What happens if the direct manager and department manager are the same person?

The system handles this case automatically to avoid asking the same person to approve a request more than once. When the system resolves the actual users behind each approval role, if the direct manager and department manager turn out to be the same person, that person only needs to receive and approve the request once, at the first level where they appear. All subsequent levels containing that same person — whether as the sole approver or among a group of approvers — are automatically skipped.

If the skipped level happens to be the final level in the approval chain, the request is immediately finalized once that person approves, with no further action required.

Example: If level 1 is “Direct Manager” and level 2 is “Department Manager,” and John Doe holds both roles, John only approves at level 1. Level 2 is automatically skipped, and the request is finalized right away.