ApproveThis manages your Better Stack Integration approvals.
April 17, 2025
Integration Category: Server Monitoring
When Incident Response Meets Approval Governance
Let’s be real: IT outages are stressful enough without chasing down five managers to approve a $20 server reboot. Better Stack gives you the tools to monitor systems and manage incidents. ApproveThis gives you the guardrails to ensure those actions actually get approved by the right people. Together? They turn “Who needs to sign off on this?” from a panicked Slack thread into a 30-second automated process.
Here’s why this matters: When your uptime depends on quick decisions, you can’t have engineers waiting hours for CFO approval on emergency spend. But you also can’t let every junior dev trigger $5K in cloud costs without oversight. This integration balances speed with control by embedding approval workflows directly into Better Stack’s incident lifecycle.
Three Ways This Combo Stops Approval Bottlenecks
1. No More Manual Triage for Critical Incidents
Scenario: A major outage hits at 2AM. Better Stack detects it instantly, but your on-call engineer needs approval to spin up backup servers. Normally, this means waking up three managers via SMS. With the integration:
- Better Stack creates an incident
- Zapier triggers an ApproveThis request with cost estimates
- Pre-defined approval thresholds auto-approve if under $1K
- If over limit, it pages only the necessary stakeholders
Real-world impact: A SaaS company reduced cloud incident resolution time from 47 minutes to 9 minutes by eliminating approval delays during outages.
2. Audit-Proof Incident Documentation
Problem: Compliance teams need proof that every production change was approved. Manually linking Jira tickets to Slack approvals is a mess.
Solution: Every Better Stack incident update automatically generates an ApproveThis audit trail with:
- Timestamps
- Approval comments
- Version history
- Automatic escalation logs
Example: A fintech startup passed their SOC 2 audit in 3 weeks instead of 3 months by using this combo to auto-document every deploy approval.
3. Cross-Team Coordination Without License Headaches
Better Stack’s on-call engineers often need input from external contractors or non-technical stakeholders. With ApproveThis:
- External partners approve via email (no Better Stack login needed)
- Legal can review incident post-mortems without getting a license
- Vacation coverage auto-reassigns approvals so nothing stalls
Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind
Zapier’s the glue here. You’ll create two main Zaps:
Zap 1: Incident → Approval
Trigger: New/updated incident in Better Stack
Action: Create ApproveThis request with incident details
Pro tip: Use ApproveThis’ calculated fields to auto-add SLA deadlines based on incident severity.
Zap 2: Approval → Action
Trigger: Approval decision in ApproveThis
Action: Update Better Stack incident status
Example: Auto-acknowledge incidents only after approval to prevent rogue fixes.
Full setup takes about 15 minutes if you’ve used Zapier before. Need help? ApproveThis’ docs have pre-built templates.
Who Actually Benefits From This?
IT/DevOps Teams
Stop being the approval middleman. Pre-configured workflows mean you fix issues faster without playing phone tag with finance.
Compliance Managers
Every approved action auto-logs to audit trails. No more herding screenshots before quarterly reviews.
External Vendors
Client’s security team needs to approve your maintenance window? They get an email, click approve, done. No guest logins or access requests.
Why This Isn’t Just Another Integration
Most approval tools bolt onto CRMs or project apps. Incident management is different:
- Time-sensitive: Approval delays directly impact uptime
- High stakes: Wrong decisions can take down production
- Cross-functional: Requires input from engineers, execs, external partners
ApproveThis adds structure without bureaucracy. Features like approval thresholds (auto-approve minor incidents) and vacation delegation (no approval blackouts) adapt to real-world IT chaos.
The Bottom Line
If your incident post-mortems keep mentioning “approval delays” as a root cause, this integration isn’t nice-to-have—it’s a liability shield. For teams juggling uptime SLAs and audit requirements, automating the approval layer cuts both risks and fire drills.
Better Stack handles the technical side. ApproveThis handles the human side. Together, they make sure nobody’s waiting for a manager’s Slack reply while your servers burn.
Next Steps
1. Connect via Zapier (takes 15 mins)
2. Set up your first approval workflow
3. Test with a non-critical incident
Or skip the trial-and-error: Book a 20-minute demo to see how teams automate approvals without losing speed.
Integrate with Better Stack Integration and get 90 days of ApproveThis for free.
After you create a Zapier integration, please email us at support@approve-this.com with your account name and we'll add 3 months of ApproveThis to your account. Limit one redemption per account.
Learn More
Best Approval Workflows for Better Stack
Suggested workflows (and their Zapier components) for Better Stack
Create approval requests for new or updated Better Stack incidents in ApproveThis
Handle incident management approvals efficiently with this integration. Whenever a Better Stack incident is created or updated, automatically initiate an approval request in ApproveThis to ensure the correct resolution path is followed. This streamlines your incident review process, saving you time and improving decision accountability.
Zapier Components
Trigger
New or Updated Incident
Triggers when new incidents are created, or when existing incidents are updated.
Action
Create Request
Creates a new request, probably with input from previous steps.
Acknowledge Better Stack incidents after ApproveThis approvals
Ensure only authorized incidents are handled with this automation. Once a request is approved in ApproveThis, the corresponding incident in Better Stack is automatically acknowledged, aligning action and authorization seamlessly. This reduces response times and ensures compliance with approval protocols.
Zapier Components
Trigger
A Request Is Approved/Denied
Triggers when a request is approved or denied.
Action
Acknowledge Incident
Acknowledges an incident.
Create Better Stack incidents for on-call changes detected by ApproveThis
Stay proactive in your incident management workflow. When an on-call contact changes in Better Stack, this integration creates a new incident to notify your team through Better Stack, ensuring continuity and preparedness in incident management.
Zapier Components
Trigger
On-Call Contact Changed
Triggers when an on-call contact changes.
Action
Create Incident
Creates an incident that notifies the team.
