ApproveThis manages your Fellow Integration approvals.

When Meeting Tools and Approval Systems Actually Talk to Each Other

Let's be real: most companies treat meetings like a competitive sport in talking about work without actually doing work. Fellow helps teams organize discussions, while ApproveThis forces those discussions to turn into decisions. Connect them through Zapier, and suddenly your "action items" become approved actions that move the needle.

For teams of 50-5,000 employees juggling cross-departmental approvals, this integration kills three birds with one stone:

• No more hunting down approvers after meetings
• Zero "I thought that was approved?!" moments
• Automatic paper trails from discussion to decision

Why This Combo Doesn't Suck

Fellow's great at capturing what needs to happen. ApproveThis makes sure it actually happens. Together through Zapier, they handle the messy middle part where most companies drop the ball.

For the Skeptical Finance Manager

That budget increase discussed in Q2 planning? Now the approval request auto-generates in ApproveThis when someone marks the action item complete in Fellow. Your team gets threshold-based approvals (auto-approve under $5K, escalate over), while you get an audit trail showing exactly who said yes and when.

For the HR Director Tired of Chasing Signatures

New hire equipment requests from onboarding meetings become approval workflows with delegated signers. When Jane from Accounting is OOO, the system automatically reassigns to her backup without you playing phone tag.

For the Project Lead Who Hates Status Meetings

Phase gate approvals in Fellow talking points trigger calculated field validations in ApproveThis. Did marketing hit their lead target? Development complete 80% of features? The system checks actual data before routing to approvers.

Real-World Uses That Don't Feel Like Corporate BS

Use Case 1: From "We Should..." to "We Did"

That moment when someone says "We should renew the Salesforce contract" in a Fellow meeting note? Zapier can turn that into an approval request with all the context attached. Legal gets the contract, Finance gets the cost center, and the VP gets a final approve/deny button in their email. No extra logins required.

Use Case 2: Approval Discussions That Don't Derail Meetings

When an ApproveThis request gets created for a new vendor, it automatically adds a talking point in Fellow for the next procurement meeting. Teams discuss contextually instead of in fragmented threads, then update the approval workflow post-meeting.

Use Case 3: Proof of Completion That Doesn't Lie

Mark an action item complete in Fellow? That triggers ApproveThis to require documented proof before closure. Sales ops can't just check a box - they have to attach the signed SOW. Engineering can't claim server migration is done without uptime metrics.

Setting This Up Without an IT Degree

1. Connect Fellow and ApproveThis through Zapier (takes 4 minutes)
2. Map meeting action items to approval triggers
3. Set thresholds: "Under $10k? Auto-approve. Over? Route to these 3 VPs in order."
4. Enable email fallback for approvers allergic to new tools

Pro tip: Use ApproveThis' calculated fields to auto-flag requests needing legal review based on contract value mentioned in Fellow notes.

Why Your Team Leads Will Actually Use This

Product Teams Ship Faster

Feature launch approvals tied to sprint retrospective meetings. QA lead approves test results via email while OOO. PMs get real-time status without scheduling another sync.

Operations Stops Playing Approval Whack-A-Mole

Facility requests from site meetings auto-route based on location and budget. New York office manager approves NYC repairs under $15k. Over that? Escalates to regional director with all meeting context attached.

External Clients Don't Ghost You

Agency teams can send client approvals through Fellow discussion points without giving clients access to internal systems. Client approves the campaign timeline through ApproveThis email link, which auto-updates the Fellow project plan.

The Nuts and Bolts That Matter

Approval thresholds based on Fellow action item types:
- Budget discussions auto-route to Finance over $X
- Hiring plans escalate to HR leadership
- Vendor selections require legal review if "contract" is mentioned

Vacation delegation that doesn't require HR intervention:
Fellow shows who's out of office? ApproveThis auto-reassigns their approvals to the delegate listed in their profile.

Real-time dashboards that mirror meeting rhythms:
Weekly leadership sync in Fellow? The ApproveThis dashboard widget shows all pending decisions relevant to that meeting's agenda.

No, This Isn't More Tool Bloat

The magic here is that approvers don't need another login. They interact through:
- Email approvals with one-click actions
- Existing Fellow meeting agendas
- Slack if that's your team's jam

ApproveThis sits between Fellow and your core systems (ERP, CRM, HRIS), handling the decision layer without becoming another silo.

How This Fails Well

When approvals get stuck (because someone's dragging their feet), ApproveThis auto-reminds through Fellow talking points. Stale requests appear as overdue action items in the next meeting's agenda. Nothing dies in email purgatory.

If an approval gets denied? The workflow doesn't just stop - it creates a new Fellow discussion topic with context: "Budget request denied by CFO due to X. Let's discuss alternatives."

Getting Started Without the Usual Hassle

1. Sign up for ApproveThis (free 14-day trial)
2. Connect your Fellow account via Zapier
3. Clone our pre-built templates:
- Meeting action items → Approval requests
- Approved budgets → Fellow project updates
- Denied requests → Post-mortem talking points

Pro tip: Start with one high-impact workflow - usually procurement or campaign approvals - before scaling to other use cases.

The Bottom Line for People Who Hate Fluff

This integration works because it:
- Turns meeting promises into trackable approvals
- Uses existing tools instead of adding new ones
- Shows stakeholders exactly where things stand

For teams tired of decisions evaporating post-meeting, it's actual progress disguised as software.

Okay, Now What?

If you've sat through a Fellow meeting that ended with "We'll need to get approval on that," do something about it:
Start free trial | Book a 10-min demo

P.S. No, this doesn't require IT involvement. Yes, it works with your current Fellow setup. No, you don't have to be "techy."