ApproveThis manages your Fillout Forms Integration approvals.

Why Your Approval Process Needs This Integration

Let’s cut to the chase: approvals suck when you’re manually forwarding form submissions through Slack threads or CC’ing six managers who’ll “get to it later.” ApproveThis and Fillout Forms fix this by turning form responses into actionable approval workflows that actually move at business speed. We’re talking about eliminating the whole “Hey, did you see that form I sent?” follow-up culture.

Fillout handles the data collection – expense reports, contract requests, purchase orders – while ApproveThis handles the decision-making logistics. Together, they create closed-loop processes where submissions automatically trigger approvals, and approvals automatically trigger next steps. No more lost requests. No more guessing games.

How It Works (Without the Tech Jargon)

Zapier acts as the bridge between the two tools. When someone submits a Fillout form, Zapier tells ApproveThis to create an approval ticket with all the relevant details. Approvers get an email (no need to log into another app), click approve/deny, and Zapier pushes that decision back to your other systems. It’s like setting up dominoes – once the first one falls, everything else happens automatically.

Key detail: Your approvers don’t need Fillout licenses. This is huge for working with clients or contractors who shouldn’t have access to your internal tools. They just need email to keep things moving.

Real Use Cases for People Who Hate “Use Cases”

1. HR Teams: Employee Onboarding That Doesn’t Require 17 Signatures

New hire submits their equipment request form in Fillout → ApproveThis pings IT, Finance, and their manager to approve the laptop/SaaS stack/budget → Once approved, IT gets an auto-generated ticket in their project management tool. No more “Wait, did we order the MacBook Pro or Air?” slack channels.

2. Finance Teams: Expense Reports That Don’t Require a Forensic Audit

Employee submits a Fillout expense form with receipts → ApproveThis routes it based on amount: $500 goes to direct manager, $5k+ escalates to CFO automatically → Approved? Funds hit their next paycheck. Denied? They get a Fillout form asking for clarification. Bonus: Finance can use calculated fields to auto-flag out-of-policy spending before it even hits an approver’s inbox.

3. Operations: Procurement That Doesn’t Require Chasing Down Karen From Legal

Vendor contract request submitted via Fillout → ApproveThis sends it to Legal, Security, and Procurement in sequence → Each team gets 48 hours to review before it auto-skips to their backup (thanks to vacation delegation). Approved contracts get pushed to DocuSign. Denied ones trigger a Fillout post-mortem survey. Karen gets to focus on actual legal work.

Setting This Up Without an IT Degree

You need three things: An ApproveThis account, a Fillout account, and a Zapier login. Here’s the 4-step process:

1. Pick your trigger: In Zapier, choose “New Submission” in Fillout
2. Choose your action: Select “Create Request” in ApproveThis
3. Map the fields: Drag-and-drop form responses into your approval template (e.g., Fillout’s “Total Cost” field → ApproveThis’ “Amount” field)
4. Add logic: Set approval thresholds so $10k requests go to the CFO, not the intern

Total setup time? 15 minutes if you’re slow at clicking. ApproveThis’ pre-built templates handle most of the heavy lifting.

Why This Isn’t Just Another Integration

Most approval tools make you build workflows in some flowchart editor that looks like it’s from 2008. ApproveThis works the way teams actually operate:

• Approval groups: Require consensus from all 5 stakeholders or just one? Your call
• Real-time tracking: See who’s sitting on a request with a dashboard that doesn’t require a data analyst to understand

Fillout’s conditional logic means you can ask follow-up questions mid-approval. Example: If someone requests a software subscription, ApproveThis can auto-send a Fillout security questionnaire to their team before final sign-off.

The Quiet Benefits Your CFO Will Love

Beyond the obvious time savings, this combo helps with:

Audit trails: Every approval decision is timestamped with the raw form data. No more “I never approved that!” moments during compliance reviews.

Budget control: Set hard approval thresholds so managers can’t approve big spends without oversight. Route all AWS cost overruns through engineering leads automatically.

External collaboration: Clients can submit project change requests via Fillout, your team approves in ApproveThis, and Zapier updates their project management tool. All without giving clients access to your internal systems.

When to Use This (And When Not To)

This integration shines for repeatable, rules-based approvals: purchase orders, contract reviews, PTO requests, content approvals. It’s overkill for one-off decisions like “Should we acquire a startup?” (Just call a meeting, Elon.)

Pro tip: Use Fillout’s hidden fields to pass along internal data (e.g., employee department, project budget remaining) so ApproveThis can route requests smarter.

Getting Started Without the Sales Call

If you’re using Fillout already, ApproveThis’ free tier handles 50 approvals/month. Scale up as needed. No “contact us” form required.

Demo script: Build an approval workflow for office supply requests. Time yourself. If it takes longer than ordering the actual supplies, we’ll buy you a coffee.