ApproveThis manages your Corporategift Integration approvals.

Why Approval Processes Matter When Sending Swag

Let’s cut to the chase: sending gifts at scale is a logistical headache waiting to happen. Between budget approvals, vendor coordination, and making sure you’re not accidentally sending a $200 whiskey set to an intern, there’s a reason most companies stick to generic gift cards. Corporategift solves half the problem by making it easy to ship physical and digital rewards. But here’s where things get messy: Who signs off on these gifts? How do you stop departments from blowing their budgets? And why does accounting always need three weeks to approve a $50 client gift?

That’s where ApproveThis comes in. We’re not here to replace Corporategift – we’re here to make sure your gift-giving doesn’t turn into a free-for-all. Think of it as adding guardrails to your generosity. Together, these tools automate the entire process from “Hey, we should send a thank-you gift” to tracking the delivery confirmation – with every necessary approval baked in.

How These Tools Work Better Together

Corporategift handles the physical logistics. ApproveThis handles the politics. Here’s what that actually means:

CorporateGift’s superpower: Turn an email address into a shipped gift basket without your team ever touching a credit card or FedEx login. Great for sales incentives, client rewards, or employee recognition programs.

ApproveThis’s role: Make sure every gift request gets seen by the right people before it ships. Set rules like “Any gift over $100 needs CFO sign-off” or “Client gifts require sales manager approval if the deal hasn’t closed yet.”

Together via Zapier, they handle:

• Auto-escalating high-value gift approvals
• Syncing recipient data between systems
• Audit trails for compliance teams

Real Use Cases (No Fluff)

1. Stopping Shipping Disasters Before They Happen

The problem: Your sales team keeps expediting $500 gift shipments to clients who haven’t signed contracts yet. Shipping costs are spiraling, and Legal’s pissed about potential compliance issues.

The fix: Connect Corporategift’s shipping status updates to ApproveThis. Now, any change to an order’s shipping method triggers an approval request. Example rules:

• Overnight shipping requires director approval
• International shipments auto-route to Compliance

Who this helps: Logistics teams at companies with global clients. Prevent customs holdups by requiring approved commercial invoices before upgrading shipping.

2. Instant Rewards That Don’t Break Policy

The problem: Your customer success team wants to send immediate post-call thank you gifts, but Finance demands 48-hour pre-approvals. Result? Stale gestures that feel transactional.

The fix: Auto-create e-gifts in Corporategift the second an approval is granted in ApproveThis. Pre-set rules like:

“Under $50 + recipient is in approved CRM segment = auto-approve”
“Over $50 = require team lead approval via email within 1 hour”

Who this helps: High-volume teams like customer support centers. Agents can trigger gift offers during calls, knowing approvals happen in real-time.

3. Physical Gifts That Actually Arrive

The problem: Your HR team sends new hire welcome kits, but 30% get returned because addresses are outdated in the ATS. Procurement won’t let them use live address validation tools.

The fix: Connect approved gifts in ApproveThis to Corporategift’s physical gift system with a validation step. Use ApproveThis’ calculated fields to:

- Check address against HR databases
- Require secondary approval if shipping to non-corporate addresses

Who this helps: Distributed companies with remote employees. IT gets automatic audit trails, HR stops wasting budget on returned packages.

4. Automating Vendor Onboarding (Without the Risk)

The problem: Every new vendor needs a Corporategift account to order branded swag, but your procurement team manually vets each request. Bottlenecks mean merch arrives after events.

The fix: Auto-create Corporategift user accounts when ApproveThis approvals complete. Set conditions like:

“Only approved vendors in our ERP get access”
“Temp accounts expire after 90 days unless re-approved”

Who this helps: Marketing teams running event swag ops. Agencies get temporary access to order branded items, no manual account management needed.

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

We’ll skip the obvious “sign up for both tools” part. Here’s what actually matters:

Step 1: In ApproveThis, build approval templates that mirror your gifting policies. Pro tip: Use calculated fields to auto-flag requests that need extra scrutiny (like gifts over budget).

Step 2: In Zapier, connect your “New Request” trigger from ApproveThis to Corporategift’s “Create Gift” action. Map fields like:

- Recipient email → Corporategift address
- Approved gift type → SKU in Corporategift
- Approval comments → Gift message field

Step 3: Activate ApproveThis’ vacation delegation. Because nothing kills momentum like waiting for an approver who’s on a beach in Bali.

Why Your Teams Will Actually Use This

Finance: Gets auto-generated reports showing approved vs. rejected gifts. Threshold rules stop budget surprises.

Sales: Can trigger gift offers from their CRM. Approvals happen in minutes, not days.

Legal: Sees full audit trails with who approved what, when. No more “I thought you checked the compliance rules!”

External partners: Approve gifts via email without needing a Corporategift login. No license fees for occasional users.

The Unsexy Benefits You’ll Learn to Love

Beyond stopping rogue gift shipments, this combo:

- Cuts onboarding time: New employees can request branded swag on day one, with auto-approvals if under department limits.

- Simplifies global compliance: Auto-add tax documents to high-value gift approvals based on recipient location.

- Reduces IT tickets: No more “I can’t access Corporategift” emails. ApproveThis handles access controls through existing SSO.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Don’t: Set up auto-approvals without dollar limits. (Your team will find creative ways to test the system.)

Do: Use ApproveThis’ conditional logic to route gifts over $X to different approvers than small tokens.

Don’t: Let departments build their own approval chains without central oversight. (You’ll get 17 versions of “urgent” priority.)

Do: Schedule quarterly reviews of approval rules. Gifting policies change faster than you think.

Ready to Stop Micromanaging Gift Approvals?

If you’re still manually forwarding gift requests in Slack or – god forbid – using a shared spreadsheet, it’s time to upgrade. ApproveThis + Corporategift via Zapier isn’t about fancy features. It’s about making sure your generosity doesn’t get lost in bureaucracy.

Get started with ApproveThis (takes 8 minutes) or book a live demo to see how approval automation works with your existing Corporategift account.

P.S. If you’re still not convinced, ask your CFO how much time they spend approving/denying gift requests. Then show them the “auto-approval thresholds” feature.