ApproveThis manages your Planning Pod Integration approvals.

When Approval Management Meets Event Planning

Let’s be real – event planning is basically herding cats while juggling flaming torches. Between vendor contracts, client change requests, and last-minute venue updates, your team’s approval processes probably look like a game of broken telephone crossed with a scavenger hunt. That’s where pairing ApproveThis with Planning Pod changes the game.

ApproveThis acts like your approval bouncer, automatically routing decisions to the right people while Planning Pod keeps your entire event ecosystem organized. Connect them through Zapier, and you’ve got a system where approvals trigger real actions in your event management hub – no more chasing down signatures or manual data entry.

What Each Tool Brings to the Party

ApproveThis: The Approval Automator

Think of ApproveThis as your digital decision-making factory. It handles the messy stuff – multi-level approvals, conditional routing, automatic escalations – so you don’t have to play middleman between departments. Key features like email-based approvals and vacation delegation mean decisions keep moving even when Bob from accounting is on his third cruise this year.

Planning Pod: The Event Central

Planning Pod is where events get built. It’s your command center for contacts, timelines, vendor management, and all the moving parts that make events happen. But here’s the rub – most teams still handle approvals through email chains or Slack pings, leaving critical decisions floating in the void between tools.

Why This Combo Works (Besides Being Obvious)

When you connect these two through Zapier, you’re essentially building approval guardrails directly into your event workflows. No more:

• Client change requests getting lost in someone’s inbox
• Vendor contracts waiting on legal while the clock ticks

Real example: A hotel chain uses this integration to handle room booking approvals. Their sales team submits requests in Planning Pod, which triggers ApproveThis workflows requiring GM and revenue management sign-off. Once approved, Planning Pod automatically blocks the dates and notifies the client. What used to take 3 days now happens before lunch.

Three Ways Teams Actually Use This

1. Auto-Approving New Vendors & Contacts

Scenario: Your catering manager adds a new sushi vendor to Planning Pod. Instead of emailing the CFO for budget approval and the events director for quality check, ApproveThis:

• Routes the contract to finance via email (no Planning Pod license needed)
• Pings the culinary team lead in Slack
• Auto-approves if under $5k using approval thresholds

Who cares: Venues with high vendor turnover. One convention center cut their onboarding time from 2 weeks to 48 hours using this flow.

2. Turning Approved Requests into Actionable Leads

Here’s where it gets sneaky good. When your sales team approves a client’s initial inquiry in ApproveThis, Zapier automatically creates a qualified lead in Planning Pod with all the context attached. No more copying/pasting details between systems – the event team can start building proposals before the sales call ends.

3. Syncing Client Change Requests

Client wants to add 50 guests three weeks out? The request hits Planning Pod, triggers an approval workflow checking budget and capacity, then updates the event plan automatically once approved. Bonus: Calculated fields in ApproveThis automatically adjust the price impact, so approvers see real-time cost changes.

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

Here’s the beauty of Zapier – you’re not building the space shuttle. Basic setup flow:

1. Connect Planning Pod and ApproveThis to your Zapier account
2. Choose your trigger (e.g., “New Contact” in Planning Pod)
3. Set the action (e.g., “Create Request” in ApproveThis)
4. Test with real data (Pro tip: Use last month’s nightmare request as your test case)

Most teams get their first workflow live in under 20 minutes. The real time-suck? Getting everyone to agree on approval rules – but that’s a therapy session, not an integration issue.

Who Actually Benefits (Besides Your Sanity)

Operations Teams

Stop being human routers between departments. Set up parallel approvals where safety, budget, and logistics teams review vendor contracts simultaneously instead of sequentially. Vacation delegation means someone’s out-of-office reply doesn’t become your problem.

Sales & Partnerships

Ever miss a lead because the approval email got buried? Now when a venue partnership gets approved, it auto-creates a Planning Pod contact with all deal terms attached. Your BD team stays focused on hustling, not admin.

Executives

Real-time dashboards show approval bottlenecks. See that catering requests get stuck 73% of the time? Maybe stop letting Bob’s sushi obsession hold up every contract.

The Cold Hard Benefits

Beyond saving your team from approval purgatory:

Clients think you’re wizards: When you approve their last-minute change request before they finish their latte, they assume you’ve got a time machine. We won’t correct them.

Auditors stop breathing down your neck: Every decision gets logged with timestamps and comments. No more “Who approved this?!” witch hunts.

Scale without the chaos: That new regional manager? They inherit automated approval rules, not your tribal knowledge. Onboard once, stay consistent forever.

Common Objections (And Why They’re Dumb)

“We’re fine with email approvals!” – Said no one who’s ever missed a $20k upsell because the email went to spam.

“Our process is too complex!” – Cool, ApproveThis handles 37-step approvals with conditional branches. Your move, bureaucracy.

“We don’t want another tool!” – Newsflash: Your team already uses 83 apps. This actually reduces the switching between them.

Getting Started Without the BS

Try this today:

1. Grab an ApproveThis trial (takes 2 minutes)
2. Connect to Planning Pod via Zapier
3. Automate one approval process that currently drives you nuts

Worst case? You save 3 hours a week. Best case? You finally take that vacation without your phone blowing up over cupcake approvals.