Referenced users

Referenced users assume the responsibilities of other users during certain occasions. There are two types of referenced users: alternate users and delegate users.

Alternates are employees who assume a user’s role on days when the user is not scheduled to work, such as when the user is on vacation, has a long-term absence, or has a day off. Alternate users perform the required tasks, such as approving requests that are sent through the workflow and performing timesheet functions, in the event that the user is not at work. An alternate user can perform all the original user’s interactions. You cannot define different alternate users for different interactions.

Delegate users are employees who assume a user’s role on all occasions, regardless of whether the user is scheduled to work. Different delegate users can be defined for different interactions.

Note: Alternates and delegates can only be used to assume the responsibilities of another user in the routing of business objects (workflows). They are not supported in the Time Off Planner or in other areas of the application.

When creating referenced users, you can select either a specific person or a role. When you select a role, the alternate or delegate user is not a specific person, but are users who fulfill a specific role. You must select a role that is higher in the team-level security hierarchy. For example, you could create a referenced user for Glen, a supervisor, so that, when he is off, the timesheets of the employees who report to him are still reviewed and approved. You could reference the Manager role as Glen’s alternate user so that the user who fulfills the Manager role above Glen in the team-level security hierarchy can act as his referenced user.

A user's availability for alternates and delegates is defined by the parameters:

  • system/workbrain_parameters/bo_check_presence_scheduled

    If set to true, the schedule of the user will be checked for availability. If the user is not scheduled, the user is not available. The default setting is false.

  • system/workbrain_parameters/bo_check_presence_lta

    If set to true, users will not be available if they have an LTA on the date of routing. The default setting is true.

For example:

  1. A user selects Julia to act as an alternate between 07/01/2013 and 12/31/2013.
  2. Between 07/01/2013 and 12/31/2013, whenever the user is not scheduled to work or is on a long-term absence, all workflow requests that are addressed to the user are automatically routed to Julia.
  3. The user has also selected the Supervisor in the team above her own in the Or to this Role field to act as her delegate in her Payroll role for an indefinite period. An indefinite period is defined as 01/01/1900 to 01/01/3000.