---
title: "What Is a Substitution: Temporary Cover and Handover of Duties"
description: "A reference to substitutions in Vitextra Absence & Coverage: what a substitution is, the two kinds (temporary and handover of duties), the statuses and phases, who creates, accepts and cancels a substitution, how it relates to absence requests, and where substitutions are shown."
url: https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10346
language: en
published: 2026-10-28
modified: 2026-10-28
products:
  - "Absence & Coverage"
author: "Lidija Reising"
tags: ["substitution", "absence substitute", "temporary cover", "handover of duties", "who covers whom", "substitute confirmation", "SharePoint substitution", "Substitutions web part", "Vitextra Absence & Coverage"]
---

# What Is a Substitution: Temporary Cover and Handover of Duties

A reference to substitutions in Vitextra Absence & Coverage: what a substitution is, the two kinds (temporary and handover of duties), the statuses and phases, who creates, accepts and cancels a substitution, how it relates to absence requests, and where substitutions are shown.

## Overview

When someone is away, their work does not stop. A **substitution** is the agreement that somebody else takes it over: it records who is absent, who covers, for which period and — if you wish — which responsibilities pass on. The **Substitutions** web part manages these agreements, and the other web parts of the product build on them: the **Team Absence Calendar** shows who covers whom today, and managers see which absences still have nobody to cover them.

This article is the reference for the concept. It describes the two kinds of substitution, the statuses a substitution goes through, who is allowed to do what, and where you meet substitutions in the product. The step-by-step articles are linked at the end.

---

## What a substitution contains

Every substitution has the same fields:

| Field | Meaning |
|:---|:---|
| **Absent person** | The person who is covered |
| **Substitute** | The person who takes over |
| **Kind of substitution** | **Temporary** or **Handover of duties** |
| **Start date** | The first day of the cover (required) |
| **End date** | The last day of the cover. Required for a temporary substitution, optional for a handover |
| **Responsibilities** | Free text describing what the substitute takes over: tasks, approvals, customers, shared mailboxes… (optional) |
| Status | **Waiting for confirmation**, **Accepted**, **Declined** or **Cancelled** (see below) |

The absent person and the substitute must be two different people; the product refuses a substitution in which they are the same person.

---

## The two kinds

| | Temporary | Handover of duties |
|:---|:---|:---|
| Typical situation | Vacation, sick leave, a business trip | An employee changes position or leaves the company |
| Period | Start and end date | Start date; the end date is optional |
| Without an end date | Not possible | The substitution stays active until it is cancelled |
| Shown as | The period, for example "2 Nov 2026 – 13 Nov 2026" | "from 2 Nov 2026" when there is no end date |

When you choose **Handover of duties** in the panel, the product reminds you: "A handover of duties has no end date unless you set one." Set an end date only if the handover is itself limited in time.

---

## Statuses and phases

A new substitution always starts as **Waiting for confirmation**: nothing is arranged until the substitute agrees. After that it goes one of three ways.

| Status | What it means | Who sets it |
|:---|:---|:---|
| **Waiting for confirmation** | Created, the substitute has not answered yet | Set automatically when the substitution is created |
| **Accepted** | The substitute confirmed the cover | The substitute |
| **Declined** | The substitute refused | The substitute |
| **Cancelled** | The arrangement was withdrawn | The absent person, or the product when the request it belongs to is rejected or cancelled |

For an **Accepted** substitution the status pill shows the **phase** that depends on today's date:

| Phase | When |
|:---|:---|
| **Planned** | The start date is still ahead |
| **In progress** | The start date has come and the end date has not passed (or there is no end date) |
| **Ended** | The end date has passed |

The other statuses are shown by their own text. Cancelled substitutions are not shown anywhere in the web part. A declined substitution stays visible on the **I cover** and **Covering me** tabs, with the **Declined** pill, until its period is over. Ended substitutions leave those two tabs and can be found for another 30 days on the **Who covers whom** tab with the **Ended** filter.

![The I cover tab with substitutions in different statuses and phases](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10346/i-cover-tab-en.png)
*The I cover tab with substitutions in different statuses and phases*

---

## Who does what

| Action | Who | Where |
|:---|:---|:---|
| Create a substitution | Any employee, for any absent person. The default absent person is the signed-in user | **Assign a substitute** button; **Assign** button on a row of the **No substitute** tab |
| Name a substitute in a leave request | The requester | The new request panel of My Absences |
| Accept or decline | Only the substitute, and only while the substitution is **Waiting for confirmation** | **Accept** and **Decline** buttons on the **I cover** tab |
| Cancel | Only the absent person, while the substitution is **Waiting for confirmation** or **Accepted** and has not ended | **Cancel substitution** button |

Two consequences follow from this. A manager who is not the absent person cannot cancel somebody else's substitution in the web part. And once the substitute has accepted or declined, the answer cannot be changed with a button: if the plans change, the absent person cancels the substitution and a new one is created.

❗ **Important**  
The product does not send e-mails or Teams messages. A substitute learns about a new substitution only when they open the Substitutions web part, where the number of substitutions waiting for their answer is shown in the badge on the **I cover** tab. Tell the person yourself that you have named them.

---

## Substitutions and absence requests

A substitution can be tied to an absence request, or it can stand alone.

- **Tied.** If an employee names a substitute in a leave request, a **Temporary** substitution for the same dates is created — at once for a request that needs no approval, otherwise when the approver approves. The same happens when a manager assigns a substitute from a row of the **No substitute** tab. If the request is rejected or cancelled, the substitutions tied to it are cancelled automatically.
- **Standalone.** A substitution created with the **Assign a substitute** button without a gap row has no request behind it. It lives on its own and is not touched when a request changes.

A substitution created together with a request has no text in **Responsibilities**; the absent person can describe the duties by creating the substitution separately. How both objects interact is shown step by step in [KB10350. How Absence Requests and Substitutions Work Together](https://vitextra.com/en/support/kb/10350).

---

## Where substitutions show up

| Place | What it shows |
|:---|:---|
| **Substitutions** web part, **I cover** | Substitutions in which you are the substitute |
| **Substitutions** web part, **Covering me** | Substitutions in which you are the absent person |
| **Substitutions** web part, **Who covers whom** | Everyone's substitutions, searchable, with the filter **Running and planned**, **In progress**, **Planned** or **Ended** |
| **Substitutions** web part, **No substitute** | For managers: approved absences of direct reports that have no accepted substitute |
| **Team Absence Calendar**, **Away today** | "Covered by" next to each person who is away — including substitutes who have not confirmed yet |

Note the difference in the last two rows: the **No substitute** tab counts only **Accepted** substitutions as cover, while **Away today** also names a substitute who is still **Waiting for confirmation**.

![The Who covers whom tab](https://static.vitextra.com/articles/10346/who-covers-whom-tab-en.png)
*The Who covers whom tab*

📝 **Note**  
The Substitutions list is also the source for "who covers X" in the People Connector and for the handover of duties when an employee leaves. A handover without an end date stays active.