How do I check what a change would give people?
To check what a change would give people before it goes live, use Requests: check & go live on Entitlements. Settings → Policies → Request policies opens Entitlements instead of the Preview tab this article describes.
The principle holds wherever you check it: targeting that reads correctly in a builder is regularly wrong against real employee records, so read the report before publishing. See How do entitlements decide what people get?.
Before you begin
You need Admin access and a policy with its required fields filled in. Until then the tab says "Fill in the required fields to preview."
Run a simulation
- Open the policy and go to Preview.
- Choose an employee.
- Read the result.
Reading the result
First, whether the policy reaches them at all:
- Policy matches — this employee is covered
- Policy does not match / Does not apply — they are not
Then what it gives them. The preview lists the services visible to that employee and the roles on each, and splits them two ways:
| Label | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Newly granted | This policy is what makes it available to them |
| Already covered | Another policy already gave them this |
Already covered is the more useful half. A policy whose every line reads "Already covered" is doing nothing, and is a candidate for the superseded warning.
If nothing is visible you get "No services visible to this employee with the current draft" — the policy matches them but grants nothing, usually an empty pick list.
Who to test with
Test at the edges rather than the middle:
- Someone you expect to be covered
- Someone you expect not to be — a wide-open policy is the common mistake
- Someone in a different department or location, if you targeted on either
- A manager, if approval routes to managers
Good to know
Does previewing change anything?
No. It evaluates the draft against a real employee record and shows the outcome. Nothing is granted and the employee is not notified.
Why does the preview differ from what the employee sees?
Two usual causes. The policy is still a Draft, so it is not in effect for anyone yet. Or another policy also matches them, and what they actually see is the combination — access adds up across every matching policy, while the strictest approval governs.
Can I preview for a group rather than a person?
No, one employee at a time. Pick two or three from each group you targeted; the pattern shows up quickly.
The employee has no department or location set
Then any condition on those fields will not match them, and the preview will say so. That is not a preview fault — it is what would happen in production, found early.
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