Submit a Change Request with a Custom Approval

The article provides a guide on submitting a change request with custom approvals in BambooHR. It explains the purpose of custom approvals, which allows users to set up an approval process for custom fields or tables. Users can initiate a change request by clicking the "Request a Change" button on an employee's profile, provided they have view access. The change request form must be completed and submitted, with required fields determined by the form's settings. Notifications are sent to approvers via inbox and email, informing them of the request. Once a decision is made, the requester receives confirmation. The article also notes that adding employees to certain workflows may grant them access to sensitive information.

Dec 23, 2025
Knowledge

Title

Article Text

How do I submit a change request with a custom approval?

Purpose: A custom approval allows you to set up an approval process for any created custom field or table in your BambooHR account. This guide will teach you how to submit a change request under a custom approval. If you have not set up a custom approval yet, learn how here.

Table of Contents

Would you like to watch a video about this topic?
Request a change

Would you like to watch a video about this topic?

Request a change

If a user is a requester in a custom approval workflow setting, they will see Request a Change on an employee's profile. View access of at least one tab on the employee’s profile is required to access the button. Click Request a Change to choose which type of request you want to initiate.

The change form

Fill out the change request form and click Submit. All pre-built change request templates have required default fields. A template's additional fields or newly created approvals will be required or not required based on the form's settings.

If you are leaving any of the fields the same, they will not be sent for approval. However, you will still see those fields in the employee's updated line of data once approved.

All custom approvals contain a comment box to add a request-related comment for the approvers to see. In a pre-built template, users will see two comment boxes, one for the official change comment to show in the associated history table field and the optional request-related comment.

Change request notification in the inbox

Like a time off and an information update request, the approver(s) will receive a notification about a change request. If applicable, the inbox notification will also reflect that a user has submitted a change request for another user.

Email notification of a change request

The approver(s) will receive an email notification regarding the change request. If applicable, the email notification will also reflect that a user has submitted a change request for another user.

Once an approver approves or denies a change request, the user who requested the change will receive an email confirmation of the approver's decision.

If there are multiple approvers in the workflow, the first approver approves the request then the request goes to the next approver in the workflow. As a Full Admin user, you can override the approval process at any time by going to your inbox in BambooHR and viewing all company-wide tasks.

Note: By adding an employee to some approval workflows, you give them access to sensitive information that they usually do not have access to view. For instance, if a manager does not have access to view an employee's compensation data through access levels, and can submit a compensation update, they will see the employee's current pay rate when they submit a compensation change request.

URL Name

588024