External Approver Role

The External Approver role lets you bring someone outside your workspace into a single approval decision. External approvers get a restricted, approval-only view: their navigation is limited to the approvals assigned to them, so they never see the rest of your workspace. Assigning approvers through a user_select field can auto-create these external accounts when a workflow is created. This guide is for Administrators setting up the hand-off and for the External Approver who receives it; it's available on all tiers.

Who this is for: admin, external.

Find the request that is waiting on the external approver

Before an outside party can approve anything, an Administrator needs to open the flow that routes to them and submit the request. This confirms the request exists and is sitting with the external approver rather than stalled inside your workspace.

1. Sign in as an Administrator.

2. Open the flow that routes to your external approver — the example uses Partner Sign-offs 1.

   

3. Click New Request to submit the request into that flow.

   

The request shows the approver it is waiting on, labeled Awaiting approval:.

Sign in as the external approver and open the assigned approval

The external approver signs in to a view that contains only the approvals assigned to them — useful when a vendor, client, or partner needs to sign off without being given access to your other requests or flows.

1. Sign in as the External Approver.

   

2. Open the approval assigned to you — the example shows New Request Partner Sign-offs.

   

The request opens under the heading Awaiting Your Approval.

Approve the request from the restricted external view

This is the one action an external approver can take from their restricted view, and it records their decision against the request so the flow can move on.

1. Click Approve.

   

The request confirms the decision with You Approved This Request.