# Choose who approves a step of the circuit

> In Weplanify, choose who approves a step: the manager, the head of a site or a department, specific people, or a different person depending on rules.

- Product: Weplanify (https://weplanify.io)
- Section: Approvals & automations
- Web page: https://weplanify.io/docs/validations.responsable?lang=en
- Other language: https://weplanify.io/docs/validations.responsable.md
- Last updated: 2026-09-30

In Weplanify, the **Who approves?** part of a step's panel designates the approver. The approvers offered depend on who answers:

- **an employee, for themselves** (leave, expense claims and advances included): their manager, the head of their department or site, specific people, or based on rules;
- **an employee, about another person**: the concerned person's manager, the head of their department or site, specific people;
- **an answer about a site**: the site's manager, specific people;
- **an answer through the public link**: specific people, or the manager of a site chosen in the answer.

![Who approves?: two specific people, the first to answer decides](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/weplanify/o/docs%2Fvalidations%2Fmaj-2026-09-28%2Fva-qui-valide-93b1bdfe.webp?alt=media&token=65882f9e-37c9-4b70-9c20-f13f66ab37f4)

## Steps

1. Click the step, then choose an option under **Who approves?**.
2. For **The manager of a site**, say where the site comes from: **The employee's main site**, or a Site question of the form.
3. For **One or more specific people**, choose the people; from two people on, choose **The first to answer decides** or **Everyone must approve**.
4. For **Based on rules**, click **Edit rules**, add a condition and the person under **Then approves**, then **Apply**.
5. Click **Save**.

![A form opened through a public link: the manager step is flagged as a validator impossible for this form](https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/weplanify/o/docs%2Fvalidations%2Fmaj-2026-09-28%2Fva-incoherent-4521b8e6.webp?alt=media&token=013791fd-fccf-42fb-ac81-f530e2cecc07)

## Good to know

- A step whose approver does not exist for this form, for example the manager once a public link is open, is flagged **Validator impossible for this form**: until it is fixed, saving and publishing are blocked.
- The manager is the one on the [employee record](https://weplanify.io/docs/employes.fiche?lang=en), the department head follows the [org chart](https://weplanify.io/docs/employes.organigramme?lang=en), a site's supervisors are set in [Sites](https://weplanify.io/docs/configuration.sites?lang=en).
- Everyone asked receives the request; with **Everyone must approve**, a single refusal rejects it. Without an approver, the request goes to the [substitute](https://weplanify.io/docs/validations.remplacant?lang=en).

## Related guides

- [The employee record](https://weplanify.io/docs/employes.fiche?lang=en) — In Weplanify, the employee record brings together everything about a person in five tabs, with sections that you edit one at a time, separately.
- [The company org chart](https://weplanify.io/docs/employes.organigramme?lang=en) — In Weplanify, the org chart shows who reports to whom, by manager, by team or by site, and lets you change a person's manager in a single click.
- [Create and set up a site](https://weplanify.io/docs/configuration.sites?lang=en) — In Weplanify, declare your workplaces, their geolocation clock-in area, their time zone and their own overtime rules, one site at a time here.
- [Choose a substitute and people in copy](https://weplanify.io/docs/validations.remplacant?lang=en) — In Weplanify, a substitute approves instead of an absent, silent or missing approver; people in copy follow every request and decision without approving.
- [Configure an approval circuit](https://weplanify.io/docs/validations.circuit?lang=en) — In Weplanify, build the approval steps of a leave request, an expense, an advance or a form: the order, the name, the approver and when each step applies.
- [Choose who approves absences](https://weplanify.io/docs/absences.circuit-de-validation?lang=en) — In Weplanify, the leave circuit says who receives each absence request, in which order, under which conditions, and who stands in for an absent approver.
- [Link each response to an employee or a site](https://weplanify.io/docs/formulaires.sujet?lang=en) — In Weplanify, link each response of a form to an employee or a site: for an evaluation, an inspection or an incident report written on the ground.
- [Test an approval circuit before using it](https://weplanify.io/docs/validations.tester?lang=en) — In Weplanify, pick an employee and describe a request (duration, site, amount) to see, step by step, who will approve it, without sending anything.