LeavelyRoles and approval authority
The three roles in a company, the Department Manager assignment, and who can approve, reject and cancel whose leave.
Each member of a company has one role, Owner, Admin or Employee, and a member can also be the Department Manager of a Department. The role and the Department Manager assignment together decide what the member can see and whose leave they can approve.
How it works
Roles
Each company has three roles:
- Owner: the one member with final authority over the company. The person who creates the company is its Owner. Nobody can change the Owner's role.
- Admin: manages the company's people and settings, and approves leave for everyone.
- Employee: requests and sees their own leave.
A role belongs to one company. A person who is in two companies can be the Owner of one and an Employee in the other. See Working across companies.
Department Manager
Department Manager is not a role. It is an assignment on a Department: an Owner or Admin selects the Department Manager when they add or edit the Department. See Departments.
The Department Manager can approve, reject and cancel the leave of the members of that Department. The person keeps their role. An Employee who is a Department Manager is still an Employee in all other respects.
A Department Manager does not have to be a member of the Department. An Owner or Admin can select any employee of the company.
The authority follows the assignment. When an Owner or Admin changes the Department Manager, the old manager loses the authority and the new manager gets it at once.
Who can approve whose request
An approver is a person who can approve or reject a pending Leave Request:
- The Owner and every Admin can approve the requests of all members.
- A Department Manager can approve the requests of the members of their Department.
Nobody can approve or reject their own request. This rule applies to the Owner, to Admins and to Department Managers.
Who can approve a request depends on the Department of the employee when the approver acts, not when the employee sent the request. If an employee moves to another Department, the manager of the new Department can approve their pending requests, and the manager of the old Department cannot.
An approver finds the requests that wait for them in Approvals.
Requests from approvers
- The Owner's and an Admin's own requests are approved at once, with no Pending step.
- A Department Manager who is an Employee sends their own requests like any other Employee. A request is Pending when its Leave Type requires approval. The Owner, an Admin, or the manager of the Department that the manager is a member of can approve it. If they manage their own Department, only the Owner or an Admin can approve it. See Leave request lifecycle.
Who can cancel approved leave
An approver can cancel approved leave until its first day, that day included, for the same people whose requests they can approve. Nobody can cancel their own approved leave, with one exception: the Owner can cancel their own approved leave. See Leave request lifecycle.
What each role can do
Owner can
- Do everything an Admin can do
- Open Settings > Company and change the company details and logo
- Use Upgrade Plan or Billing in the account menu
- Make another member an Admin
- Edit the details of any member, the Owner included
- Delete the company, when they belong to at least one other company
- Cancel their own approved leave, until its first day, that day included
Owner cannot
- Approve or reject their own request
- Leave the company. The Owner deletes the company instead.
- Delete their only company. An Owner who belongs to one company can neither leave it nor delete it.
- Give the Owner role to another member
Admin can
- Approve, reject and cancel the leave of all members, except their own leave
- Book leave for any employee. This leave is approved at once.
- Open Reports. On a plan without Reports, the Reports item shows with an upgrade prompt.
- Open all pages under Settings except Company: Departments, Allowances, Leave Types, Holidays, Employees and Calendars
- Add employees, and send invitations again
- Select Leave Types marked Admin Only
- See the pending leave of all visible members on the Wall Chart
- See the notification bell
Admin cannot
- Open Settings > Company, or use Upgrade Plan or Billing
- Make another member an Admin
- Edit or remove the Owner
- Delete the company
- Approve, reject or cancel their own leave
Employee can
- Use Wall Chart, My Year and Summary
- Request leave for themselves
- Withdraw their own pending requests
- See the approved leave of all visible members, and their own pending leave, on the Wall Chart. Hidden employees and people who have not joined yet do not show.
Employee cannot
- Approve, reject or cancel leave, unless they are a Department Manager
- Cancel their own approved leave
- Open Reports or Settings
- Select Leave Types marked Admin Only
- See the notification bell, unless they are a Department Manager
Department Manager can, for the members of their Department
- Approve and reject pending requests
- Cancel approved leave, until its first day, that day included
- Book leave for them. This leave is approved at once. See Request leave.
- See their pending leave on the Wall Chart
- See the notification bell and use Approvals
Department Manager cannot
- Approve, reject or cancel leave of people outside their Department
- Approve, reject or cancel their own leave
- Open Reports or Settings, unless their role is Owner or Admin
- Select Leave Types marked Admin Only, unless their role is Owner or Admin
Worked example
A company has an Owner, an Admin, and a Department named Engineering. Its Department Manager is John Doe, an Employee who is also a member of Engineering. Jane Doe is an Employee in Engineering. The Leave Type requires approval.
| Request from | Status after sending | Who can approve it |
|---|---|---|
| Jane Doe | Pending | John Doe, the Admin, or the Owner |
| John Doe | Pending | The Admin or the Owner. John Doe cannot approve it. |
| The Admin | Approved at once | Nobody needs to approve it |
| The Owner | Approved at once | Nobody needs to approve it |
What happens when
An employee has no Department
Only the Owner and the Admins can approve their requests. No Department Manager can approve them.
A Department has no Department Manager
Only the Owner and the Admins can approve the requests of its members.
A Department Manager becomes an Admin
They can approve the requests of all members, and their own new requests are approved at once.
An Admin becomes an Employee
They lose approval authority at once. They keep only the authority of a Department Manager, if they are one.
Related pages
Last reviewed on
Leave request lifecycle
The statuses a leave request goes through, from submission to approval, rejection, withdrawal or cancellation, and who can move it.
Working across companies
How one Leavely account works in more than one company, what each company keeps separate, and how to switch, add and leave companies.