Travel approval requests often are blocked when approvers go on leave without manually updating their out-of-office (OoO) status. You can configure Perk to automatically sync OoO dates directly from your HR tool so that any travel approvals are sent automatically to their travel delegate.

When approvers book time off in the HR system, the dates are automatically reflected in Perk. Synced OoO dates appear in the approver’s profile under the Preference tab. These synced dates are read-only. Approvers can’t edit any OoO dates in Perk. To change OoO dates, approvers must update their leave in the HR system.

When you enable automated out-of-office approvals, approvers should make sure they set a travel delegate in their profile to handle any approval requests when they are away.

Approvers can assign any active user (except guests) as a travel delegate. Requests are automatically forwarded to the travel delegate, ensuring all travel requests are approved quickly.

Once the travel delegate is set in the approver’s profile, that person is used for travel requests that occur in all future leave. Approvers can change their default delegate at any time by going to their profile, in Preferences > Travel delegate. As an admin, you can also perform this task.

If an approver hasn’t set a travel delegate and the start date of leave is approaching (i.e. in the next 2 weeks and 3 days), they are prompted via email to set a travel delegate.

If they don’t set a travel delegate and their leave starts, any approval requests are sent to the original approver. Account admins can still approve on behalf of the absent approver from the Trips page.

If you set up Perk to sync out-of-office dates from the HR system, you can’t manually change these dates in Perk. If you want to allow people to edit their out-of-office dates in Perk, then disable this synchronization.

Caution: You can automate out-of-office travel approvals only. Out-of-office dates from your HR tool don’t have any impact on spend approvals. See Assign a delegate to manage your spend.

Enabling OoO sync

An account admin role in Perk and an admin role in the HR system is required to set up the integration.

1. In Perk, go to Settings > Integrations.
2. Search for your HR integration and click Manage.
3. Go to the Settings tab, scroll down to the Sync settings section and click Configure.
4. In Which fields do you want to sync, select Out-of-office, and click Save and sync.
5. In Reconnect to sync out-of-office data, click Reconnect.
6. Click Relink integration.
7. Review the list of permissions Perk requires and click Next. The list now includes time off for out-of-office.
8. Enter the HRIS User ID and Token, then click Next.
9. Review additional fields or skip to finish the setup.

Note: In the HR platform, ensure that the permissions to allow the time off period to be synced are enabled.