T&A Auto Approval Exceptions

Overview

Talexio's automated approval functionality streamlines your time and attendance exception preparation by automatically approving cases where the shift and the clocking match. To understand the primary setup requirements for this feature, please refer to our main guide on Auto-approve clockings for Time & Attendance.

However, there are specific scenarios where the system will intentionally skip auto-approval to prevent inaccuracies. In these cases, the shift must be reviewed and approved manually. This article outlines all the reasons a shift may be skipped, classified by operational level.

1. Client & System Level Exceptions

These issues occur at the highest configuration level and will halt auto-approvals for all shifts across the entire client account:

Auto-Approval Disabled: The global auto-approval setting is not switched on for the client account.
Processing Error: An unexpected system error occurs while processing the client's shift calculations.

2. Shift-Level Validation Pre-Checks

Before evaluating actual clocking times, the system runs a series of basic health checks on the shift record itself. Auto-approval is skipped if:

The shift is un-published.
The shift has already been approved.
The shift has no clockings linked to it.
The shift type is set to something other than Fixed Shift or Flexible Shift.
The shift is unapproved after it had previously been approved.

3. Employee & Position Configurations

A shift will bypass auto-approval if the assigned employee profile or their job position is not properly configured for Time & Attendance tracking:

There is no employee assigned to the scheduled shift.
No active employee position is found for the employee on that specific shift date.
The employee's active position has the Hide from Approval Step option enabled.
The employee's active position does not have the Time & Attendance Enabled checkbox ticked.

4. Clocking Anomalies & Hours Discrepancies

When clocking data deviates from standard parameters, the system leaves validation open for manual oversight:

Ongoing or Broken Clocking: An employee is still clocked in, or the data is missing a matching punch (missing a clock-in or a clock-out).
Outside Tolerance (Fixed Shifts Only): A raw clocking timestamp falls outside the allowed start/end buffer. The calculation is evaluated as:

FROM = Shift Start - Tolerance Time
TO = Shift End + Tolerance Time
Overtime: The employee has clocked hours that qualify as overtime.
Lateness Restrictions: The employee clocked in late and either no automatic lateness leave type is configured, or the shift has a Lateness Penalty Template assigned to it.
Excessive Missing Hours: The employee's unworked missing hours exceed your company's established tolerance settings.

Clockings on Public Holidays: If a shift falls on a public holiday, and the employee's job schedule excludes public holidays, missing hours can cause a skip. If the missing hours fall within the tolerance window, the shift will still auto-approve (the gap is tolerated without booking leave). However, if the missing hours exceed the tolerance, the system cannot automatically book leave on a public holiday for an employee with no public holiday work schedule.

5. Automated Leave Booking Failures

When an employee has missing hours that exceed the tolerance limits, the auto-approval engine will attempt to automatically book an unworked/absence leave record to bridge the gap. Auto-approval will be skipped if this leave creation fails:

The automated leave type fails validation rules (e.g., it causes an overlapping leave conflict or the employee has an insufficient leave balance).
The automated request is submitted, but no leave records are generated by the system.
An unexpected processing error occurs during the leave record creation process.

In instances where automated leave allocation fails, the shift itself is skipped and leaves the shift status as pending Exception for manual verification.