Approval escalation

When an approver does not act on a pending request within a configured time period, Eloope can automatically escalate the request and/or send reminders. This keeps expenses, reports, trips, and advances from stalling in the approval queue.

How escalation works

Escalation in Eloope is configured per reporting relationship, not as a single global rule. Each manager-employee relationship can have its own escalation policy, so different teams can use different timing and actions.

Each policy has two independent settings that work together:

1. Escalation Time + Escalation Action — How long to wait before taking action, and what that action is (reassign to another approver, auto-approve, or auto-reject).
2. Reminder Frequency — How often to nudge the current approver while the item is still pending. Reminders run in parallel with the escalation timer; they do not replace it.

Available escalation actions

When the escalation timer expires, Eloope can perform one of these actions:

• Escalate to Secondary Manager — Reassign to the current approver's own manager.
• Escalate to Department Head — Reassign to the head of the submitter's department.
• Escalate to Custom User — Reassign to a specific user you choose.
• Auto-Approve — Approve the item without further review.
• Auto-Reject — Reject the item without further review.

Configure escalation

1. Go to Admin Settings > Approval Management.
2. Click the Relationships tab.
3. Open the relationship you want to configure (or create a new one).
4. Enable Auto-Escalation.
5. Set the Escalation Time — how long to wait before the escalation action runs:
   • 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours
   • 24 hours (1 day), 48 hours (2 days), 72 hours (3 days)
   • 1 week
6. Set the Reminder Frequency — how often to remind the current approver while the item is still pending:
   • No reminders
   • Every hour
   • Every 2 hours
   • Every 4 hours
   • Daily
7. Choose an Escalation Action (see options above). If you choose Escalate to Custom User, also pick the user.
8. Click Save.

Escalation processing

The escalation processor runs automatically on a daily schedule. On each run it:

• Sends reminders to approvers whose reminder interval has elapsed.
• Performs escalations for items that have passed their escalation time.
• Performs auto-actions (auto-approve or auto-reject) for items configured for those actions.

Note: Because the processor runs once per day, sub-daily reminder frequencies (Every hour, Every 2 hours, Every 4 hours) are bounded by the daily run cadence. In practice, an item gets at most one reminder per day regardless of the chosen frequency.

Escalation and reporting hierarchies

Escalation depends on the reporting hierarchy. When an item is escalated:

1. Escalate to Secondary Manager routes to the current approver's own manager.
2. Escalate to Department Head routes to the head of the submitter's department.
3. If the new approver also has escalation settings, the item can continue up the chain.
4. Escalation stops when someone acts on the item or the chain is exhausted.

Best practices

• Use reminders before escalating. Set a Reminder Frequency so approvers get a nudge before the item leaves their queue.
• Use auto-approve sparingly. Auto-approve bypasses human review. Reserve it for low-risk relationships with strong policy conditions.
• Avoid very short escalation times for auto-approve. A 2-hour auto-approve timer means an approver in a long meeting silently rubber-stamps everything. Days, not hours, is safer.
• Configure per relationship. Different teams (finance, engineering, executive) often need different timing — that's why escalation is per relationship rather than global.

Warning: Auto-approve and auto-reject bypass human review. Use them with caution and ensure your expense policies are comprehensive enough to catch issues before escalation.

Related articles

• Multi-level approvals
• Approval workflow setup
• Reporting hierarchies