At a glance
Supervisors can add one or more replacements for their approvals via the āOut of Officeā tab.
The replacement receives the approval responsibilities while the āOut of Officeā function is active.
The original Supervisor can continue using Circula and approve or reject expenses if needed.
The replacement remains active until āOut of Officeā is manually deactivated.
š Overview
With the Out of Office function, Supervisors can temporarily transfer their approval responsibilities to one or more replacements, for example during sick leave or vacation.
This ensures that expenses can continue to be reviewed and approved without admins having to manually adjust approval groups and revert those changes afterwards.
The replacement is configured directly in the Account Settings. Once āOut of Officeā is activated, the selected replacements receive access to the pending approvals of the absent Supervisor.
š Note
The original Supervisor remains authorized to use Circula and can still approve or reject expenses themselves.
š ļø How it works
Set up a replacement
Navigate to āAccount Settingsā and open the āOut of Officeā tab.
Add one or more replacements from the drop-down menu.
Activate āOut of Officeā.
Once āOut of Officeā is active, the selected replacements immediately receive the approval responsibilities of the absent Supervisor.
āļøImportant
The replacement does not end automatically. āOut of Officeā must be deactivated manually.
Approvals during the absence
As long as āOut of Officeā is active, replacements see:
their own pending approvals
the pending approvals of the Supervisor they are replacing
Replacements can approve or reject expenses in the same way as the original Supervisor.
New expenses submitted during the active absence are also forwarded to the replacement accordingly.
Visibility for Supervisors
As long as āOut of Officeā is active, the original Supervisor sees a persistent banner in Circula.
This banner shows the Supervisor that the replacement is active. āOut of Officeā can also be deactivated directly from the banner.
Visibility for submitters
The status details of an expense show which users are involved in the approval. This includes:
the original Supervisor
the active replacement or replacements
any other Supervisors who are part of the approval flow
This makes it transparent for submitters who can review the expense.
Display in User Management
Active replacements are also displayed in the āUser Managementā tab.
For the absent Supervisor, a banner shows the currently active replacements.
For replacement users, a banner shows which person they are replacing.
In the user list, replacement users temporarily display the āSupervisorā role. However, the actual role configuration is not changed in the user details.
š Note
If a replacement did not originally have the Supervisor role, only the replacement banner is shown in the user details. The userās actual role remains unchanged.
Deactivate Out of Office
āOut of Officeā remains active until the Supervisor manually deactivates the replacement.
You can deactivate āOut of Officeā in two ways:
Click āDeactivate nowā in the persistent banner.
Or navigate to āAccount Settingsā, open the āOut of Officeā tab, and click āDeactivateā.
After deactivation:
all delegated approval rights are revoked immediately
replacements no longer see the pending approvals of the original Supervisor
the āOut of Officeā banners are removed
the list of selected replacements is cleared
the original approval configuration automatically applies again
āļø Supported approval flows
The current version supports replacements for:
Expense Group Supervisors
Root Supervisors
The following approval flows are not supported in the current version:
project-based approval flows
cost center approval flows for Accounts Payable
ā FAQ's
Can any user be selected as a replacement?
Yes. A replacement does not need to already have the āSupervisorā role.
Does this permanently make a replacement a Supervisor?
No. The replacement only acts temporarily as a Supervisor for the delegated approvals.
The userās actual role configuration remains unchanged.
Can the original Supervisor still approve expenses?
Yes. The original Supervisor keeps access to their own approvals and can approve or reject expenses if needed.
Does āOut of Officeā apply to all approval flows?
No. This version only supports Expense Group Supervisors and Root Supervisors.
Project-based approvals and approval flows for Accounts Payable are not included in this version.
Does the replacement end automatically?
No. The Supervisor must manually deactivate āOut of Officeā.
This can be done either via the āDeactivate nowā button in the persistent banner or via āAccount Settingsā in the āOut of Officeā tab.
Once āOut of Officeā is deactivated, the replacement immediately loses the delegated approval rights.
Do you still have questions?
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