SPICA All Hours 5.0: Advanced Approval Workflows and Travel Orders

Advanced Approval Workflow: More Control Over Employee Requests

The new Advanced Approval Workflow module enables organizations to flexibly define and manage approval processes for employee requests.

In many companies, approval is not a simple one-step process. A clocking correction may only require approval from a team leader. A longer absence may require the involvement of HR. A travel order may need approval from both a manager and the finance department. Larger organizations often need approval rules that take into account departments, teams, request types, roles, and internal levels of responsibility.

Advanced Approval Workflow is designed precisely for this organizational reality.

With the new module, organizations can create approval workflows that reflect the actual way decisions are made. This includes multi-level approvals, parallel approvers at the same level, exceptions for specific request types, and automatic approval of selected events.

The module supports workflows for different types of requests, including:

• Clocking,
• absences,
• working time adjustments,
• travel orders,
• other custom request types.

Approvers can add comments when approving or rejecting a request, while employees and managers can track the full request status, including the current stage, previous steps, and upcoming approval steps. Email notifications ensure that request submitters and approvers are kept informed throughout the approval process.

For operators and administrators, the new workflow overview also provides better visibility into pending approvals and possible bottlenecks. This is especially important in organizations where approval delays affect payroll preparation, absence planning, or operational decision-making.

Key Benefits of Advanced Approval Workflow

Approval processes often become inefficient when they rely on email, spreadsheets, manual reminders, or informal communication. Requests can get lost, responsibilities are not clearly defined, and it becomes difficult to determine who approved what, when, and why. Advanced Approval Workflow solves this by bringing more structure, transparency, and traceability into the process.

The practical benefits are clear:

• Clearer responsibility. Each request follows a predefined process, so employees and managers know who is responsible for the next decision.
• Better tracking. Request status is visible throughout the entire process, reducing uncertainty and the need for additional follow-up.
• Greater flexibility. Different types of requests can follow different approval paths.
• Less manual administration. Selected events can be approved automatically when manual review is not required.
• Improved audit traceability. Comments, approval steps, and workflow history provide a clearer record of decisions.

Travel Orders: Business Travel Connected With Time and Attendance

Version 5.0 also introduces travel orders, a new add-on module for managing business travel within SPICA All Hours.

The Travel Orders module helps organizations manage the entire business travel process: from preparing and approving travel orders to adding expenses, archiving documentation, and connecting travel-related events with time and attendance records.

The module supports:

• online and mobile approval of travel orders,
• adding travel expenses and attachments,
• archiving travel order documentation,
• automatic transfer of travel-related events into time and attendance records,
• fleet availability overview and vehicle reservation,
• preparation of data for reimbursements, accounting entries, and statutory reporting, where applicable.

Travel Orders are especially useful for organizations that want to reduce manual work, speed up approvals, and keep business travel connected with attendance records and payroll preparation.

From Travel Requests to Connected and Unified Workforce Records

Business travel often creates administrative fragmentation and a strong need for consistency. Travel orders may be approved in one system or by email, expenses may be collected separately, documentation may be stored in folders, and working time records may need to be adjusted manually after the business trip. This creates unnecessary work for employees, managers, HR, finance, and payroll teams.

The Travel Orders module reduces this fragmentation by connecting business travel with the broader human resource management process in SPICA All Hours. Events related to a business trip can be transferred into time and attendance records, while supporting documentation and expenses remain linked to the individual travel order.

For organizations with field employees, sales teams, service teams, work across multiple locations, or frequent business travel, this can significantly simplify day-to-day administration.

A More Complete Platform for Structured Human Resource Management

SPICA All Hours 5.0 significantly upgrades the solution in the direction of more structured human resource management. It is not only about adding new features, but about improving the way organizations manage responsibilities, exceptions, approvals, and work related to business travel.

The new version is especially relevant for companies that have outgrown simple one-step approval processes and need greater control over how requests move through the organization.

With Advanced Approval Workflow, SPICA All Hours offers organizations a more flexible and transparent approval mechanism. With Travel Orders, it extends workforce management to business travel and related documentation.

Together, these two additions help organizations reduce manual work, improve traceability, accelerate internal processes, and better connect data on working time, attendance, absences, business travel, and payroll preparation.

You can read more in the changelog: https://changelog.allhours.com/