Role-Based Approvers

Remote's approval feature supports role-based approvers. This is an extension of our Multi-Level Approvals engine, designed to make approval workflows more flexible, resilient, and aligned with how organizations structure responsibilities.

With role-based approvers, admins can now assign approval rules to a role (e.g. HR Manager, Finance Approver). Role members whose access level covers the employee are notified, and only one member needs to take action. This helps companies stay compliant while reducing manual work and delays.

• Go to Company Settings → User roles & permissions.
  

• Click Add new role, and add a role name and description.
• Set the Information access level so that it covers the employees whose requests this role will approve (for example, Direct & Indirect Reports, Department Level, or Entire Company). See Information Access Levels below.
• Enable both view and edit permissions for the relevant approval type (e.g., expense management).
• Assign users to the role. A user can belong to multiple roles.

Note: Roles must be created and configured before they can be used in the Approvals Builder.

When creating a role, you must set its Information Access level. This defines what data the role can view or edit inside Remote. For role-based approvers, we recommend one of the following:

Recommended for Role-Based Approvers

• Direct & Indirect Reports: Grants access to all direct reports and their reporting lines.
• Employment Country: Grants access to all employees/contractors in a specific country.
• Department Level: Grants access to all employees/contractors in a specific department.
• Entire Company: Grants access to information for all employees and contractors at the company.

Other Available Options

• Direct Reports Only: Limited to information about the user's own direct reports.
• Legal Entity: Grants access only to employees/contractors assigned to a specific legal entity.
• Billing Legal Entities: Grants access to employees/contractors assigned to a billing entity (for finance/admin use cases).
• Team Members Requests: Grants access to review and act on offboarding, mobility, and employment change requests.

The access level must be broad enough to cover the employees whose requests the role will need to approve. For example, an "Expense Approver" role must have access to the employees who submit expenses.

Each role member is checked separately. A role member only sees, is notified about, and can approve requests from employees inside their own access level. For example, if a role uses Direct & Indirect Reports, each member only sees requests from people in their own reporting line. Being in the same role does not give a member access to the reporting lines of the other members.

People with more than one role. Roles are checked one at a time and are never combined. For a role in a rule, only that role's access level decides who is notified and who can approve. To approve or decline, the person must be using that role (switch roles from the profile menu). Access from their other roles does not count.

If no one in the role has an access level that covers the employee, no one in the role is notified and the request waits at that step. An admin with the Override review requests permission, whose access level covers the employee, can approve or decline it on behalf of the role. To avoid this, make sure at least one role member's access level covers every employee the rule can apply to.

How this differs for people added by name. For expense requests, a person added to a rule by name (not through a role) can see the expense waiting for their review, even if the employee is outside their access level. This starts once the earlier steps in the flow are approved. They can still see expenses they have approved or declined. This gives access to those expenses and the details shown with them, not to the employee's profile.

Learn more in this article: What can the different company users do on Remote?

Each approval event type has its own required permissions. Admins must enable both view and edit permissions for the relevant approval type:

• Expenses → Permission: Expense Management. Required for reviewing and approving expense requests.
• Contract Changes → Permission: Company Management. Required for approving updates to employee contracts (e.g., salary, job title).
• Job Requisitions → Permission: Company Management. Required for approving new job requisitions.
• Other future approval types (e.g., time off) will also have specific permissions that must be enabled once supported.

If the correct permissions are not enabled, users assigned to the role will not see or be able to act on approval requests.

• Go to Workflows → Approvals.
• Create or edit an approval workflow.
• When adding approvers to a rule, search for and select the role you've created.
• Publish the workflow.

Once published, any requests that meet the workflow's conditions will be routed to that role for approval.

• Role members whose access level covers the employee are notified of new requests (via the Things To Do task list). Other members of the role are not notified and do not see the request.
• Only one member needs to take action. Once they approve or decline, the rule is marked complete for the entire role.
• Approvers take action directly in the relevant dashboard (e.g., the Team Expenses Dashboard for expenses).

Example Approval Workflow:

• Rule 1: Direct Manager must approve if expense amount > $100.
• Rule 2: HR Managers role (5 members) must approve after the manager.

Flow: The manager approves first. Then the request is routed to the HR Managers role. All HR Managers whose access level covers the employee are notified (for example, all 5 if the role uses Entire Company). Only one needs to approve.

Example with reporting lines: Every expense goes to a Department Heads role with 7 members. The role uses Direct & Indirect Reports. When an employee submits an expense, only the department heads who have that employee in their reporting line are notified and can approve. The other members of the role do not see it.

• Contract updates: Approvers receive a "Things To Do" task in their dashboard. Clicking the task opens the relevant request for review.
• Expense requests: Approvers see pending expenses in the Team Expenses Dashboard, where they can review details and approve/decline.