Proposal Approval Workflow
Enable internal approval so proposals are reviewed and signed off by a manager before they reach clients.
What you'll learn
- ✓Enabling the approval workflow in Settings
- ✓How to submit a proposal for manager approval
- ✓The manager review process and internal comments
- ✓Understanding approval statuses (pending, approved, rejected)
- ✓What happens to a proposal after approval or rejection
Enable approval in Settings
Go to Settings from the sidebar and open the "Proposals" tab. Toggle on "Require approval before sending". Once enabled, any proposal created by a Sales role member must be approved by an Admin or Owner before it can be sent to a client. Owners and Admins can send proposals directly without going through the approval flow.
Pro tip: Enable approval when you have a sales team creating proposals — it gives managers a quality gate before anything reaches clients.
Submit a proposal for approval
When a Sales team member finishes building a proposal, they click "Submit for Approval" instead of "Send". This locks the proposal from further editing and changes its status to "Pending Approval". The proposal appears in the manager's approval queue immediately. The submitting team member can add an optional note explaining anything the reviewer should know.
Manager reviews the proposal
Managers (Admins and Owners) see a notification in the app and an email alert when a proposal enters their approval queue. They open the proposal in full read-only view — all line items, pricing, terms, inclusions, exclusions, and totals are visible. The manager can also download the PDF preview to see exactly what the client would receive.
Pro tip: Review the proposal total, payment terms, and T&C carefully — these are the three areas that most often need adjustment before a proposal should go to a client.
Leave internal comments
In the approval panel on the right side of the proposal, managers can leave internal comments visible only to the team — not to the client. Use comments to explain what needs changing: "Reduce the discount to 10% max" or "Add the outdoor generator exclusion to the terms". The submitter sees these comments immediately and can unlock the proposal to make edits.
Approve or reject
After reviewing, the manager clicks "Approve" or "Reject". Approving unlocks the Send button for the submitter — they receive a notification that the proposal is cleared to go. Rejecting sends the proposal back to Draft status with the manager's comments visible, so the submitter knows exactly what to fix before resubmitting.
Approval statuses at a glance
Proposals in the approval workflow show one of four statuses on the proposals list: Draft (not yet submitted), Pending Approval (waiting for manager review), Approved (cleared to send), or Rejected (sent back for revision). Filter the proposals list by status to see your full approval queue at once. Approved proposals that have been sent then follow the normal Sent → Viewed → Won/Lost flow.
Pro tip: Set a team norm for approval turnaround time — 4 business hours is a common target. Slow approvals can delay time-sensitive event quotes.