Approval chains define the ordered sequence of reviewers (called planners) for each employee's compensation decisions. Every employee must have a chain before planning windows can be generated.

Approval chains define the ordered sequence of reviewers (called planners) for each employee's compensation decisions. Every employee must have a chain before planning windows can be generated.


 ![image.png](https://support.pave.com/api/attachments.redirect?id=dcc652b9-bb6b-4e28-92d0-b434802349df " =1624x847")



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**How approval chains work**

Each employee's chain lists their reviewers in order. Planner 1 reviews first, Planner 2 reviews next, and so on. The chain controls who can see and act on that employee's worksheet row during the cycle. The number of planner columns in the table expands dynamically to match the longest chain in your data.


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**Step 1: Generate your initial chains**

If no chains exist yet, click **Generate Approval Chains**. Pave will build an initial set based on your HRIS management chains, following each employee's reporting line.

Generation runs as a background job. While it is in progress, the button shows "Generating Approval Chains" and a tooltip reads "Approval chains are currently being generated. This may take a few minutes." All other actions (uploading, regenerating, and bulk edits) are disabled until generation finishes.

After generation completes, the table populates with all employees and their chains.


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**Viewing and searching chains**

The table shows: Employee (name and title), Status, Department, and one column per planner position (Planner 1, Planner 2, etc.).

Use the search bar to find employees by name. Use the filter controls to narrow by Department or by a specific planner in any position.


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**Editing chains via CSV**

To make bulk edits to chains:


1. Click **Download current CSV** in the table toolbar. Generation runs as a background job. A toast notification appears immediately saying the file is being prepared, and a download link appears in the notification (and is also emailed to you) when ready.
2. Edit the CSV following its embedded instructions.
3. Click **Upload new CSV** to open the import flow. Pave uses a validation tool that lets you review and fix any data issues before committing the changes. Once you confirm, the import runs in the background and you will receive an email when it completes.

The upload only updates chains for employees included in the CSV. Employees you omit keep their existing chains unchanged. Rows are not deleted if left out.

Upload is disabled when the cycle is finalized or when chains are currently being generated. Hovering the disabled button shows the reason.


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**Bulk edits from the table**

Select one or more employees using the row checkboxes to access bulk actions. Three options appear in the toolbar:

**Replace planner:** Swap one specific planner for another across all selected employees' chains. You specify the planner to replace and the replacement. Both fields are required before you can confirm.

**Remove planners:** Remove one or more planners from all selected chains. You can specify multiple planners to remove at once.

**Add planner:** Insert a new planner into all selected chains. In addition to choosing the planner, you choose where to insert them: **Beginning of chains** or **End of chains**.

After confirming any bulk action, Pave pre-populates a CSV with the requested changes and opens the same validation import flow used for manual CSV uploads. You review the changes before they are saved.

Bulk actions are not available while chains are being generated.


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**Regenerating chains**

**Regenerate approval chains** (in the table toolbar) re-runs the HRIS-based generation from scratch. This permanently resets every chain to reflect the original management structure. All custom edits are lost.

A confirmation modal appears before anything changes. The modal title reads "Are you sure you want to regenerate approval chains?" and the body states: "Regenerating approval chains will permanently reset them to reflect original management chains." Click **Confirm** to proceed or **Cancel** to abort.

Regeneration is disabled when the cycle is finalized or when chains are currently being generated.


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**Things to know: chains and planning windows**

If you have already generated planning windows, a warning banner appears on this page: "Approval chain updates don't automatically adjust planner assignments in planning windows. Make any corresponding changes to planning windows if needed."

Changes to approval chains after planning windows are generated do not automatically propagate. You must update planning windows separately if the planner assignments there need to match.


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**Finalized cycles**

Once a cycle is finalized, uploading a new CSV and regenerating chains are both disabled. Downloading the current CSV and viewing chains remain available.

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