What is the Covering Officer Feature?
The Covering Officer feature lets you temporarily delegate your tasks to another staff member during leave, travel, or other absences. The covering officer can view and act on your pending procurement items, support tickets, and approval tasks on your behalf.
You keep full access to all your tasks. The covering officer simply gains additional visibility so they can act on your behalf. All actions taken are recorded in the audit trail.
Setting Up a Covering
For step-by-step instructions with screenshots, see:
- How can I set someone to cover my duties when I am away? — self-service setup from your account
- How to Set Covering Function for Buyer Admin — admin setup for any staff member
The covering officer must share at least one role with the person being covered. For permanent coverings, check "No End Date (Must be cancelled manually)".
Covering Status
| Status | Meaning | Actions Available |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule | Waiting for start date | Edit, Delete |
| Started | Currently active | Terminate |
| Permanent | Active indefinitely | Terminate |
| Ended | Expired or terminated | None |
Managing Coverings
- Edit: Only available before the covering starts (Schedule status). You can change dates and description, but not the covered user or covering officer.
- Terminate: Ends an active covering immediately. Available for Started and Permanent coverings.
- Delete: Removes a covering that has not yet started.
- Export: Admins can export the covering list to Excel.
Masking
When masking is enabled, emails sent by the covering officer show only the covered user's name — the covering officer's identity is hidden from recipients. Without masking, emails show "Officer Name (covering User Name)". Masking is set at creation and cannot be changed afterwards.
Troubleshooting
- Covering officer cannot see tasks: Check that the covering status is Started or Permanent (not Schedule). Verify the officer shares a role with the covered user. If both are correct, contact your administrator to refresh the system cache.
- Cannot edit a covering: Coverings can only be edited before they start. To change an active covering, terminate it and create a new one.
- Covering officer sees limited documents: Scheduled coverings only show items that are still in progress or were modified after the covering start date. Permanent coverings have no such restriction.