How ApproveThis + Exact Online Automate Approval Chaos (Without the Headaches)

When Spreadsheets Meet ERP: Why Approval Processes Break

Let's be real - your finance team isn't crying tears of joy when purchase entries magically appear in Exact Online. They're sweating bullets because now they need to chase down Bob in procurement, Susan in legal, and that external vendor who still uses AOL email. ApproveThis doesn't just "integrate" with your ERP - it becomes the traffic cop between your data and the people who need to act on it.

Exact Online's Strengths (And Where Things Get Sticky)

Exact Online nails the accounting fundamentals - GL tracking, invoice management, inventory snapshots. But when it comes to orchestrating human decisions? You're looking at manual tagging, email threads, and that one intern refreshing the "approved" column every 5 minutes. This is where 76% of purchase approval delays happen according to FinOps Foundation data.

The Nuts and Bolts of Not Sucking at Approvals

ApproveThis plugs into Exact Online via Zapier like a power adapter for your approval processes. No API wrestling. No "we'll need to check with IT". Set up triggers so that:

• New purchase entries auto-create approval tickets with amount thresholds
• Approved sales requests instantly become Exact Online orders
• Subscription changes require client sign-off before updating

Real-World Example: Manufacturing Parts, Not Paperwork

Take Dutch machinery maker Van der Graaf BV - they process 200+ purchase entries weekly across 12 cost centers. Before integrating ApproveThis with Exact Online? 48 hour average approval time. After? 9 hours. How? Auto-routing based on:

- Vendor reputation scores
- Purchase category (raw materials vs office supplies)
- Department budget remaining

Setup That Doesn't Require a PhD

1. Connect Exact Online to Zapier (takes 4 minutes)
2. Pick your trigger (new purchase entry, subscription change, etc)
3. Map Exact data fields to ApproveThis request templates
4. Set approval rules: thresholds, groups, fallback approvers

Pro tip: Use Zapier's filter step to only send entries over €5K for approval. Because no one needs to approve the office coffee budget.

Finance Teams Stop Playing Approval Tag

AP departments using this integration report 62% fewer "Did you approve this?!" emails. Why? Approvers get Exact Online data inside the approval request - no hunting for context. Plus:

- Auto-approve recurring vendors under €X
- Escalate stale requests to department heads
- Audit trails that sync back to Exact projects

Sales Ops Actually Hits Quarterly Goals

Here's the dirty secret - 34% of sales orders get stuck in "approval limbo" according to Gartner. When ApproveThis detects an Exact Online sales approval:

- Legal reviews NDAs in parallel
- Finance checks credit terms
- Deal gets auto-approved if under discount threshold

Boom - your reps aren't babysitting deals through legal purgatory.

Client-Facing Teams Look Less Chaotic

External approvals via ApproveThis don't require clients to log into Exact Online (because they won't). Clients get branded emails showing:

- Exact subscription change details
- Side-by-side contract comparisons
- One-click approve/reject with comments

No more "I thought you CC'd them!" moments.

The Hidden Benefit: CFOs Sleep Better

Combining ApproveThis' audit trails with Exact's reporting gives you:

- Real-time approval cycle time dashboards
- Bottleneck alerts (Looking at you, Team 3)
- Approval rate vs fraud incident correlations

Suddenly, those SOC 2 audits become slightly less soul-crushing.

Common "But What About..." Questions

"We have custom approval rules in Exact"
So do 83% of our clients. ApproveThis layers on top of your existing workflows. Think of it as adding seatbelts to your ERP - doesn't change how you drive, just makes it safer.

"Our approvers change constantly"
Cool. Use ApproveThis' delegation rules to auto-reassign when someone's OOO or leaves. No more "Who's approving this?!" scavenger hunts.

How to Not Screw This Up

1. Don't auto-approve everything under €100K (yes, this happened)
2. Do sync Exact cost centers to approval groups
3. Don't let sales bypass CRM approvals (they'll try)
4. Do test thresholds with historical data first

Bottom Line: This Isn't About Software

It's about eliminating the 17 approval-related status meetings your team secretly hates. ApproveThis + Exact Online via Zapier is the duct tape your business processes didn't know they needed.

Get Started (takes 8 minutes) or watch the 3-min demo if you're the skeptical type.