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Idea: Vacation/OOO Delegate

David_Wieseneck

Use case: When someone goes on vacation or is OOO, any workflows that they are approvers for are put on pause. Yes, we can use Groups, but reassigning workflows is manual.

I wish that Ironclad had a Vacation Delegate feature like Expensify or ApprovalMax:

https://community.expensify.com/discussion/5655/deep-dive-what-is-a-vacation-delegate

https://www.approvalmax.com/blog/new-feature-delegating-approval-tasks/

If a user goes on vacation and sets a delegate, all in-flight workflows and any launched workflows get reassigned to the delegate. When the user comes back from vacation, any in-flight workflows that would have originally gone to that user, gets reassigned back to the user.

A bit more advanced, the user should have the opportunity to review the reassignments before they go on vacation, as they may not want all workflows to be reassigned. And same thing when they come back, the user may not want to take back a workflow that has been reviewed by the delegate and wants the delegate to finish their work on a particular workflow.

Lastly, this feature can be used for terminations as well. For example, if an approver is terminated, you could reassign the workflows in one fell swoop.

Audit trail should track all reassignments.

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Comments

Charlie_Choules

You beat me to it this time, @David_Wieseneck !

Unusually for me, I have actually had several of my regular Ironclad users (from both workflow owner and workflow reviewer roles) ask me if a feature like this is available in Ironclad and it has saddened me to respond with a negative...

Also, you mentioned using Groups/reassigning workflows to get around the problem when people are OOO. However, I have found that this is not always a viable solution. Cambridge has various groups where the number of reviews that are allocated to them is high so those who are not OOO are not necessarily paying attention to tasks that have been assigned to people who are OOO. In addition, workflow owners whose review tasks have been accepted by someone who has subsequently gone OOO (i.e. before completing or reassigning the task) cannot recognise that that person is OOO without referring to the actual OOO that the person has set in their email account.

Poor articulation skills today - apologies - but, in essence, what I am saying is that I love your idea 😍

David_Wieseneck

Thanks Charlie!

David_Wieseneck

Ughhhh - I set up our Data Privacy approval to be one person (my mistake for not using a Group...) and now he is on vacation...

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As a work around, I asked Support team to reassign it to another qualified person on the team, so the workflow can move forward.

But why can I as Admin not reassign it myself? Why do I need to ask Support to do it?

@alex_su - how does Ironclad solve for this internally? Do you not go on vacation ever??

kenneth_carter

Long over due.

alex_su

@David_Wieseneck Checking internally with our legal team, will get back to you on this.

Crystal_Wu

Great discussion! +1 to Groups. At Ironclad, that's also how my team (Legal) manages OOO. Reassignment is manual, though we have a process workaround where the IC admin (Legal Ops) updates Groups every quarter to capture backup approvers based off of feedback from business stakeholders. Good news is our Product team is looking into making reassignment more self-service. Stay tuned!

David_Wieseneck

Wohoo! Please share more and push the Product team to build a Vacation/OOO Delegate feature

David_Wieseneck

Hey @Crystal_Wu - any update from the product team?

Crystal_Wu

😄 @David_Wieseneck No update yet. I shared this thread to our all-star product team ">⭐

David_Wieseneck

😍

David_Wieseneck

Ugh. @Lynn_Agajan went on vacation. Wish Ironclad had an OOO/Vacation Delegate feature right about now!

David_Wieseneck

This idea has over 30 likes! I feel like someone from the Product team should share an update on such a popular idea. Is this on the roadmap?

David_Wieseneck

Looks like there is some positive movement - at lease for my final comment.

Lastly, this feature can be used for terminations as well. For example, if an approver is terminated, you could reassign the workflows in one fell swoop.

Audit trail should track all reassignments.

Look at this new release!:

CleanShot 2022-06-23 at 09.20.28.png

Thank you Ironclad!

David_Wieseneck

Just coming back to keep pushing this and share the pain points we are having.

Our Deal Desk lead is out on vacation for the next 10 days, and it has been a bit of a confusion to find & reassign workflows to a back-up.

Also, our lead Legal Counsel is out sick for a few days, so we have to manually find workflows in progress and reassign the workflows to a back-up external Legal Counsel to keep workflows moving.

David_Wieseneck

Our RevOps manager really wants this - I love how we think alike.

@Crystal_Wu - i'm sure you feel this pain too.

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Crystal_Wu

@David_Wieseneck 😎 We see you! No update yet, but trust that this thread is going to the right place.

David_Wieseneck

😍

Joe_Nguyen

(No content)

Crystal_Wu

@David_Wieseneck + friends, not a product update or an official IC announcement 😅 Our Legal team is currently using this OOO hack in Ironclad (credit our brilliant lawyer Michael Ohta). Just sharing💡

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David_Wieseneck

@Crystal_Wu is this the first step?
https://support.ironcladapp.com/s/article/Q1-2023-Release-Notes
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David_Wieseneck

Looks like we are getting closer...

https://support.ironcladapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/13293886334743-Set-Your-User-Status

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Peter_Berkowitz

Wow, @David_Wieseneck , A+ product advocacy. Ironclad is lucky to have you.

Can you summarize, given the updates you've shared, what the best practice is at this point for going OOO?

David_Wieseneck

Thanks @Peter_Berkowitz

I would say a combo of Set Your User Status & Reassign Workflows in Bulk

Or just never go OOO - these contracts aren't going to redline themselves...

But these are not ideal & are half measures. We are getting close, but yet not there yet.

@Crystal_Wu - what would you advise?

David_Wieseneck

Ramp just added a Delegate Approver functionality too:
https://support.ramp.com/hc/en-us/articles/16777041497363

Very smart!

Delegate an approver for your Ramp inbox when you're going out of the office, whether you're feeling under the weather, taking a vacation, or going on leave. Set someone as your backup to unblock your team's spend.

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David_Wieseneck

Yay! finally!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ylNZgxNuck

https://support.ironcladapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/23563944836119-Set-Your-Out-of-Office-Status

Staci_Treolo

This is a great request and I've worked in e-billing platforms that allow a delegation like this with a time parameter so that you can easily bulk re-assign workflows, but importantly add a start date and an end date so that no manual work is required when the OOO user returns from a vacation or leave.