How to hand over your work while you are away

Out of office lets a colleague act with your standing while you are away. It is a section of your What is on your account page?: open your avatar at the foot of the left menu, then User menu › Account settings. The handover stops on its own at the end of the date you pick.

Why would you set one?

So that work waiting on you keeps moving. A purchase order that needs your approval should not sit still while you are on a plane.

Fairgreen's buyer, Priya Raman, spends a week at a trade show. Before she leaves, she hands over to Dana. The Portside Mills order that arrives for approval on Tuesday is approved by Dana that day, and it ships on time.

How do you set one?

1. Open User menu › Account settings and find Out of office.
2. Pick your colleague from Choose a person.
3. Pick the last day of the handover in Until.
4. Press Save.

A handover covers the workspace you set it in. The section then reads back who is covering and until when, for example "Dana can act with your standing until 18 August." To end it early, press Clear.

What can your stand-in do?

They can approve, and work on tasks, projects, records and purchase orders, as if they held your role. Each time they act, Tideswell checks your role as well as theirs and lets the higher one count. If you lead a department, they get a lead's standing in it too.

For example, Edit, archive and delete projects is set to department lead to begin with. If Priya leads a department, Dana can archive one of its finished projects while Priya is away. See How to set who can do what.

A handover only ever raises your stand-in to your level. Anything they could already do on their own stays exactly as it was.

How does your stand-in find what is waiting?

Alerts about a waiting approval still come to you, so ask your stand-in to check Buying › Approvals each day you are away. Everything they are allowed to decide is listed there. See How to route a purchase order for approval.

What stays with you and your admins?

Settings stays with the people who are admins themselves. Your stand-in cannot open it, so members, permissions, integrations and modules wait for an admin. If something there needs doing while you are away, ask another admin.

The handover also leaves these as they are:

• Your channels and direct messages. Your stand-in is not added to anything you belong to. They see the same channels and messages they saw before.
• Their own name. Everything they do is recorded as them, not as you, so an approval shows that Dana decided it.
• Workflows you own. They keep running with your own access while you are away.

Does it get round the approval rules?

No. Your stand-in still cannot approve a request they made, or a purchase order they created, even while covering for you. Someone else has to sign those off. See How to route a purchase order for approval.

Does it pass along a chain?

No. Cover goes one step only. If Priya hands over to Dana and Dana hands over to Sam, Sam covers for Dana with Dana's own standing, not Priya's.

So when you and your stand-in are away at the same time, pick someone who is staying in the office.

How long can it last?

From tomorrow up to 90 days ahead. Pick a date in that range, and the handover ends at 11:59 pm US Central (Chicago) time on that day. The date picker counts "tomorrow" on the same clock.

West of Chicago, such as on the US West Coast, that is before your own midnight, so pick the day you are back. For leave longer than 90 days, set it again before it ends.

Who can set one?

Any member of the workspace, for themselves. No permission is needed, because you can only hand over standing you already hold. Pick a colleague from your own team.

When should you set one?

Before you go, rather than from the airport. Set one whenever you will be away for more than a day and anything waits on you: an approval, a department you lead, or projects only you can change.

If someone is leaving for good, an admin changes their access on the member list instead. See How to add people and set roles.