Who approves when the boss is on vacation? Delegation rules for Power Automate approvals

An invoice is waiting for approval from management, who is at the seaside for two weeks. The person who could step in knows nothing about the open request. So an approval sits untouched, even though someone at the company would be able to grant it. The real problem isn't the absence, it's the missing delegation rule.

This article shows how to properly set up delegation and substitution in Power Automate approvals, so approvals keep moving even when the person actually responsible can't be reached.

Why do approvals sit untouched when the approving person is on vacation?

An approval sits untouched because a Power Automate approval task is permanently tied to a specific person and doesn't automatically pass to a substitute once that person is absent.

Under Section 3 of the German Vacation Act (Bundesurlaubsgesetz), every employee is entitled to at least 24 working days of vacation on a six-day week, i.e. 20 working days on a five-day week. In practice, many companies grant around 30 days. Add in illness, training, and business trips, and an approving person is away from their desk for a noticeable part of the year. Without a delegation rule, exactly this absence becomes a bottleneck.

To make things worse, Power Automate patiently lets an unanswered approval sit for a long time. If a request runs through the Approvals kit, it only switches to "Pending (Timeout)" status after 30 days without a response, and the associated cloud flow restarts automatically (Microsoft Learn). A month in which nobody follows up is an eternity in everyday approval work.

What substitution options does Power Automate offer out of the box?

Power Automate has two native ways to hand an approval to another person: manual reassignment by the assigned person, and automatic delegation via the Approvals kit.

• Manual reassignment (Reassign): Anyone who has received an approval request can hand it off to another person in the Power Automate portal via the three-dot menu. The catch, according to Microsoft Learn: only the assigned person themselves can reassign it, the requester cannot. If the responsible person is already on vacation, Reassign no longer helps, because no one else can click in their place.
• Native Teams approvals: The approvals app built into Microsoft Teams currently offers no built-in delegation within the app interface. Microsoft confirms this in its own Q&A forum and points to the Approvals kit or custom flows for substitution scenarios.
• Approvals kit with out-of-office delegation: The Approvals kit for Power Automate comes with settings for out-of-office and delegation. If an approving person stores an absence period and a substitute there, new approval requests during the selected period are automatically handed to that substitute (Microsoft Learn). This is the only native way that handles substitution without any action from the absent person.

How do you set up reliable substitution in Power Automate approvals?

Reliable substitution comes about when you don't hard-code the responsible person into the flow, but instead determine it at runtime from a maintainable substitution list.

The most robust setup in custom flows works with a central substitution table, usually a SharePoint list. It holds a substitute plus start and end date of the absence for each approving person. Before the flow starts the approval, it reads this list and decides: if today's date falls within an absence period, the task goes to the substitute, otherwise to the regular person.

• Substitution from a list instead of from the flow: Anyone who hard-codes the responsible person into the flow has to touch the flow every time someone is absent. A maintained list lets the business team make the change themselves, without touching the automation.
• Parallel approval for critical releases: Assign time-critical requests to two people from the start, so that one approval is enough. That way the release never depends on a single person's presence.
• Escalation after a deadline: Combine substitution with a deadline. If nobody responds within a few days, the request automatically moves up a level instead of waiting a month for the timeout.

In NordFlux projects, we deliberately set up substitution outside the flow, so that the secretariat or team lead can record absences themselves. A typical case from practice: a public-sector client wanted invoice approvals to go to the deputy without delay while the department head was absent. Solved with a substitution list maintained by the front office, plus a three-business-day deadline after which the request visibly escalates.

Substitution or timeout: what's the difference?

Substitution decides who grants an approval, while the timeout only determines what happens when nobody decides. Both are needed, but they solve different problems.

A timeout is a safety net: it prevents a request from hanging forever by triggering a fallback action once a deadline expires, such as an automatic rejection or escalation. But it doesn't ensure that the right person actually decides. A substitution rule, on the other hand, brings the decision to the appropriate present person before a deadline even expires. Anyone who relies only on timeouts trades stuck approvals for automatic rejections, and that's rarely what's intended. For how approvals generally get stuck at mid-sized companies and what that costs, see the article on Approval workflows at mid-sized companies. If you want to build substitution, deadlines, and escalation directly into your processes, NordFlux can support you with automating approval workflows.

Frequently asked questions about substitution in Power Automate approvals

Can I set up substitution in Power Automate without programming?

Partially. The Approvals kit offers ready-made out-of-office and delegation settings that require no code. For custom rules with your own substitution list and deadlines, a flow is needed, but it can be put together in the designer without classic programming.

Can a person who is already absent still hand off their approval?

Only via manual reassignment, and only while they are still active. Only the assigned person can reassign a request, the requester cannot. If the person is already on vacation, you need automatic substitution via the Approvals kit or a custom flow.

What happens if nobody processes the approval?

For an approval via the Approvals kit, the request switches to "Pending (Timeout)" status after 30 days without a response, and the flow restarts. In custom flows, you can set a much shorter deadline and automatic escalation.

Does the Teams approvals app offer built-in substitution?

No. The native approvals app in Microsoft Teams currently has no delegation within the app interface. For substitution, use the Approvals kit or a custom approval flow.