HR keeps that person as the employee’s time off approver, regardless of role or manager changes.

Each individual approver receives an email for every time off request from the employees they approve. They review the request and choose to approve or decline it.

📎NOTE: These employees can approve time off requests only. Making someone a time off approver doesn’t give them access to any other personal employee information.

📌TIP: You can turn on automatic approval so Sage HR approves an employee’s time off requests without manager review.

Sage HR shows Yes or No for Admins, Direct manager, and Team manager. For Individual approver, you either see specific names or nothing at all.

EXAMPLE: In the example below, the employee has this setup:

Admins: Yes
Direct manager: No
Team manager: Yes
Individual approver: Blank

The employee’s time off approver settings allow Admins and Team Managers to approve requests, but not the Direct Manager.

What this means

Any employee with an Admin role can approve this employee’s time off.
Any team manager for a team the employee belongs to can also approve their time off.

You set Direct manager to No and left Individual approver blank. Only Admins and team managers now approve time off for this employee.

⚠️CAUTION: Don't add the Approve or decline time off requests permission to default roles like Direct manager or Team manager. This action creates a conflict with your time off approver settings. Either avoid adding this permission to roles at all, or create custom roles first and add the permission to them. See our article Add the 'Approve or decline of time off requests' permission to a role for more information.

Edit an employee's time off approver

Set up who you want to approve time off for specific employees.

Edit a time off policy's time off approver

You can also set an approver for a specific time off policy. This means they'll only get approval requests made for that policy.

Reminders of time off requests

You can set up email reminders to approvers who have time off requests that still need to be responded to.

Can time off approvers view employees' time off?

No. Being a time‑off approver doesn’t let someone see other people’s time off. To give someone access to employees’ time‑off details, update the permissions in the role they use.

Can time off approvers book time off for other employees?

No. Being a time‑off approver doesn’t let someone book time off for other employees.

When you want someone to submit time off requests for others, update the permissions in the role they use.

Can I send time off request notifications to a different email address?

No, when someone is a time off approver, the system sends their notifications to the Work email on their profile. This is also the email they use to log in.

If you want notifications to go to a different address, you need to change the employee’s Work email.

How can I check who we've set as a time off approver?

You can’t view one full list of all time‑off approvers. The time off approver settings only show your employees and the people you’ve assigned to approve each person’s time off.

To check who approves time off for a specific employee, open their profile. You’ll see the list of users you’ve set as their approvers. This list won’t explain why each person is an approver. For example, it won’t say that someone appears because they’re the direct manager.

📌TIP: If you’re not sure why someone approves an employee’s time off or receives their requests, check our help article Troubleshooting time off approvers.

Set up time off approvers