Time-Out Zone

Approvals covered while the manager is away

A deputy approver is a backup with a time window: the team lead requests cover, a teammate accepts, and for exactly those dates the deputy approves and denies on the lead's behalf — labeled, audited, and expiring on its own.

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Why cover matters: the disconnect numbers

37%

of employees fully disconnect on vacation — down from 47% three years ago

21%

cite "no colleagues available to cover work" as the reason they skip vacation

86%

would check their boss's emails while on paid time off

39%

say a team coverage plan would actually let them switch off

  • Managers set the tone: employees whose manager works through vacation are about twice as likely to work through their own — an approval queue that follows the boss to the beach keeps the whole team online.
  • In German-speaking teams, Urlaubsvertretung — naming who covers while someone is away — is standard practice; deputy approvers apply the same rule to the one job that cannot wait: approving requests.

Figures from Dayforce (2025), Eagle Hill Consulting (2024), The Harris Poll (2023), and Perceptyx research. Rounded.

Request, accept, covered

The team lead picks who should cover and for which dates; the teammate accepts, and the authority activates in the same moment. Declining with a reason is one click.

Authority with an expiry date

Cover runs from date to date. Inside the window the deputy can act; outside it they cannot — no cleanup, no forgotten superpowers.

On behalf of, on the record

Every decision a deputy makes is labeled as acting for the lead, visible in the approval dialog and stamped into the audit trail.

One deputy per team

Exactly one active deputy per team, enforced by the system. Authority is always accountable to one name, never diffused across a list.

The fine print, handled

The full manager view

While covering, the deputy sees the team's pending queue, calendar, and roster — everything needed to decide, nothing more.

Expiry is automatic

When the window ends, the deputy's authority ends with it. Acting outside the window is blocked, not frowned upon.

No sub-delegation

A deputy cannot pass the cover to someone else. The chain of accountability stays one link long.

Admins keep the override

Admins can assign or clear a deputy directly at any time — for the weeks nobody planned for.

Deputy cover applies to functional teams. Values in the visuals are examples.

Lifecycle

Request, accept, covered

Cover is a handshake, not a hijack.

  • The team lead requests cover for a person and a date range; overlapping pending requests for the same team are blocked.
  • The teammate accepts — activating the authority — or declines with a reason. Either way, both sides get notified in-app.
  • A dashboard prompt flags teams with no active deputy before a planned manager absence, so cover gets arranged ahead of time.

Scope

What a deputy can and cannot do

The authority is deliberately narrow.

  • A deputy approves and denies pending requests where the current approver is their team's lead — and sees the manager view for exactly those teams.
  • Steps assigned to a department head, a named person, or a role in a longer chain stay with their own approvers; the deputy does not inherit them.
  • New requests still notify the configured approver; the deputy sees them in the covered queue rather than replacing the lead's identity.

Control

Admins keep the last word

Self-service for the routine, override for the exception.

  • Managers arrange cover through request and accept; direct assignment is an admin-only action.
  • Admins can assign, change, or clear a team's deputy at any time from settings.
  • Every grant, decline, expiry, and on-behalf decision is visible in the audit trail.

More resources

Feature

Multi-step approvals

Feature

Manager suggestions

Ready to get started?

Give us a call. We'll set up deputy cover for one of your teams, run an approval on behalf of the lead, and show you the audit trail it leaves.

Multi-Step Approvals

Sequential chains with a live preview.

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Manager Suggestions

Managers propose, admins approve.

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Frequently asked questions

What is a deputy approver?
A teammate who temporarily approves and denies time-off requests on behalf of a team lead, for a defined date window. The lead requests the cover, the teammate accepts it, and every decision made under it is labeled and audited as acting on the lead's behalf.
Who assigns a deputy?
Team leads request cover and teammates accept it — that is the self-service path. Direct assignment without the handshake is reserved for admins.
What exactly can a deputy approve?
Pending requests whose current approver is their team's lead. Steps owned by other approvers — a department head, a named person, a role — remain with those approvers.
Does deputy authority expire automatically?
Yes. The cover carries a start and end date, and outside that window the deputy cannot act. There is nothing to remember to switch off.
How is this different from a vacation stand-in (Urlaubsvertretung)?
A classic stand-in covers someone's tasks. A deputy approver covers one specific duty: the approval queue. Both can be the same person — but the approval authority is explicit, time-boxed, and audited rather than assumed.
Can a deputy hand the cover to someone else?
No. Accepting cover does not include the right to delegate it further; if plans change, the lead or an admin arranges new cover.