An agent prepares a customer credit, sends it for approval, and waits. The approver is on leave. Three days later the customer asks for an update and the team discovers the evidence was ready and no substitute had been named. The approval step had a recipient and no operating plan.

A Power Platform Community question asks about reassigning an approval after an unanswered period when the original reviewer is away. The business need is a valid decision without widening who can make it.

Define the substitute before the request stalls#

For each approval class, identify a primary role and an authorized substitute, which can depend on amount, customer, business unit, or conflict of interest. A manager is not automatically authorized to approve everything a direct report can.

In one workflow, credits below a stated amount go to a customer success lead, with a designated finance partner as backup, and larger amounts need a different role. The agent retrieves the applicable rule and proposes the correct route instead of searching for the most responsive executive and assuming seniority settles authority.

Set a response target that reflects the work. The target tells the workflow when to remind or reroute, and silence never counts as approval. Customer urgency can justify escalation through the agreed process and supplies no missing decision.

Preserve a reviewable package#

The request contains the exact proposed action, its target, the supporting evidence, the reason it needs approval, and any time-sensitive facts, so a substitute can decide without reading the whole conversation.

While the reviewer is out, the request waits with its full package attached.

Event	Agent's useful next step	Decision that remains human
Primary reviewer is unavailable	Route to the configured substitute	Approve or deny the action
Response target passes	Send one meaningful escalation	Whether an exception is justified
Supporting amount changes	Prepare a revised request	Approval of the new amount
Customer cancels the request	Cancel the pending proposal	Any separate customer response

Keep independent preparation moving. While approval is pending, the agent can collect a missing invoice, verify the customer identity, and draft the response, provided those steps are authorized, and it holds no unrelated team work.

Avoid two live approvals for different versions#

When rerouting, decide what happens to the old request. A reviewer returning from leave must not be able to approve an obsolete proposal that the substitute already denied or replaced, so keep the version and status visible in the decision history and the review surface.

A community report about timeout behavior describes reviewers believing they had acted after a workflow step had timed out. Test the reviewer experience in your own system: the request's visible state should agree with what execution accepts.

If a decision arrives after the business facts changed, recheck the proposed action before execution, since approval of yesterday's amount is not approval of today's. Show the difference so the reviewer need not reread unchanged material.

Test absence and return#

Test a low-impact action with the primary approver unavailable. Verify the reminder, substitute route, old-request status, and final action. Then bring the original reviewer back and try the old request; the workflow should show whether it is still active.

Also test denial, cancellation, and a changed action during the wait; these show whether the process manages a real decision or waits for an approval-shaped message. Keep the outcome unknown if the execution result cannot be established; approval and completion are separate facts.

Measure waiting time by cause. Missing evidence, unclear ownership, and an absent authorized reviewer need different fixes, and broader agent permissions repair none of them.

Tell the requester who now owns the decision and when to expect a response. Avoid parallel requests to everyone who could approve; they create conflicting decisions. If the configured substitute is also unavailable, report the missing authorized role so the process owner can resolve coverage.

Deixic's approval workflow covers review of sensitive routed actions for your existing agent. Use decision and action history to inspect what was authorized and what followed.