How can i fix approval workflow when a manager is out and no delegate is set?

[Richard.L]

I’ve been trying to implement a simple automated approval workflow for our purchase requests, but I keep hitting a snag where the system gets stuck if a manager is out of office and doesn’t have a clear delegate set. Has anyone else run into this kind of bottleneck with rule-based escalation? I’m not sure if the issue is with how we’ve defined the conditions or if we need a different approach entirely.

[TylerRG]

Yep, we hit that exact bottleneck when the manager was out and there was no delegate. The rule would push the request along and sit idle because there was no one to approve. We added a 24 hour fallback to a backup approver and an alert, but the overall cycle length still drifted and the backlog grew. Not sure if that means the problem is gone or just moved elsewhere.

[EricH]

I tried sticking to a strict rule path and got a dead end when the condition didn't fire as expected. We built a small backup pool of second-line approvers who could take over in absence, and wired a loose rotation. Some things moved, but there was drift and a few decisions came back with questions later. After a sprint we shelved that approach.

[Avery55]

Could the real snag be how we frame the conditions rather than the missing delegate? The triggers feel brittle and a tiny edge case blocks the whole flow. The tweaks to rules never felt robust. I’m not confident.

[Daniel_G]

On our side we tried a simple approach: when the primary is out, route to anyone with approver rights and do a quick 2 step confirm. It helped sometimes, but there’s the risk of misrouting and delays in figuring out who should sign off. We’re still validating it and watching the metrics.