Contract approvals and being able to skip a user if going in and approving multiple times

Summary:

Users are experiencing issues with contract approvals and being able to skip a user if going in and approving multiple times. Part of this issue is that approvals will lag and show as active resulting in the user going in and approving an additional time which bypassing the next approval. First Approver is using the Notifications either in the Bell or the tiles in the "Things to Finish". These notifications are not going away when viewed and the approval is done. The user goes back to the notification and approves a second time which triggers the next approval.

My business is wanting to have the notification go away immediately following the approval.