Roles and approvals

Owner: Lena Fischer

Changed on 1 October (ACM-247): the approver role can now be held for one depot. Until then this page said: "Roles apply to the whole organisation. Administrators approve access requests under All requests."

Changed on 22 October (ACM-320): requests waiting on an approver who changes role now follow their depot's approver.

Roles

Role	What it allows	Held for
Administrator	Everything in the portal: people, depots, roles, single sign-on, settings. Sees and decides every request under All requests.	The whole organisation
Approver	Decides the access requests routed to them.	One depot, or the whole organisation
Member	Asks for access; sees their own requests.	The whole organisation

An approver role with no depot covers every depot, as every role did before 1 October. A person who approves for two depots holds two assignments.

People also have a title at each depot (driver, dispatcher, depot manager). Titles describe the job; they don't let anyone approve. At most customers the approver for a depot is its depot manager.

How people get roles

• An administrator gives a role in the portal, and picks the depot for an approver.
• For customers on single sign-on, groups in Entra ID or Okta give roles, applied again at every sign-in. Sign-in replaces only the assignments it made from groups; assignments made in the portal, with their depot, are left alone.
• A role changed in the portal applies at once. One changed in Entra ID or Okta applies at the person's next sign-in.

How a request finds its approver

1. Someone asks for access, with a reason (required since 29 July).
2. identity-service routes it once, when it comes in, to whoever holds the approver's role at the person's home depot. Not the depot the access is for: a driver asking at another depot still goes to their home depot's approver.
3. If nobody holds the role there, the request waits unassigned.
4. Administrators always see it under All requests and can decide it.
5. A depot manager's own request goes to administrators. Nobody can approve their own request.

The approver gets an email and an in-app notice, a reminder after 24 hours, then one a day.

After a decision

• Every decision is kept in the approvals audit log for 400 days, with who decided and when.
• An approved request gives access until an administrator or the depot manager removes it. Approvals have no end date.
• A request nobody decides closes after 14 days. Nobody is told.

When an approver changes role

Since 22 October: when a depot's approver changes role, the requests waiting on them go to whoever approves for that depot now. If nobody does, they go to the customer's administrators with the line "No approver at this depot". Each moved request shows who it waited on before and when it moved, and the new approver gets one email listing what moved to them.

Before that, waiting requests kept waiting on the person who had changed role (Brakeline's Leeds depot, SUP-1184, ACM-256).

Not available

• Regional managers approving for their region: postponed on 27 August.
• Deputies while a manager is away: "Approval delegation while away" is an idea.
• Approvals that end, for example after one shift: "One-shift access for agency drivers" is being shaped.
• Approving from the notice email: approved, not started.

Change history

Version	Date	Who	What
1	9 May 2023	Rafael	Three roles for the whole organisation; administrators approve under All requests
3	15 Apr 2024	Marek	Roles from Entra ID groups at every sign-in; assignments made in the portal kept
5	23 Mar 2026	Rafael	Brakeline on Entra ID; their groups name jobs, not depots
6	29 Jul 2026	Lena	Reason required; request bundles
7	13 Aug 2026	Lena	Reminders; audit log
8	1 Oct 2026	Lena	Approver role per depot (ACM-247): routing, own requests, sign-in keeps the depot
9	22 Oct 2026	Lena	Waiting requests follow their depot's approver (ACM-320); 14-day close; home depot routing