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In this article you will learn the basics of managing Microsoft 365 Group calendar that has been set up with the event request approval workflow. This system is most often used for keeping track of time off/vacation and sick leave requests.
The main topics that will be covered are;
- When an event is requested
- Calendar Manager bypass
- Special bypass words
- Approval Time out
When an event is requested
When an employee enters an event in this calendar, following the instructions at the end of this section, a workflow starts that will send an ‘Approval’ email automatically to the person listed as their manager which containing the title, start, and end date of the calendar event then can be approved or rejected along with optional comments. The results of this response as well as the comments will be sent to the event requestor along with the comments if any. If the event is approved it will remain on the calendar, if it is rejected it will automatically be removed.
Once the approval workflow has started an email will be sent to the approver. If the ‘Approval App’ has been installed in Microsoft Teams the approver will also receive a notification, the approval can be completed in either location the other location will automatically be updated with the choice.
Add Approval to Teams
Employee instructions
Using the Old Outlook Client to request vacation or sick leave with a M365 group calendar
Using the New or Web Outlook Client to request vacation or sick leave with a M365 group calendar
Using a phone Outlook Client to request vacation or sick leave with a M365 group calendar
Calendar Manager bypass
If an event has the ‘Calendar Manager’ listed as the attendee for an event request, then an approval workflow will not be created and the event will remain on the calendar.
Special bypass words
If there are special events where the calendar manager would not like the approval workflow to be run on but will still to be listed on the group calendar, then specific words can be requested that when added to the end of an event title. If you are a calendar manager and would like to add or remove items from your calendars bypass list, please submit an incident request to the IT help desk who will redirect it to the SLCC Microsoft 365 team where the words will be added or removed from this list. By default there are only two of these special cases ‘SLCC Open’ and ‘SLCC Closed’ to add holidays and campus closures to the calendar.
Approval Time out
It is very important to complete approval request in a timely fashion. Part of the workflow will send reminder emails at regular intervals every few days until a maximum time is reached. If an approval is not completed before the time out is reached then the flow will delete the request from the calendar and send an email to the requestor that their event has been removed.