ApproveThis manages your SpreadSimple Integration approvals.

When Spreadsheets Meet Approval Automation

Let's get real: building websites from Google Sheets is genius until you need human oversight. That's where things get messy. SpreadSimple lets you spin up e-commerce sites faster than a caffeine-fueled developer, but who's making sure the right people sign off on orders, content updates, or pricing changes?

Enter ApproveThis – the approval layer your spreadsheet-powered operations desperately need. We're not here to replace your slick SpreadSimple workflows. We're here to make sure your "move fast and break things" mentality doesn't actually break things.

Why This Combo Works

SpreadSimple turns sheets into sites. ApproveThis turns chaos into process. Together, they handle the dirty work of:

• Automating approval chains for new orders/content updates
• Enforcing financial controls on pricing changes
• Keeping external partners in the loop without sharing logins

Best part? Your approvers don't need SpreadSimple access. Finance doesn't want to learn your website builder. Clients shouldn't see your backend. With ApproveThis, they just click "Approve" in their email.

Real-World Use Cases That Don't Suck

E-Commerce Teams: Stop Playing Order Roulette

New SpreadSimple order → automatic approval request. Simple. Essential when:

Example: A mid-sized outdoor gear company uses this to flag orders over $5k. Their procurement team gets auto-alerts to verify inventory before confirming big orders. No more overselling popular items because someone forgot to check stock levels.

Marketing Teams: Content Updates That Don't Backfire

Your SpreadSimple site makes editing product copy easy. Too easy. Set up approvals for:

- Pricing changes over 10%
- New blog posts with compliance risks
- Seasonal campaign launches

How it works: When the marketing coordinator updates a product page, ApproveThis pings the legal team automatically if the description includes regulated terms like "FDA-approved."

Procurement Teams: Budget Guardrails

Connect SpreadSimple product data to approval thresholds. We've seen companies use calculated fields to:

- Auto-approve small purchase requests
- Escalate orders that blow departmental budgets
- Require dual signatures for vendor changes

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

If you can build a Google Sheet, you can handle this. Here's the 3-step process:

1. Trigger: Pick your SpreadSimple event (new order, content update, etc.) in Zapier
2. Action: Map the data to an ApproveThis template (protip: use calculated fields for auto-approval thresholds)
3. Done: Approvers get email links – no logins, no training, no BS

Total setup time? About 15 minutes if you're slow at clicking buttons.

Features Your Team Will Actually Use

Email Approvals That Don't Get Lost

Approvers can reject/approve directly from their inbox. No portals. No passwords. Just a clear decision button that works on mobile.

Vacation Mode for Grown-Ups

When your CFO takes PTO, approvals auto-route to their deputy. No more "Waiting on Karen" status updates.

Dynamic Calculations

Auto-flag orders that exceed margin thresholds or require special tax treatment. If your SpreadSimple data includes cost columns, ApproveThis can calculate profit margins in real-time during approval.

Who Benefits (Besides Your Sanity)

Operations Managers

Finally get visibility into who approved what. Track average approval times. Identify bottlenecks where requests die in someone's inbox.

Finance Teams

Set rules like "All orders over $X need CFO approval" without becoming the approval bottleneck themselves.

External Partners

Clients can approve project deliverables via email without getting access to your SpreadSimple backend. Vendors get specific request types without seeing your entire operation.

The Cold Hard Benefits

This isn't about playing with shiny tools. For teams between 50-5k people, it comes down to:

Speed: Cut approval cycles from days to hours
Compliance: Audit trails for every decision
Scale: Handle 10x the requests without hiring
Trust: Clients see professional processes, not spreadsheet chaos

Common Objections (And Why They're Dumb)

"We Just Use Email Threads"

Cool. How's that working for tracking which version someone approved? What happens when Karen forwards the thread to Steve without context?

"Our Current System Works"

Define "works." If "works" means losing requests in Slack threads and having zero audit trails, sure.

"We'll Build It In-House"

Great idea. While your devs are busy recreating approval logic, your competitors are shipping faster.

Getting Started

If you're using SpreadSimple seriously, you need approval guardrails. Here's how to proceed:

1. Grab an ApproveThis trial
2. Connect to SpreadSimple via Zapier (seriously, it's 3 clicks)
3. Set up your first workflow in 15 minutes

Or book a demo to see how other 100-500 person companies handle 500+ monthly approvals without hiring a coordinator.

Bottom Line

SpreadSimple removes technical barriers. ApproveThis removes organizational chaos. Together, they let you move fast without breaking things – or relationships.

Your choice: Keep chasing approvals in messy threads, or finally create processes that scale as fast as your ambitions.