# Approve or decline nominations

> Go to To-Do List → My Approval, open a nomination with View, then approve or decline it. Approving the last level gives the points; a decline can't be undone.

- Product: Recognition › Lead your team
- Who can do this: Approvers, Delegates with approve awards permissions
- Plan: Recognition
- Where: Vantage Circle web app
- Last checked: 15 Oct 2026
- Web page: https://www.vantagecircle.com/en/help/recognition/lead-your-team/approve-or-decline-nominations/

You see this if you approve nominations for one or more awards, or if someone has asked you to approve on their behalf. In the left panel of your Recognition home page, open **To-Do List** and select **My Approval**. A number next to **To-Do List** shows how many nominations are waiting.

If you approve for someone else, you're first asked to **Select an account to continue**. Choose **Myself** or the person you're standing in for.

The page has three tabs: **Pending Approvals**, **Previously Approved** and **Previously Declined**. Each row shows the date, the **Award Name**, who it's **Allocated To**, who it was **Nominated By**, and a **View** link.

## Approve a nomination

1. Select **View** to read the nomination. You'll see the nomination date, the **Award Visibility**, any values and justification, attachments, and the points each person gets in their country's currency.
   - For awards with more than one approval level, **Approval Status for Nominees:** shows who has approved and who it's **Pending with:**.
2. Select **Approve**, or the tick in the row. Check the message and select **Approve** again.
   - If your company lets approvers change points, you'll see **Edit** instead. Choose a new amount for each person, then select **Save & Approve**.

To approve several at once, tick their boxes and select **Approve All**. If all go through, you'll see "Well Done! All selected nominations are successfully approved".

## Decline a nomination

1. Select **Decline** in the nomination, or the cross in the row.
2. Write a **Reason**. Most companies ask for at least 25 characters, and the box takes up to 500.
3. Select **Proceed**.

To decline several at once, tick them and select **Decline All**. The one reason goes with all of them.

## What happens next

**If there's another approval level,** the nomination moves on. You'll see "The approval request has been sent to" followed by the next approver's name.

**At the last approval,** the people nominated get their points and a notification. The award also appears on the feed unless it's private. If your company uses budgets, this is when the points come out of one.

**When you decline,** the person who nominated gets an email titled "Your nomination for '<award name>' award has been declined", with your reason. If you're a second- or third-level approver, the earlier approvers get it too. The people who were nominated aren't told. Any award quota used for the nomination is given back.

A decline can't be undone, and an approved award can't be declined.

**Download pdf** and **Download csv** save the list on the tab you're on.

## If something goes wrong

**"Insufficient budget for ->>"** followed by names: the budget doesn't have enough points in those people's countries. Ask your HR team to add budget, or see [Ask for more budget or award quota](/en/help/recognition/lead-your-team/ask-for-more-budget-or-quota/).

**"Sorry, you do not have sufficient award quota!"** Your approval quota for this award is used up. Use **Request Quota** on your quota card.

**"This CSV award can be approved from dashboard only."** Your HR admin uploaded this award from a file. An admin has to approve it.

**"Decline reason must be at least 25 characters long."** Add more detail and try again.

**"Please provide a valid, descriptive reason for declining."** The reason needs real words. A row of the same letter, or only a few different characters, is rejected.

**"Already approved."** or **"Award already declined."** Someone else acted on it first. Refresh the page.

**"Uh oh! Not all nominations could be approved."** None of the selected nominations went through. If only some failed, the message says how many were approved and how many weren't. Open the ones still under **Pending Approvals** one at a time to see why.

**Older nominations show "(from previous system)".** These came from your company's earlier system and have no **View** link.