ANTE User ManualEmployee Change Approvals
Some changes to an employee record should not take effect the moment HR saves them. On this page you decide, for each kind of change and for each employee custom field, whether it needs approval, who may save it directly and whether a supporting document is required. Who approves, and in what order, is set in the same approval chains as filings and the payroll approval (the Employee changes module). When a change needs approval, the save is held as a request, the employee record stays exactly as it was, and the record changes only after the last approver signs off.
Where to find it
Open Manpower → HR Setup → Employee Change Approvals, or click Approval settings in the Employee change requests dialog (the Change requests button on Employee Records). Both are shown to users who hold the Configure Approval Routes permission.
Approval workflows
The approval workflows that used to be built on this page are now approval chains. Each old workflow was converted into one company-wide chain with one stage per step: every step became a stage that "anyone with the user level" can act on, the earlier steps Recommend and the last one Approve. Requests that were already waiting kept their place and now continue on the chain.
The Approval chains card on this page opens Approval chains → Employee changes, where you add or edit a chain. A chain can cover only some Change types (empty means every type), a department or an employee group, or specific employees through an override, and a stage can name a user level, a role, a position rank in a department, the immediate superior or a named person. The first active chain that covers the change and the employee decides who approves. When no chain covers a change, a workflow that was not converted yet is shown here and still applies, with the hint No approval chain covers this change yet.
- Open Approval chains
Click Open approval chains. The page opens on the Employee changes module.
- Add or edit a chainChange typesWhich kinds of change the chain covers, including each employee custom field. Empty covers every type; other types go to the next chain in the list.Approver (per stage)*Anyone with a user level (any one person whose role holds that level may act), a role, a position rank (optionally in a chosen department, for example a Director of Human Resources), the immediate superior, or a named person.Stage type*Recommend passes the request up, Approve signs it off; the last stage must be Approve.A later stage may act for this stageWhen on, the approver of a later stage may decide this stage too, from the On behalf of others tab of the header Approvals panel.
- Check the result on this page
Each change below says Approved by the chain "…" with the chain that covers it, so you can see who will approve before anyone files.
Editing a chain changes the stages for new requests only; requests already waiting keep the stages they were filed with. Nobody ever decides a change they prepared, or one that is about themselves.
Changes that need approval
| Change type | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Personal information | Name, e-mail, contact number, birth date, civil status, address |
| Government IDs | SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG, TIN and MP2 numbers |
| Bank account | The payroll bank account (Bank Accounts list and the bank fields on the record) |
| Compensation / rate | A contract's monthly rate, the pending regularization rate, projected bonus months. Reviewers without View Compensation see these requests with the field named but the old and new values masked. |
| Employment status | A contract's employment status and dates, regularization and probation dates, deactivating a contract |
| Department, position and assignment | Role, reports-to, branch, schedule, payroll group, employee code |
| Family and dependents | Spouse, children, parents and other family members, including dependents and beneficiaries |
| Education, work history and licenses | Education, previous employment, and professional licenses and certifications |
| Separation | Separating an employee from the company |
| New employee registration | Adding a new employee in Add Employee. With this on, a preparer whose user level is not a direct saver sees Submit for approval instead of Create Employee; nothing is created until the last step approves, and a rejection leaves nothing behind. Reviewers without View Compensation see the pay in the request masked. See Profile Change Requests. |
| Each custom field | Every active employee custom field has its own row, so a sensitive field can need approval while the others save directly |
- Switch on Require approval
Turn on the switch of the change type or custom field you want approved.
- Pick the optionsApproved byRead-only: the approval chain that covers this change (Approved by the chain "…"). To change who approves, edit the chain under Approval chains. Without a chain, the legacy workflow that was not converted yet is shown instead.User levels that may save directlyPeople holding one of these levels skip the approval for this change and save immediately. Leave it empty if everyone must follow the chain.Require a supporting documentWhen on, the request cannot be approved until the preparer attaches a document (for example the scan of the signed form).
- Click Save routes
The button sits at the top of the list and stays in view while you scroll; Unsaved changesshows until you save, and Discard puts every switch back. A change with approval off saves directly, exactly as it did before. A change with approval on but no covering chain is flagged so you can add one.
What the HR editor sees
When an HR user saves an employee edit that falls under a route, a message confirms that the change was submitted for approval and the record is not changed yet. If one edit mixes routed and unrouted fields (for example a new employee code and a new city), the city is saved now and the code is held. A change awaiting approval badge appears on the employee record; click it to see what is waiting, who prepared it and which user level it waits on.
Custom fields work the same way: in one save, a custom field with approval on is held and the other fields are saved now. The request shows the field's name with its before and after values (option names, Yes or No, file names).
The change awaiting approval badge is not shown to everyone who can open the employee record. You see an employee's pending personal changes (address, contacts, family and qualification records and so on) only if you are that employee, if you are allowed to manage that employee (they sit strictly below you in the user hierarchy), or if you are a designated approver of a request. A designated approver sees only the requests waiting on them. Everyone else sees no badge. Pay figures stay hidden from anyone without View Compensation, and bank account numbers show the last four digits unless you hold the full-view permission.
Only one request per change type (and per custom field) can be open for an employee at a time. The preparer can attach supporting documents or withdraw a pending request from the Change requests list on Employee Records.
What the employee sees in My Profile
A custom field employees may edit themselves (set in Custom Fields) appears under Update right away in My Profile and always saves at once, whatever the field's approval switch says. The approval route on a custom field governs the edits HR makes on the employee record only; it never holds the employee's own change.
The same applies to the extra personal details, the permanent address and the lists on the Family and background tab. When the company setting is Needs HR approval, the employee's change is filed under Personal information (details and addresses), Family and dependents, or Education, work history and licenses. If HR edits one of these lists on the employee record while a route is on, the edit is held as a request too.
Approving and rejecting
Approvers find a request in the header Approvals panel (the To approve tab) or on the Change requests list on Employee Records, and they are also notified. Clicking it opens the Employee Change Request dialog with the before and after values, the attached documents and the approval trail. They then click Recommend or Approve, or Reject. A recommend or intermediate approval passes the request to the next stage of the chain; approving the last stage applies the change to the employee record, with the preparer as the person who made the change. Only people who are candidates of the current stage decide it, plus a later-stage approver for a stage that allows it (shown as Approve on behalf in On behalf of others), and never the preparer or the employee the change is about. Rejecting leaves the record unchanged and sends the reason back to the preparer. If the system cannot apply an approved change (for example a username that is already taken), the request goes back to pending with the reason shown.
Before a cutoff goes to payroll
A change that is still waiting could alter the pay being submitted, so once your company uses approval routes:
- A cutoff cannot be submitted for payroll while a change request of an employee in that cutoff is still pending. There is no way to acknowledge past it; approve, reject or withdraw the request first.
- If you switch on Require HR confirmation before a cutoff is submitted for payroll, HR must also confirm that no employee update is pending for the cutoff. The confirmation is recorded with the name of the person and the time. A request filed after the confirmation makes it stale, so HR confirms again.
Accounting notice
When HR confirms, the approved changes applied since the cutoff began (employee, change, from and to, approver, date) are sent as a notice, in the app and by e-mail, to the recipients you choose: one or more user levels (for example Accounting) and named people. Switch on Also notify on every approval to send a short notice each time a change is applied too. The same list can be downloaded as Excel from the cutoff's Timekeeping page with Employee changes (Excel).
How It Connects
Set up first
- Approval chains (Employee changes) — who approves each change, in which order, is set here.
- User Levels — the levels you choose as chain stages, direct savers and recipients are defined here.
- Custom Fields — each active employee custom field gets its own approval row here.
Gets its data from
- Employee Records — HR edits made here are held as requests when their change type has a route.
- Bank Accounts — bank account changes follow the Bank account route.
- My Profile — an employee's own edits of the extra personal details, addresses and family or background lists become requests when their change type has a route; custom fields still save at once.
Feeds into
- Profile Change Requests — approvers decide the held changes here.
- Timekeeping — pending changes and the HR confirmation gate the submission to payroll.