Cover an absence with user substitution
Date-bounded stand-ins for approvals and work queues: the two system switches (both matter), the admin- and self-service ways to set a substitute, and exactly how the coverage starts and stops.
At the end of this guide, an approver's vacation doesn't stall a single document: a substitute sees and works their approvals and queue items for exactly the dates you set, and the coverage ends by itself.
Enable it (two switches, and the trap between them)
Administration > System Settings > User Settings:
- Allow user substitution — "Valid for Work Queue and Approval Queue." This is the feature switch.
- Allow users to define substitute(s) — lets people set their own coverage in Preferences. Its description is the caution: "Users can select any user in the system."
The trap: the self-service Preferences panel requires both switches. With only the first on, users see "User substitution is disabled by system settings" — while you, as admin, can still set substitutions on their behalf. Decide deliberately: both on for self-service shops, first-only where coverage is a manager's call.
Set a substitution
As the administrator — Administration > Users > the absent user > Details tab, under User Substitution:
Enable substitute, set From Date and To Date, pick the Substitute Users (more than one is fine).
Save.
As the user themselves (when self-service is on) — Preferences > Substitution ("Manage who can act on your behalf when you are away"): the same three controls, then Save Substitution.
How the coverage behaves
- Dates are inclusive, and the window runs on the server's calendar: coverage starts on the From date and ends after the To date. Nothing needs turning off — the day after, the substitute simply stops seeing the items. (The Enable substitute switch stays on, dormant; next year's vacation just needs new dates.)
- What's covered: the absent user's approval-queue items and work-queue items appear to the substitute, and the notifications that would have gone to the absentee reach the substitute too. Acting on an item works exactly as if the owner had.
- Substitution chains. If the substitute is also away with their own substitute set, coverage follows the chain. Handy, and worth knowing when the wrong person seems to be receiving things.
- Substitution covers queues and approvals — it doesn't transfer permissions, ownership, or anything outside those flows. For a departing user, substitution is the handoff for their waiting items; the rest is offboarding.
Does it still work when the account is disabled?
Yes. Substitution keeps delivering a disabled user's approval-queue items, work-queue items, and notifications to their substitute. Only three things matter: the Allow user substitution system switch, the Enable substitute switch on the absent user's account, and today's date falling inside the From/To window. The substitute must be an account that can log in.
Temporary handoff: a departed approver's backlog
When someone leaves with documents waiting on them, this is the fastest way to put a replacement in their seat — there is no reassign button, and it works whether the items are named to them, chosen from a group, or routed to them as the document's creator.
Disable the departing user's account (Administration > Users > their account > Account Settings > Disabled).
On the same account's Details tab, under User Substitution, turn on Enable substitute, set From Date to today and To Date far enough out to outlast the backlog (a year is fine), pick the replacement under Substitute Users, and save.
What you should see: the replacement opens Queues and finds the departed user's items on their own Approval tab, ready to approve or reject.
Once the items are gone, finish the offboarding checklist — membership cleanup, then deletion. Deleting the user removes the substitution with it.
Substitution mirrors the queue; it doesn't move the items. They still count as waiting on the departed user, so the account can't be deleted until the replacement has worked through them — and if any item was chosen by name from a group, keep the departed user in that group until it's done, or it drops out of the substitute's view.
Success check: set a one-day substitution for a test user with an item in their approval queue, sign in as the substitute, and find the item waiting. Tomorrow, confirm it's gone from the substitute's view — the auto-expiry, proven.