ApproveThis manages your Intelligent Billing Integration approvals.

Why Approval Automation Matters for Finance Teams

Modern finance teams face a critical challenge: maintaining control over billing decisions while keeping pace with rapid business growth. Manual approval processes create bottlenecks in customer onboarding, rate changes, and contract updates – especially when multiple stakeholders or external partners are involved. This is where combining ApproveThis's approval automation with Intelligent Billing's global invoicing capabilities creates a competitive advantage.

Together, these platforms enable businesses to automate 83% of billing-related approvals while maintaining audit trails and compliance standards. Finance leaders gain real-time visibility into decision timelines, while operational teams eliminate the email chains and spreadsheet tracking that plague traditional approval processes.

Strategic Integration Benefits

The Zapier-powered connection between ApproveThis and Intelligent Billing solves three fundamental challenges:

1. Accelerated Revenue Cycles

Automated approval routing ensures new customer accounts, special rates, and contract amendments move through review processes in hours instead of days. A SaaS company using this integration reduced their enterprise deal approval time from 72 hours to 9 minutes by automatically routing contracts based on deal size and customer location.

2. Cross-Team Coordination

Legal, finance, and sales teams collaborate seamlessly through centralized approval requests that pull live data from Intelligent Billing. Approval thresholds automatically escalate high-value contracts to senior leadership while resolving routine approvals at department level.

3. Client-Specific Workflows

External partners can approve rate cards or project invoices through email without needing Intelligent Billing logins. A marketing agency uses this to get client approvals on campaign budgets before generating invoices, reducing payment disputes by 40%.

Real-World Implementation Examples

Enterprise Customer Onboarding

When a $250K/year enterprise account enters Intelligent Billing:

1. Zapier triggers an ApproveThis request with deal terms
2. VP of Sales and CFO receive parallel approvals
3. Upon approval, Intelligent Billing auto-generates the contract

This workflow helped a cybersecurity firm close 22% more Q4 deals by eliminating legal review bottlenecks.

Global Rate Management

A manufacturing company automates regional pricing approvals:

1. Local sales teams submit rates in Intelligent Billing
2. ApproveThis routes to regional controllers and tax teams
3. Approved rates update across all billing territories

Their finance team eliminated $480K in annual compliance risks from unapproved rate changes.

Technical Implementation Overview

Setting up the integration requires 3 key steps in Zapier:

1. Connect Approval Triggers

Map Intelligent Billing events (new customers, rate changes) to trigger approval requests in ApproveThis. Use conditional logic to route based on:

• Deal size thresholds
• Customer location
• Product/service type

2. Configure Multi-Stage Reviews

Build approval chains that combine parallel and sequential steps:

• Legal + Finance parallel review for contracts
• Regional > Global escalation for pricing

3. Establish Closed-Loop Updates

Sync approval decisions back to Intelligent Billing to:

• Activate approved customer accounts
• Update rate cards with effective dates
• Flag denied requests for follow-up

Department-Specific Value Propositions

Finance Teams

ApproveThis' calculated fields automatically validate billing data against:

• Customer credit limits
• Volume discount thresholds
• Tax compliance rules

Real-time dashboards show pending approvals impacting quarterly forecasts.

Sales Operations

Deal desks use approval groups to coordinate:

• Product/service approvals
• Special pricing requests
• Contract exceptions

Automated reminders prevent deals from stalling in review.

Client Success

Customer-facing teams leverage email approvals to:

• Approve change orders
• Confirm renewal terms
• Validate SOW adjustments

Approval history becomes auditable part of client records.

Advanced Configuration Options

Dynamic Escalation Rules

Set approval thresholds that auto-escalate based on:

• Percentage over historical deal size
• New customer risk scores
• Margin impact calculations

Conditional Approval Paths

Route requests differently based on:

• Customer contract type (MSA vs SOW)
• Billing currency
• Payment terms

Approval Analytics

Track metrics like:

• Average approval time per department
• Escalation rate by request type
• Approver response efficiency

Implementation Best Practices

Do:

Start with high-volume/low-risk approvals like:

• Non-standard payment terms
• Service credit issuances
• Provisional rate approvals

Don't:

Automate approvals requiring:

• Manual document review
• Cross-reference to external systems
• Executive committee review

Getting Started

To implement this integration:

1. Create Zapier account
2. Connect Intelligent Billing and ApproveThis
3. Select trigger events from billing system
4. Map data fields to approval requests
5. Configure approval rules and recipients
6. Test with non-critical workflows

Most teams achieve full implementation in 3-5 business days.

Next Steps for Operational Excellence

The ApproveThis-Intelligent Billing integration represents more than technical connectivity – it enables a cultural shift toward data-driven decision making. By eliminating approval bottlenecks, finance teams regain 12-15 hours monthly for strategic analysis instead of process chasing.

Ready to transform your billing operations? Schedule a custom demo to see how approval automation applies to your specific use cases. For existing users, visit our Zapier integration guide to launch your first workflow today.