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Basic concepts > Requests and Approvals

# Requests and Approvals

Unless you request an item or service that has an automatic approval, like a password reset, most requests must go through an approval process. The approval process depends on the administrative workflow defined within Service Manager. Service Request Catalog displays the current status of each request as it moves through the approval workflow.

Request Now

The Request Now feature enables you to request an item or service quickly. After you supply the initial request information, and choose available options, click Request Now to proceed directly to the submission process.

To order one item, provide order and option details, and click Request Now. If you want to order multiple items, click Add to Cart. When you collect a number of saved items, you can submit them later, or submit them in a single request.

Tip: Use Request Now to order items separately that might require different approval levels. If the item is part of a larger request, you may delay fulfillment of some items that require no approval while the other items are pending more levels of approval. For example, you might want to order a new laptop, an auxiliary monitor, and a password change. The password change requires no approval, but the hardware request requires two levels of administrative approval. To expedite the password change, use Request Now.

A request for another person

Sometimes employees cannot complete the request process for themselves. For example, a manager needs to request new hardware, but will be away on a business trip. The manager would like the equipment to arrive before he returns to the office. He asks his administrative assistant to order the equipment on his behalf.

The manager is the request owner, but the assistant is empowered to order on behalf of the manager. Service Manager calls this functionality "request on behalf of."

An approval

There are two types of approval: request level approval and line item approval for each item in a request.

For request level approval, all items in a request can be approved by one person. For example, a request for office supplies might have several items in the request, but it requires only one person to approve all of them. Request level approval may also require more than one person to approve the entire request. If you request an item that costs less than a certain amount, it may require no approval. For a more expensive item, your department manager may have to approve it. For a new application or large piece of equipment, a higher level of approval may also be required.

Line item approval is more complex. A request can contain items that need to be approved by different people. For example, a request that contains line items for hardware upgrades, access to code repositories, and a special order might require line item approval from managers with different budgets or domain expertise. It is important to know that the entire request is not approved until all line items are approved by all assigned approvers.

Approval delegation

If you are a designated approver, you can delegate the authority to approve when you are unavailable. For example, if you have the authority to approve the purchase of ergonomic equipment, but you will be out of the office for a two-week vacation, you can delegate your approval rights temporarily to another person in your department. They will have the approvals that you normally see routed to their approval inbox in your absence, but you will also see them the next time you review your approval inbox.

You can create, view, edit, and delete delegated approvals in the Service Request Catalog application. You can delegate approval rights to another person who can be a request level approver or a line item approver.

The Service Request Catalog application interface for approval delegation enables you to complete these tasks:

- Assign approval rights on your behalf to another person.
- Create time boundaries for approval delegation. For example, if you plan on a vacation, you can designate a colleague to approve requests on your behalf. Your pending approvals will appear in their in-box for the period that you specify.
- View all your approval delegations in a list.
- Make changes to a delegation. Change the beginning or end time, or change the approval delegate.
- Delete an approval delegation.

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