I. Intro

Who can perform these steps: Primary administrators or administrators with Approval management permissions. 

If an approver appears multiple times in the same approval process, you can configure the settings in the Approval admin console so that subsequent approvals are automatically skipped. See below for a description of the different settings available. 

Setting
Description
Remarks
Each approver only needs to approve the first step for which they are responsible—subsequent steps requiring their approval are automatically skipped.
Example: After Kevin approves the first step, subsequent steps requiring his approval are automatically skipped.
This is the default setting.
Only consecutive steps requiring approval from the same approver are automatically skipped.
Example: After Kevin approves the first step, subsequent steps requiring his approval are only automatically skipped if they appear consecutively. Otherwise, these steps will require manual approval.
/
No automatic approval—each step requires manual approval.
The approver must manually approve all steps requiring their approval.
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II. Steps

In the Approval admin console, create a new approval or edit an existing approval, and then go to the More Settings tab.

Next to Approver deduplication, the first option is selected by default. To change the setting, select the desired option and click Publish.

III. Special circumstances

Circumstances
Automatic approval will not take effect even when it's toggled on
Changes to the approval form
Changes to form's content
Automatic approval will not take effect
When changes are made to the form's content, subsequently repeated nodes will require manual approval.
For example, an approver approves a $100 reimbursement. The amount, however, is later changed to $1000. The subsequent nodes of the approval process will then require manual approval from the approver again.
Changes to form's permissions
Automatic approval will not take effect
When changes are made to the form permissions, subsequent nodes will require manual approval.
For example, an approver approves the editing of a field. But, this is later reversed. In this case, subsequent repeated nodes of the approval process will need manual approval from the approver again.
Changes to approval process
Add approver 
All steps require manual approval, even when automatic approval is turned on
When an approver approves a step, and is then subsequently added to other steps, these steps will require manual approval.
Return
All steps require manual approval, even when automatic approval is turned on
When the approval process is returned to the applicant or to a previous step of the process, all subsequent steps that follow will now require manual approval from approvers. 
Manual transfer
All steps require manual approval, even when automatic approval is turned on
When an approver transfers approval responsibility to another person, all subsequent steps requiring the approver’s consent will now require manual approval.
System transfer 
All steps require manual approval, even when automatic approval is turned on
When an approver transfers approval responsibility to another person, all subsequent steps requiring the approver’s consent will now require manual approval.
Handwritten signatures
If required for second-time approval, automatic approval will not take effect
If first-time approval does not require handwritten signatures, but second-time approval does, then the subsequent nodes of the approval process will require manual approval from the approver again.
Note: If first-time approval does require handwritten signature, and second-time approval does not, then automatic approval will take effect.
Approver's comments
If required for second-time approval, automatic approval will not take effect
If first-time approval does not require approver's comments, and second-time approval does, then the subsequent nodes of the approval process will require manual approval from the approver again.
Note: If first-time approval does require approver's comments, and second-time approval does not, then automatic approval will take effect.
The applicant is one of the approvers
The applicant approves their own requests
Automatically approve
The applicant does not need to approve their own requests. Steps requiring their approval will be skipped automatically.