How proposers, approvers, and assignments work
The approval structure in a cycle has three layers:
Proposers - the people who fill out and submit compensation recommendations (usually direct managers or heads of department depending on the organization)
Approvers - the people who review and approve, reject, or edit those recommendations (there can be multiple approvers, usually the proposer's manager is the most direct and then it rolls up the org chart)
Assignments - the link between them: each proposer is assigned to an approver, and approvers can be nested under other approvers to create a multi-level approval chain
Think of it as a tree. Proposers are at the bottom, their approver is one level up, and that approver can roll up to another approver above them - all the way to the top-level approver(s).
A person can also serve as both a proposer and an approver (e.g., a mid-level manager who proposes for their directs and approves for others).
All changes are made from Your cycle → Setup → Approval structure.
Proposers
Adding a proposer
Click Manage proposers to open the drawer
Use the Add proposer dropdown at the bottom - search for and select the person
They'll appear as unassigned (warning icon) - use the Approver dropdown next to their name to assign them to an approver
Every proposer must be assigned to an approver, or they won't have anyone to submit proposals to.
Updating or reassigning a proposer
Click on the proposer's name in the approval structure to open the manage drawer
You'll see their current approver under Assigned to
Use the Re-assign to dropdown to pick a different approver
Tip: select multiple proposers via checkboxes to bulk-reassign them all at once.
Removing a proposer
Click on the proposer's name in the approval structure
Click Remove at the bottom of the drawer, then confirm
You can also bulk-remove by selecting multiple proposers with checkboxes. Removing a proposer removes their budget and assignment from the cycle, so double-check coverage before doing it.
Empty approval levels after removing a proposer: When you remove a proposer from an approver, that approver may be left with no proposers (or other approvers) rolling up to them. This means they'll have an empty approval level — they'll still appear in the approval structure but won't have any proposals to review. After removing a proposer, check whether their approver still has other proposers assigned. If not, either assign new proposers to that approver or remove the approver entirely to keep your structure clean.
Approvers
Adding an approver
Click Manage approvers to open the drawer
Add the person as a new approver
They'll default to Top-level (no one above them)
Use the Assigned to dropdown to nest them under another approver if needed
Empty approval levels: If you add someone as an approver but no proposers are assigned to them, they'll have an empty approval level — meaning they won't see any proposals to review. This isn't harmful, but it can be confusing. After making changes, scan your approval structure to make sure every approver actually has proposers (or other approvers) rolling up to them. If an approver has nothing assigned, either assign proposers to them or remove them to keep things clean.
Updating or reassigning an approver
Open the Manage approvers drawer
Each approver has an Assigned to column - change the dropdown to reassign them to a different parent approver, or set them as Top-level
You can bulk-select and bulk-reassign approvers too.
Removing an approver
Open the Manage approvers drawer
Select the approver(s) using the checkboxes
Click Remove X approver(s) and confirm
Any proposers assigned to the removed approver will become unassigned, so you'll need to reassign them afterward.
Tips and things to watch out for
Always check for unassigned proposers after making changes - the UI shows a warning count at the top
Manager changes in your employee data do not auto-update the approval structure. You need to update it manually in the cycle
Order of operations when restructuring: add new approvers first, reassign proposers, then remove old approvers (this avoids orphaning proposers)
The person must be an active employee to be added as either role