ApproveThis manages your ReleaseNotes Integration approvals.

When Bureaucracy Meets Release Notes

Let’s be real: coordinating approvals for product releases is like herding cats. Marketing needs updates yesterday, engineering’s buried in Jira tickets, and legal keeps asking for “one more tweak.” Meanwhile, your release notes sit in Slack purgatory waiting for sign-off. This isn’t just annoying – it’s costing you launches, trust, and maybe even customers.

That’s why pairing ApproveThis with ReleaseNotes via Zapier isn’t just another integration. It’s a straight-up intervention for teams drowning in approval limbo. We’re talking about turning release cycles from multi-day email chains into a process that actually works while you sleep.

Why This Combo Doesn’t Suck

ReleaseNotes does one thing well: it helps teams ship clean, professional release documentation without the formatting nightmares. ApproveThis does one thing better: it kills approval bottlenecks. Together? They handle the entire lifecycle of product updates – from initial draft to stakeholder sign-off to public communication – without requiring your team to live in either platform.

Here’s the kicker: approvers never need to touch ReleaseNotes. Not their problem. They get an email, click approve/reject, and get back to their actual job. No extra licenses, no training, no “I forgot my password” support tickets.

Who Actually Benefits From This?

SaaS Companies: When your engineering team pushes 15 micro-updates weekly, but marketing needs to announce the 3 that matter. Automatic approvals mean product teams keep moving while compliance gets their paper trail.

Marketing Agencies: Client insists on approving every comma in the release notes? Set up sequential approvals where their legal team gets 24 hours to object before it auto-publishes. No more chasing.

E-Commerce Teams: Coordinate product launches where pricing, inventory updates, and blog posts need synchronized approvals. Miss a step? The system holds everything back until it’s right.

Real-World Use Cases That Don’t Put People to Sleep

1. The “Stop Announcing Unapproved Features” Workflow

Trigger: New release draft created in ReleaseNotes
Action: Routes to ApproveThis for legal/marketing/exec sign-off
Automatic win: ReleaseNotes entry only publishes if all approvers greenlight it

How teams use this:
A fintech company automates compliance checks. Their risk team gets first dibs on any release mentioning “payment processing.” If denied, the request bounces back to product with comments. If approved, it goes to marketing for final wording tweaks – all before hitting customers.

2. The “Automatically Document What We Actually Shipped” System

Trigger: Approval finalized in ApproveThis
Action: Generates ReleaseNotes entry with versioning, change categories, and approval audit trail
Hidden benefit: Creates an immutable record of who approved what – no more “That wasn’t my call!”

Enterprise IT teams love this. When pushing critical patches, they require infrastructure lead + cybersecurity approvals. Once both approve, ReleaseNotes auto-publishes with technical details for internal teams, while ApproveThis logs the decision chain for auditors.

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

1. Connect the apps in Zapier – takes 2 minutes
2. Pick your trigger: Either “New Release Draft” (ReleaseNotes) → “Create Approval” (ApproveThis) OR “Approval Completed” (ApproveThis) → “Publish Release” (ReleaseNotes)
3. Map custom fields: Pull release note content into approval requests, or push approved details into ReleaseNotes templates
4. Set escalation rules: Example – if legal doesn’t approve within 48 hours, notify their VP automatically

Pro tip: Use ApproveThis’ calculated fields to auto-flag releases containing high-risk keywords (like “GDPR” or “payment gateway”) for extra approvals.

Features You’ll Actually Use

Vacation Delegation: Product manager OOO? Approvals automatically reroute to their deputy without missing SLAs.
Approval Thresholds: Auto-approve minor copy changes under $0 cost impact, but require CFO sign-off for anything mentioning pricing.
Real-Time Dashboards: See which releases are stuck waiting on whom – and exactly how long they’ve been ignoring your emails.

Why This Beats “Just Using Email”

Your current process probably looks like this:
Draft → Email to stakeholders → 3 reply-alls → Revised draft → Another email → Someone forwards from their phone without comments → Final version sent to intern to copy-paste into ReleaseNotes.

With ApproveThis+ReleaseNotes:
Draft → Auto-routed approvals with deadlines → Edits tracked in context → Approved version publishes automatically with full audit log.
If someone rejects? They have to specify why – no more vague “This doesn’t look right” feedback.

Teams That Stop Hating Their Lives

Product Managers: Actually hit launch dates because approvals can’t get “lost” in someone’s inbox.
Customer Support: Get pre-publish access to release notes for training materials – no more scrambling post-launch.
External Partners: Clients/vendors approve directly via email without getting access to your ReleaseNotes account.

The Quiet Part Out Loud

Most approval tools are either too rigid (looking at you, enterprise dinosaurs) or so “simple” they’re useless. ApproveThis works because it bends to your existing process – not the other way around. ReleaseNotes stays clean because it only gets involved once the bureaucratic stuff is handled.

This integration isn’t magic. It won’t make your stakeholders reply faster. But it will eliminate the 37 back-and-forth emails that happen because someone approved the wrong version or missed a comment. And for teams shipping weekly releases, that’s about 20 hours/month back.

How to Not Screw This Up

- Don’t overcomplicate workflows at first – start with one approval stage, then add gates as needed
- Do use ApproveThis’ conditional logic to auto-approve minor changes (typos, non-substantive edits)
- Don’t make approvers log into anything – 90% of approvals should happen via email
- Do set realistic SLAs (e.g., “Approve within 24 hours or it escalates”)

Cool, How Do I Start?

1. Grab an ApproveThis trial – takes 2 minutes
2. Connect to ReleaseNotes via Zapier
3. Clone one of our pre-built templates or make your own in 15 minutes
4. Send your first release through the system – even if it’s just a test

Still skeptical? Book a 10-minute demo and we’ll show you how a law firm automates compliance approvals without hiring more paralegals.

Bottom Line

If you’re managing product releases with more than 3 approvers, you’re either already using something like this or you’re quietly resenting how much time you waste chasing people. This integration won’t just make releases smoother – it’ll make your cross-functional meetings 50% shorter because no one’s arguing about whose fault the delay was.