ApproveThis manages your Whale approvals.

Why This Combo Works Better Than Your Current Process

Let's cut through the BS: approvals suck when you're chasing people through Slack, email, and that one project management tool Janet from accounting refuses to learn. Whale houses your playbooks and SOPs. ApproveThis forces decisions to happen. Together? They turn "where are we on this?" into "it's already done."

Here's the dirty secret most vendors won't tell you: Approval tools are worthless if they don't plug into where work actually happens. Whale's where your team lives – training docs, process cards, task assignments. ApproveThis is the bouncer at the door making sure nothing moves forward without a thumbs-up. Connect them through Zapier, and you've got a system that works while your team sleeps.

Real Teams Using This, Real Results

Use Case 1: Killing Review Black Holes

Marketing agencies know this pain: Client wants 14 rounds of copy edits, your team updates the Whale playbook, but nobody signs off on the changes. Connect Whale's New Review trigger to ApproveThis, and suddenly every SOP update needs explicit approval. Legal team gets auto-emails, department heads vote sequentially, and the moment it's greenlit, Whale cards update automatically. No more "I thought you approved that!"

Use Case 2: Escalating Overdue Tasks Like a Pro

Manufacturing plant managers live by maintenance schedules in Whale. When a safety check assignment sits untouched for 48 hours, ApproveThis pings the shift supervisor → plant manager → regional director in order. Each escalation includes Whale card data like equipment photos and repair histories. Best part? Approvers only need email – no extra software licenses for external inspectors.

Use Case 3: Closing the Loop on Decisions

HR teams hate this scenario: Leadership approves new PTO policies in ApproveThis, but the Whale training docs never get updated. Connect the Request Approved trigger to Whale's Mark Assignment Done, and approved policies auto-publish to the employee handbook card. Denied requests? They kick back to the compliance team's Whale queue with comments attached.

Setup That Actually Takes 9 Minutes

1. In Zapier, make a new Zap
2. Pick Whale as the trigger app (New Review, Assignment Overdue, etc.)
3. Choose ApproveThis as the action app (Create Request)
4. Map these fields:
- Whale card ID → ApproveThis reference number
- Assignee email → ApproveThis approver list
- Due date → Approval threshold rules
5. Test with a real task (try rejecting something to see the auto-comment back in Whale)

Pro tip: Use ApproveThis' Calculated Fields to auto-approve small expenses in Whale purchase requests, but escalate anything over $5k to the CFO.

Who Wins Besides Your Sanity?

Operations Teams

New warehouse safety checklist in Whale? Ops managers set approval chains where regional leads must sign off before floor staff even see the update. Vacation delegation means approvals never wait on someone's PTO.

Finance Departments

AP teams auto-route Whale-based invoice assignments through 3-tier approvals. Overdue approvals? Escalate straight to controllers with original Whale card data attached. Real-time dashboards show exactly which invoices are stuck at which approval tier.

External Partners

Client approvals on campaign assets? Embed Whale training materials directly into ApproveThis requests. Clients approve via email without Whale logins, updates auto-post to their project card. No more "I can't find the latest version" excuses.

Why This Isn't Just Another Integration

Most approval tools treat your existing systems like an afterthought. ApproveThis+Whale works because:

• No license sprawl: Approvers only need email access – crucial when dealing with clients or cross-company teams
• Decisions stay contextual: Approval requests pull live Whale card data, approvers aren't working blind

That procurement request approval? It shows the original Whale playbook step, supplier quotes from the card comments, and real-time budget math via Calculated Fields. Approvers actually have context to decide, rather than rubber-stamping.

Bottom Line: This Isn't About Approvals

It's about eliminating the 37 back-and-forth messages that happen after someone clicks "approve." When Whale holds the process and ApproveThis handles the decisions, you get:

• Audit trails that actually match what happened
• New hires who can't mess up approvals (because the system won't let them)
• Clients who stop nagging you for status updates

Two tools. One Zapier connection. Zero patience for broken processes.

Make It Happen

If you're still manually herding approvals across Whale cards, you're leaving hours on the table every week. Get ApproveThis, connect it to Whale via Zapier, and actually test one of the workflows we outlined. Not sure where to start? Book a 15-minute demo – we'll build your first approval flow live using your actual Whale processes.