Module: Out of Office
With out-of-office management, users define absence periods and specify how approval requests are handled during their absence.
How it works
- When a workflow creates an approval and the intended approver has an active out-of-office entry (today’s date is between Start Date and End Date), the approval is automatically redirected to the configured substitute.
- The redirection is logged in the Audit Trail of the workflow instance with action type "OOO Substitution" .
- In the approval entry, the "Original Approver (OOO)" is stored, so it remains traceable who was originally responsible.
Two levels of OOO resolution
Out-of-office processing happens at two levels:
- Level 1 (before distribution): can change the Assignee Type – e.g. from a single user to a workflow user group. Runs before the approval entries are created.
- Level 2 (per entry): replaces individual users with other individual users. Runs within approval entry creation. Redirecting to a workflow user group is not possible at this level (it would break the group logic).
Configure out-of-office entries
- Open AWF Setup → action "Out of Office" or search via Tell Me for "Out of Office Entries".
- New.
- Fill in the fields:
- User ID: the absent user.
- Start Date: first day of the absence.
- End Date: last day of the absence.
- Description: optional description (e.g. "Vacation Q2").
- Enabled: Yes/No.
Substitute types
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| No Substitute | Approvals stay with the absent user. No redirection takes place. |
| Approver | Approvals are redirected to a defined user. The field "Substitute" is shown. |
| Workflow User Group | Approvals are redirected to a workflow user group. The field "Substitute WF User Group" is shown. |
| Use Delegation | Uses the standard BC substitution from the Approval User Setup (field "Substitute"). Single-level resolution (no chain). |
Rule-based substitution (optional)
Via the action "Show Rules" on the out-of-office entry you can define rule-based substitution overrides :
- The rules are evaluated against the workflow template record .
- This lets you define different substitutes for different workflow templates (e.g. "for purchase invoices user A substitutes, for sales orders user B").
- If no rule matches, the default substitution settings of the out-of-office entry apply.
Out-of-office entries apply **across companies** (DataPerCompany = false). One entry applies in all companies of the environment.