Approval workflows pause automation until a designated user approves or rejects a change — common for discounts, expenses, leave requests, and capital spend.

Please note:

Approvers need both module access and permission to act on the target resource — confirm roles in Roles, permissions, and RBAC and the Roles in Settings UI.

Timeouts and escalations send alerts through the channels described in Notifications overview.

Build the trigger and conditions first in Build your first workflow before adding approval steps.

Approval step options

Setting	Effect	Recommendation
Approver	User or role that must act	Use role for coverage when people are out
Required fields	Block submit until complete	Enforce before approval starts
Timeout	Escalate or auto-reject	Set for SLA-driven processes
Reject action	Return to draft or previous stage	Document for submitters
Notify	Alert approver in-app and email	Enable for time-sensitive items

Keep approval chains short — more than three hops slows operations and hides bottlenecks.

Build an approval workflow

Open Workflows and create or edit a workflow
Set the trigger (for example expense submitted, deal discount above threshold)
Add an Approval action and pick approver type (user, role, manager)
Branch on approve vs reject with follow-up actions (update status, notify submitter)
Activate and test with a non-production record

Approvers need both module access and permission to act on the target resource.

Audit and visibility

Approved and rejected decisions log on the record timeline. Reporting can filter by pending approval age when Use Eye activity or custom dashboards are configured.

flowchart TB
  Submit[Record submitted] --> Check{Meets approval criteria?}
  Check -->|No| Auto[Auto-process or skip]
  Check -->|Yes| Pending[Pending approval]
  Pending --> Decision{Approver decision}
  Decision -->|Approve| Approved[Apply approved actions]
  Decision -->|Reject| Rejected[Notify and revert status]
  Approved --> Done[Complete]
  Rejected --> Done

Document escalation paths in your internal runbook so substitutes know whom to contact when approvers are unavailable.

Automation