Approval timing: due windows, reminders and out of office

Every stage can carry a clock — a due window, a reminder cadence, a delay before it opens, and an escalation when the window is blown — and every person can set a delegate for when they're away. Approvals move at the speed you configured, not the speed of whoever forgot. Due windows Give a stage a due window and every ask it fans out carries a deadline. Overdue asks are flagged in the queue and on the record's Posting panel, so "who is this waiting on, and how long" is never a question you ask a person. Reminders A stage can re-nudge its pending approvers on a cadence — in-app, and by email for people whose own Reminders toggles say so. No cadence set means ask once, never nag; the queue and the bell still show the ask, but nobody's inbox pays for a slow week. Space between stages A stage can wait a while after the previous one clears before it opens and its people are pinged — give Legal a day with the contract before Finance is bothered at all. Until the delay elapses, the next stage's approvers see nothing, which is the point: an ask that might be withdrawn tomorrow shouldn't interrupt anyone today. When the window blows: escalation Each stage picks what happens when an ask goes past due: • Notify — tell the requester and a named person; the ask stays put. • Add an approver — a named person joins the round alongside the original approver. • Reassign — the stale ask is retired and a fresh one goes to the named person, carrying a visible for {name} trail. • Auto-approve / Auto-reject — the overdue ask decides itself, and writes an explanatory note saying so. There are no silent robot decisions: an auto-outcome always reads as one in the trail. The due window is the escalation clock — one clock per stage, not separate timers to keep consistent. A stage with no due window never escalates. Out of office In Settings, anyone can set a delegate and an until-date. While it's active, new asks aimed at them are redirected to the delegate at the moment they're created, with a visible trail showing who they stand in for. Asks already sitting in the queue don't move — redirecting history would falsify who was asked — and when the date passes, the redirect simply stops applying. Nothing to remember to switch off. Tips • Escalate to "add an approver" rather than "reassign" when the original person should still be able to answer — the round widens instead of moving. • Auto-approve is for genuinely low-stakes stages with a healthy due window; the builder warns you before allowing it, and the note it writes is permanent. • Reminders respect each person's own Reminders toggles for email — a stage cadence never overrides someone's decision not to be emailed. • Set out of office before a holiday and delegation handles itself: new asks divert with a trail, and expiry is automatic. Good to know • No due window means no escalation — the escalation clock is the due window. • Out of office redirects only asks created while it is active; anything already waiting on you stays yours. • An auto-approved stage still advances the journey — the explanatory note in the trail is the only difference from a human yes, so read the trail before trusting a suspiciously fast chain. • Reminder emails need the server's email service configured; in-app reminders work regardless. Who can do what • Stage timing — due windows, reminders, delays, escalation — is part of the posting rules and is Admin-only. • Out of office is personal: each person sets their own delegate, and only workspace members can be chosen.