When an employee is away from work, for example, on a business trip or on vacation leave, it is important to prevent the working process from stopping. This can be easily achieved by assigning a substitute user.
Let’s say your accountant is planning to take a vacation. They start the Leave request process, and the administrator receives a task to assign a substitute user for the duration of the vacation. Once the substitution starts, the accountant's tasks will be reassigned to the substitute user, and other employees will know who to address with their working questions.
Add a substitution
Go to the main page and click Administration > Company > Substitutions.
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Only users included in the Administrators group can add, configure, edit and delete substitutions.
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A page listing all currently active substitutions will open.
To add a new substitution, click +Substitution in the top right corner and fill in the form.
Select the substitution type, specify the Absent and Substitute users, and set the start and end date of the substitution.
There are no limits for a substitution’s duration. It may last for one hour if, for example, the employee is on a meeting but their tasks need to be executed at that time, or for more than a year if the employee is on a long business trip.
Set up the task reassignment options:
- Reassign active tasks. Enable this option to reassign the active tasks assigned to the substituted employee prior to the start of the substitution;
- Reassign tasks when the substitution is finished. Select Yes, to reassign all the tasks back to the substituted employee after the substitution period is over.
These options are not available if you have selected the Inform substitution type.
Substitution types
There are three substitution types in ELMA365: Inform, Reassign tasks, and Grant all access permissions.
- Inform. Other users are informed that the employee is absent and substituted by another person. The substitute user does not get access to the absent user’s tasks but can still solve work issues that do not require accessing the system.
- Reassign tasks. This substitution type includes the Inform type but in addition, the substitute user is assigned with all the tasks and process notifications that the absent user receives.To reassigned also the tasks created before the substitution started, use the Reassign active tasks option.
Consider the following example: an employee draws up a document within the Commercial Proposal business process, sends it to their supervisor for approval and goes on an urgent business trip. The supervisor does not approve the document and sends it back to make some corrections. According to the process flow, the absent employee should receive the task to correct the document. However, since the substitution with task reassignment was set up, the task is assigned to the substitute user. The substitute user corrects the document and sends it for approval once again without delaying the process.
- Grant all access permissions. This substitution type includes the previous two. In addition, the substitute user is granted access to all system objects accessible to the absent user: documents, files, workspaces, and apps. If the substitute user receives a notification or a task containing a link to a calendar event of the absent user, they will also be able to access this event. The only exception is the My Department section to which the access is not granted.
Please note that if a user is granted such access permissions when substituting a system administrator, but is not included in the Administrators group, he or she will not have access to the Administration workspace, to the settings of apps and workspaces, etc.
Consider the following example: the office accountant is on sick leave yet it is time to pay contractor invoices. The payroll clerk is substituting the accountant but does not have access to the Contractors and Invoices apps, which are needed to make the payments. Since the administrator selected the Grant all access permissions option when assigning the substitute, the payroll clerk is automatically given temporary access to these apps and can make all the payments on time.
When selecting the substitution type, we recommend that you refer to the company’s org chart and internal policies.
Working with substitutions
You can view, edit, and delete substitutions, as well as specify how many days prior to the substitution should information about it appear in the system.
View a substitution
The Administration > Substitutions section has four filters that make it easy to find and view substitutions.
- Current. All substitutions currently in effect;
- Upcoming. All scheduled substitutions that have not yet begun;
- Archive. All substitutions that have been completed or interrupted;
- All. All substitutions.
Click on a substitution to open its page with all the information.
Edit or delete a substitution
You can edit a substitution that is already in effect or has not yet started. Open its page and click Edit.
It the substitution has not yet started, you can edit any of the fields: change the users, the substitution type, and the start and end dates.
If the substitution is already in effect, you can only edit the end date and time.
In the same window, you can use the Delete or Interrupt buttons to delete a substitution that has not yet started or interrupt one that is already in effect.
Early notification
By default, users can see that their colleague is absent only from the moment that the substitution starts. However, you might want your employees to be informed in advance in order to be able to work on any urgent issues.
You can set up early notification so that the information about an upcoming substitution appears in the system a certain number of days prior to the substitution.
Open the page with the list of substitutions and click Settings in the top right corner.
In the provided window specify the required number of days.
Please note that these settings will be applied to all upcoming substitutions.
Substitutions in the interface
Let’s take a look at how substitutions are shown in the system’s interface. Next to the name of an absent user, you will see the substitution period and a link to the substitute user’s page. Such information appears on the My Department page or when you, for example, create or view a task or an event.
In messages and group chats the name of the absent user is highlighted. Click on it to view the information about the employee and to see until what date they are absent and who their substitute is.
If the absent user belongs to a group chat and the substitute user does not, other users can add the substitute user to that chat by clicking on the three dots icon next to the absent user’s name.
You can view the list of all users absent on a given day in Company > Absence Schedule. In the same section in the My Substitutions tab, you can see who you are currently substituting.
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