How ApproveThis + Square Cuts Approval Chaos for Growing Businesses

When Finance Meets Fast Decisions

Let’s get real – nobody got into business to chase down signatures or play middleman between spreadsheets and payment systems. Yet here we are, with finance teams losing days each month manually creating invoices after approvals, operations managers playing phone tag about whether to fulfill that big Square order, and department heads drowning in "approve/reject" emails that somehow always land during vacation season.

This is why pairing ApproveThis with Square through Zapier isn’t just tech stack decoration. It’s a direct line between the "we need to decide" and "here’s what happened" parts of your business. Think of it as giving your approval processes a caffeine shot – suddenly everything moves at the speed your team actually works.

Where Square Ends and ApproveThis Begins

Square’s great at moving money and tracking sales. ApproveThis is great at moving decisions. Together? They cover the full lifecycle from "Should we do this?" to "It’s done." Here’s the breakdown:

Square handles: Taking payments, tracking inventory, generating invoices, logging orders.
ApproveThis handles: Getting the right "yes" from the right people, enforcing spending rules, documenting why decisions were made, escalating stuck requests.

The magic happens in the gaps. Like automatically creating draft invoices in Square when an approval request gets the green light. Or pausing order fulfillment in Square until three department heads sign off in ApproveThis. No more copy-pasting data between systems or hoping someone checks their email.

Real-World Uses That Don’t Suck

1. Invoice Creation That Doesn’t Require Mind Reading

Scenario: Your sales team closes a custom $15k deal. Normally, this would trigger a game of calendar tag – sales rep emails finance, finance waits for VP approval, someone forgets to CC the client, and the invoice goes out late.

With the integration:
- Sales submits an ApproveThis request with deal details
- Upon approval, Zapier auto-creates a Square invoice
- Client gets the invoice before the sales rep finishes their victory coffee

Who cares? Finance teams at services businesses (agencies, consultancies) who bill post-approval. Cuts their invoice lag from days to hours.

2. Order Fulfillment That Doesn’t Rely on Hope

Scenario: Your Square store gets a $5k wholesale order. Without checks, you risk overselling inventory. With too many checks, you fulfill orders slower than competitors.

Integration fix:
- Large Square orders trigger ApproveThis requests
- Warehouse manager + finance lead approve in sequence
- Only then does the order get marked for packing

Who wins? Retail and ecommerce ops teams. Balances fraud prevention with speed, using ApproveThis’ approval thresholds to auto-approve small orders.

3. Payment Approvals That Actually Prevent Oopsies

Scenario: A $20k vendor payment hits Square. The controller needs CFO sign-off, but the CFO’s hiking in a dead zone. Payment gets delayed, relationship sours.

How it should work:
- Square payment detected → ApproveThis request
- CFO gets email/SMS with one-click approve
- If no response in 24h, request escalates to COO
- Approval logs sync back to Square for auditing

Who breathes easier? Scaling startups (50-200 employees) where finance teams are juggling compliance and speed. Uses ApproveThis’ vacation delegation to avoid approval black holes.

Why This Isn’t Just Another Integration

Most app pairings just shuffle data. This one actually changes who gets looped in and how fast:

Approvers don’t need Square seats. Your client’s procurement head can approve invoices without a Square login. Great for B2B companies dealing with external stakeholders.

Decisions enforce dollar rules automatically. Set ApproveThis thresholds so that $500+ orders require CFO approval, while smaller ones auto-approve. No more manual "Is this over limit?" checks.

Approval chains adapt to reality. If your warehouse manager’s out, ApproveThis shifts approvals to their deputy without missing a beat. Square stays updated either way.

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

Zapier’s the middleman here, and setup’s simpler than explaining TikTok to your board:

1. Connect Square and ApproveThis to Zapier
2. Pick a trigger (e.g., "New Square Order")
3. Set conditions (e.g., "If order > $2k")
4. Map Square data to an ApproveThis request template
5. Test with a $1 order to confirm it works

Pro tip: Start with one workflow (like invoice approvals) before automating your entire procurement process. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are bulletproof approval systems.

Teams That Stop Being Approval Roadkill

Finance: Auto-route invoices and payments based on amount, department codes from Square data. Use calculated fields to enforce budget caps.

Operations: Embed Square inventory levels into approval requests. Approvers see real-time stock counts before approving orders.

Sales: Trigger contract approvals in ApproveThis when Square gets a deposit. Deals move faster without manual handoffs.

Execs: Get digest emails of high-value approvals instead of getting CC’d on every request. Because nobody became CEO to click "approve" 47 times daily.

The Quiet Perks You’ll Actually Use

Beyond the obvious time saves, there’s:

Audit trails that don’t reek: Every Square transaction now links to an ApproveThis log showing who approved it, when, and why. Say goodbye to forensic accounting during tax season.

Client-facing polish: Send clients ApproveThis links that show branded approval UIs. They sign off, Zapier pings Square to generate the invoice. Looks pro without the dev costs.

Error nuking: Since ApproveThis checks dollar amounts against rules before Square even sees the request, you avoid those "Oops we paid $50k instead of $5k" moments.

When to Steer Clear

This isn’t magic beans. If your approval process is "The founder texts 👍/👎", come back when you’ve got actual workflows. Also, if you process 10k+ Square transactions monthly, talk to our API docs – Zapier might get clingy at that scale.

Bottom Line for Busy People

ApproveThis + Square via Zapier is for companies where:

• Approvals currently happen over email/Slack (read: chaos)
• Finance loses hours weekly reconciling Square data with spreadsheets
• Big decisions get delayed because someone’s OOO

It’s not about eliminating humans – it’s about letting them focus on actual work instead of approval babysitting.

Ready to stop being the approval bottleneck? Register for ApproveThis or grab a demo. We’ll even show you how to connect Square in under 9 minutes (yes, we timed it).

Still reading? Must have struck a nerve. Imagine what automating just your top 3 approval headaches could save. Your move.