ApproveThis manages your DottedSign Integration approvals.

When Approvals Meet E-Signatures

Let’s be real – nobody gets excited about chasing signatures or waiting three days for Karen in accounting to approve a vendor contract. But here’s the thing: approvals and signatures are the spinal cord of business operations. Screw this up, and you’re looking at delayed projects, compliance gaps, and that one sales rep who’ll hound you daily for updates.

ApproveThis (the approval automation muscle) and DottedSign (the e-signature workhorse) fix this through Zapier. Together, they turn “Hey, did you sign that thing?” into a closed-loop system where approvals trigger signatures and vice versa. No more spreadsheet trackers. No more CC’ing the entire company. Just decisions moving forward.

Why This Combo Works

Most teams use e-signatures after approvals. That’s like baking a cake and then deciding if you want frosting. These platforms work best when they’re wired together at the hip:

• Legal teams get an audit trail showing exactly when contracts were approved AND signed
• Procurement auto-flags anything that gets approved without proper vendor documentation
• Sales ops stops losing deals because someone forgot to countersign the SOW

Bonus: ApproveThis approvers don’t need a DottedSign license. Perfect for external clients or cross-company projects where you’re not paying for 50 contractor seats.

Real-World Workflows That Don’t Suck

1. The “Sign First, Approve Later” Tactic

Who needs it: HR teams drowning in onboarding docs. New hires sign NDAs in DottedSign → Zapier triggers ApproveThis to get department heads’ OK → Auto-saves signed docs + approvals in your HRIS.

Why it’s slick: Stops legal from getting 27 versions of the same contract because someone edited a clause post-signature.

2. The Approval Escalation Hack

Who needs it: Finance teams processing invoices. Vendor submits signed PO in DottedSign → ApproveThis checks if amount is under $5k (auto-approves) or over (routes to CFO).

Why accountants love it: They set thresholds once. No more manually checking each invoice against approval matrices.

3. The Client Firewall

Who needs it: Agencies handling client contracts. Client signs SOW in DottedSign → ApproveThis pings internal legal → Only after legal OKs it does the signed doc get sent to accounting for billing setup.

Cold hard benefit: Stops accounts receivable from chasing payments on contracts your team hasn’t actually greenlit.

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

Zapier’s the glue here. You’re creating two types of Zaps:

1. DottedSign → ApproveThis: Triggers when signatures happen, kicks off approvals
2. ApproveThis → DottedSign: Triggers when approvals happen, auto-generates signature tasks

Pro tip: Use ApproveThis’ calculated fields to auto-set signature expiration dates. Example: Contract approvals older than 30 days? Automatically invalidate them and trigger new DottedSign requests.

Department-Specific Wins

Legal & Compliance

Merge ApproveThis’ audit trails with DottedSign’s certificate of completion. Now when auditors ask “Who approved this and when was it signed?”, you’ve got one report instead of two.

Sales Teams

Deal desk approves special pricing → Zapier auto-sends the approved quote to DottedSign for client signatures → Signed doc gets attached to Salesforce. No more “I thought you sent it!”

Procurement

Vendor signs updated MSA in DottedSign → ApproveThis routes to legal + security → Once both approve, contract gets pushed to Coupa/SAP. Purchase orders can’t be created until this chain is done.

Why This Isn’t Just Another Integration

Most approval tools treat signatures as an afterthought. ApproveThis bakes in logic that actually uses signature data:

• Auto-reject approvals if signatures are missing specific fields
• Pause approval SLAs if signers take too long
• Attach signed docs directly to approval records (no digging through email)

Meanwhile, DottedSign’s template features let you standardize what gets signed before approvals even happen. No more rogue contracts slipping through.

Getting Started (Without IT)

If you can set up a Slack channel, you can handle this:

1. Connect ApproveThis and DottedSign to Zapier (takes 2 minutes each)
2. Pick your trigger – “When a DottedSign task completes” or “When ApproveThis approves X”
3. Map fields – Usually just doc URLs, signer emails, approval reasons
4. Test with a low-stakes process (like office supply approvals)

Biggest mistake teams make? Overcomplicating the first workflow. Start with a single approval → single signature flow. Expand once people see it working.

When to Use This vs. Built-In Tools

DottedSign has basic approval features. ApproveThis is for when you need:

• Multi-level approvals (Finance → Legal → CRO)
• Conditional logic (“If contract value >$50k, add CFO approval”)
• External approvers (clients, vendors, contractors)

Simple NDAs? Maybe stick to DottedSign alone. Complex vendor agreements with compliance checks? That’s where the integration pays off.

Bottom Line

Approvals and signatures shouldn’t be separate sports. By wiring ApproveThis + DottedSign through Zapier, you’re essentially creating guardrails that:

• Stop incomplete docs from getting approved
• Auto-route based on what’s actually signed
• Give auditors a single timeline to check

It’s not about doing either approvals or signatures faster. It’s about making sure they actually work together – without relying on people to remember 15 process steps.

Next Steps

If you’re using DottedSign but still doing approvals via email or spreadsheets:

1. Register for ApproveThis (free 14-day trial)
2. Connect via Zapier using the templates above
3. Pick one high-volume process to automate (contracts, POs, NDAs)

Or book a 15-minute demo and we’ll build your first workflow live. No “strategy session” nonsense – just show us a document process, and we’ll map out how to automate it.