ApproveThis manages your IEX by Imprint Engine Integration approvals.

Two Platforms, One Streamlined Process

When marketing teams need to execute branded offline experiences – whether corporate gifts, event swag, or client appreciation packages – IEX by Imprint Engine provides the tools to manage every detail. But what happens when your creative vision needs to align with budget approvals, compliance checks, or client sign-offs? This is where ApproveThis transforms the game. By connecting IEX with ApproveThis through Zapier, organizations gain an ironclad process that keeps projects moving while maintaining financial control and stakeholder alignment.

Why This Integration Matters for Marketing Teams

IEX excels at managing the logistics of physical brand experiences, from product selection to shipping coordination. ApproveThis brings structure to the decision-making that precedes those actions. Together, they solve two critical challenges:

• Speed vs. Control: Marketing teams often face delays waiting for approvals, while finance teams worry about unauthorized spending. This integration maintains velocity without sacrificing oversight.
• External Collaboration: Clients or external partners can approve IEX sends directly via email without needing access to your internal IEX account.

Real-World Impact Across Industries

Marketing Agencies: A boutique agency uses the integration to automatically route client gift proposals through ApproveThis. Clients receive email approvals with one-click decisions, triggering IEX to ship curated welcome kits within 24 hours of sign-off.

Enterprise Sales Teams: A tech company automates approval thresholds in ApproveThis – any client gift under $500 ships immediately via IEX, while larger requests route to department heads. This reduced their proposal-to-delivery time by 40%.

Nonprofit Organizations: During year-end campaigns, a nonprofit uses calculated fields in ApproveThis to ensure donor gift baskets stay within budgeted amounts. If a request exceeds limits, it automatically escalates to the executive director before IEX fulfillment begins.

Core Integration Use Cases

1. Automatic Approval Requests for New IEX Sends

When your team creates a new send in IEX – whether 500 branded notebooks for a conference or a custom gift box for a VIP client – ApproveThis can instantly launch an approval workflow tailored to your business rules.

How It Works:

1. A marketing coordinator finalizes an IEX send with vendor details and costs.
2. Zapier detects the new send and triggers ApproveThis to create an approval request.
3. Approvers receive an email with key details: total cost, recipient list, and shipping timeline.
4. Once approved, IEX automatically processes the send.

Unique Advantage: ApproveThis' calculated fields can cross-check IEX send totals against remaining budget allocations in your accounting software (via additional Zapier connections), automatically flagging overspend risks before approval.

2. Trigger IEX Sends After Approval Completion

For organizations requiring pre-approval before engagement creation, this workflow reverses the process:

1. A sales rep submits an ApproveThis request for client holiday gifts.
2. After leadership approval, Zapier triggers IEX to assemble and ship the specified items.
3. The sales team receives automatic tracking updates without manual follow-up.

Critical Note: ApproveThis' vacation delegation ensures alternate approvers are tapped if primary contacts are unavailable, preventing shipping delays during peak seasons.

Technical Setup Made Simple

Connecting IEX and ApproveThis requires no coding expertise. Here's the straightforward process:

Step 1: Create a Zapier account if you don't have one (free tier available). Visit Zapier to get started.

Step 2: Choose your trigger app (either IEX or ApproveThis) based on whether approvals should initiate sends or vice versa.

Step 3: Map critical data fields between systems. For example: IEX send ID → ApproveThis request reference number, or ApproveThis decision comments → IEX internal notes.

Pro Tip: Use ApproveThis' conditional logic to create branching workflows. For instance, approvals under $1k might auto-confirm in IEX, while larger sends require secondary validation from your procurement team.

Cross-Functional Benefits

For Finance Teams

Approval thresholds in ApproveThis prevent budget overages by requiring escalated sign-off for high-cost sends. Real-time dashboards show pending IEX commitments alongside actual spend.

For Client Services

External clients can approve sample shipments via email without IEX logins. Approval timelines are tracked internally to identify bottlenecks in client responsiveness.

For Operations

Automatic reassignment of approval tasks during PTO periods keeps IEX sends on schedule. Historical approval data helps negotiate better vendor rates based on annual send volumes.

Beyond Basic Approvals: Advanced Features

While the Zapier integration handles core automation, combining these platforms unlocks additional strategic advantages:

Compliance Auditing: Every IEX send approved through ApproveThis maintains a timestamped record of who approved what – crucial for industries with gifting regulations.

Resource Planning: Analyze approval patterns to predict IEX send volumes, optimizing inventory storage costs with your fulfillment partners.

Client-Specific Rules: Create ApproveThis templates that apply custom markups or budget caps for individual clients, automatically enforced across all their IEX engagements.

Getting Started

To implement this integration:

1. Sign up for ApproveThis and configure your approval templates.
2. Ensure your IEX account is active at IEX by Imprint Engine.
3. Build your first Zap in under 15 minutes using pre-configured templates.

The Bottom Line

In experiential marketing, timing is everything. Delayed approvals mean missed delivery windows, while hasty decisions risk budget blowouts. The ApproveThis-IEX integration via Zapier strikes the perfect balance – giving financial controllers the oversight they need while empowering marketers to execute impactful sends the moment stakeholders greenlight projects.

Ready to eliminate approval bottlenecks? Schedule a demo to see how automated workflows can transform your branded send processes.