ApproveThis + Udemy for Business: Stop Wasting Time on Training Approvals

Why These Two Platforms Click

Let’s cut through the corporate jargon: Udemy for Business trains your team, ApproveThis stops your approval processes from becoming a circus. Combine them through Zapier, and you’ve got a system where training requests and certifications actually move faster than your morning coffee cools down.

What You’re Working With

Udemy for Business handles the learning part – course enrollments, completions, all that good stuff. ApproveThis handles the "get three managers to sign off before Friday" part. Together via Zapier? They automate the bureaucratic middle child that nobody likes.

Real-World Uses That Don’t Suck

We’re not here to sell you vaporware. These integrations work because they solve actual headaches:

1. Certifications That Don’t Get Lost in Email Hell

Picture this: Your sales team completes a negotiation course on Udemy. Instead of chasing down managers for signatures, ApproveThis automatically:

• Creates approval requests with course details pre-filled
• Routes to the right manager based on department
• Updates Udemy records when approved

Who Cares: Tech companies needing SOC2 compliance training paper trails. Healthcare orgs tracking mandatory certifications. Basically anyone tired of "I swear I sent that email" excuses.

2. Budget Approvals That Actually Respect Budgets

An engineer signs up for a $2K AI course? ApproveThis checks your rules:

• Auto-approve under $500
• Flag anything over $1K for CFO review
• Deny requests during budget freezes

Who Cares: Finance teams preventing "mystery" training expenses. Startups where $500 feels like $5M. Companies where "ask forgiveness later" isn’t a viable strategy.

How Different Teams Win

HR Gets to Stop Playing Secretary

No more manually forwarding completion certificates. Set up rules once in ApproveThis and let:

- Automatic Slack alerts to managers
- Compliance reports that write themselves
- Reminders that nag approvers, not you

Finance Keeps Control Without Micromanaging

ApproveThis thresholds mean your team isn’t gatekeeping every $50 course. Set it and forget it:

- Department-specific budgets
- Auto-approvals for pre-approved courses
- Instant visibility into quarterly spends

IT Stays Out of the Doghouse

When new tool training gets approved in ApproveThis, automatically:

- Grant software access in Okta/AD
- Add users to relevant LMS groups
- Trigger welcome emails with logins

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

If you can order DoorDash, you can connect these systems:

1. Open your Zapier account (or make one – it’s free to start)
2. Choose Udemy for Business as the trigger app
3. Pick either "Course Completed" or "New Enrollment" as your trigger
4. Connect ApproveThis as the action app
5. Map the course data to approval request fields

Pro tip: Use ApproveThis’s calculated fields to auto-flag expensive courses or non-compliant training topics.

The Nerd Stuff You Actually Care About

ApproveThis brings the muscle that Udemy can’t:

Vacation Delegation: CFO out? Requests auto-reroute without you playing phone tag.
Approval Groups: Need Legal + HR + Manager sign-offs? Set the order once.
Email Approvals: External vendors can approve without Udemy logins.

Why This Isn’t Just Another Integration

Most app combos just shuffle data. This actually changes behavior:

- Employees enroll in relevant courses because approvals are faster
- Managers actually review requests since they take 2 clicks
- Finance sees real-time budgets instead of end-of-quarter surprises

Who Should Steal This Idea Immediately

Healthcare: Automatically route HIPAA training certs to compliance officers.
Manufacturing: Link safety course completions to plant access approvals.
Consulting Firms: Bill clients faster by tying Udemy certs to project approvals.

Common Objections (And Why They’re BS)

"We just use email approvals."
Cool. How’s that working for tracking 6-month-old requests during audits?

"Our managers prefer spreadsheets."
They also probably "prefer" fax machines. Time to join this decade.

Next Steps That Don’t Suck

1. Book a 15-minute demo showing Udemy integration
2. Try the Zapier template with one course type
3. Stop being the approval bottleneck by Friday

Seriously – your team’s Udemy budget is getting wasted while you’re manually routing PDFs. Fix it before the next quarterly review.