Approval workflow

An approval workflow decides which quotes a rep can send on their own authority and which need someone else to agree first. Typical triggers:

• Discount beyond a threshold — 15% to the manager, 25% to the VP, 40% to the CFO.
• Non-standard payment terms — net 90 instead of net 30.
• Custom legal terms or redlined clauses.
• Multi-year commitments, ramps, or unusual minimum commitments.
• Contract values above a stated ceiling.

The point is speed, not control

Approval workflows are usually introduced as a governance measure and end up justified by cycle time. A well-designed one is faster than the alternative, because the alternative is a rep messaging three people on Slack and waiting for whoever answers.

The design principles that make that true:

• Most quotes should need no approval. If every deal is escalated, the thresholds are wrong and the process becomes a rubber stamp.
• Approvals should be parallel where possible, not a serial chain of five people.
• The approver needs the context in the request — what is being discounted, from what, why, and what the resulting margin is.
• There must be an audit trail. Who approved what, when, and on what basis.

The measurable payoff

Beyond cycle time, approval workflows produce the discount data most companies otherwise lack. Once every non-standard term passes through a recorded decision, you can answer what your average realised discount is by segment, by rep, and by quarter — and how much of the discounting was ever actually approved.

That last question is uncomfortable the first time it is asked, which is usually the point at which a company decides to implement one.