ApproveThis manages your Oneflow approvals.

When Bureaucracy Meets Automation

Let’s be real: contracts are where good ideas go to die in a pile of "please review this PDF" emails. Between chasing signatures, tracking changes, and waiting for legal to weigh in, most companies waste more time talking about deals than actually closing them. That’s where pairing ApproveThis (approval workflows) with Oneflow (contract management) turns a sluggish process into something that actually works.

What Each Tool Does Alone – And Why That’s Not Enough

Oneflow handles contracts – creating them, sending them, storing them. It’s great for getting documents out the door, but it doesn’t solve the approval chaos that happens before contracts go to clients. That’s where teams get stuck in endless "Hey, did you look at this?" Slack threads.

ApproveThis fixes the decision-making side: routing requests, escalating stalled approvals, and keeping a paper trail. But without direct ties to your contract system, you’re still copy-pasting data between platforms like it’s 2003.

Why This Combo Works for Mid-Sized Companies

If you’re between 50-5,000 employees, you’ve got enough approvals to make this worth automating, but not so much red tape that integrations become a coding project. Here’s what changes when you connect them via Zapier:

• No more blind spots: Contracts trigger approvals automatically, approvals trigger contract actions. Everything’s connected.
• External clients don’t need Oneflow seats: Approvers get everything via email – no extra logins, no added costs.

Real-World Use Cases That Don’t Suck

1. Legal Teams: Stop Playing Whack-a-Mole With Contract Changes

Scenario: A sales rep updates payment terms in a Oneflow contract. Without automation, legal might not see this until the client complains. With the integration:

How it works: Oneflow’s "Contract Status Changed" trigger → ApproveThis creates an approval request → Legal team gets an email (no Oneflow login needed) → Approved? Changes go live. Denied? Sales gets feedback instantly.

Bonus: Use ApproveThis’ approval thresholds to auto-approve minor edits (typo fixes) but escalate major changes (price adjustments).

2. Sales Teams: From Handshake to Contract in Hours, Not Weeks

Scenario: Your enterprise sales team closes a deal. Normally, they’d email legal, wait days for a contract draft, then chase down signatures. Now:

How it works: Sales starts an ApproveThis request → Zapier creates a Oneflow contract with deal details pre-filled → Once approved, the contract auto-sends to the client via Oneflow.

Real example: A SaaS company cut their sales cycle by 11 days by automating NDA and SOW creation after internal approvals.

3. Procurement: Enforce Policies Without Being the Bad Guy

Scenario: A department orders $50k of software without checking vendor terms. With ApproveThis + Oneflow:

How it works: Any new vendor contract in Oneflow → Requires procurement approval if over $10k → Approval groups ensure both legal and finance sign off → Approved contracts auto-add the vendor as a participant.

Key feature: Vacation delegation in ApproveThis stops approvals from stalling when someone’s OOO.

Setup: Less Time Than a Coffee Break

If you can set up a Slack channel, you can do this:

1. Connect via Zapier: Create a Zap between Oneflow and ApproveThis (15 clicks, tops).
2. Pick your triggers: Start with Oneflow’s "Contract Status Changed" or ApproveThis’ "Request Approved."
3. Test with a real contract: Approve a dummy request to see the contract auto-send.

Pro tip: Use ApproveThis’ calculated fields to auto-route contracts based on deal size. (e.g., >$100k goes to CFO, <$100k to department heads).

Teams That Actually Benefit (Not Just “All Companies”)

Legal & Compliance

Stop being the bottleneck. Set up automatic approval chains for specific contract types:

- NDAs: Auto-approve under certain conditions (like template language)
- Vendor agreements: Require cross-departmental sign-off
- Client contracts: Escalate based on liability clauses

Sales Leaders

Your reps aren’t lawyers. Use ApproveThis to gatekeep risky moves:

- Custom discounts over 20% require VP approval before updating contracts
- Non-standard SLAs trigger legal review in Oneflow
- Auto-create contracts only after opportunity is marked "Closed-Won" in CRM

Procurement Managers

Enforce spending policies without manual oversight:

- New vendor in Oneflow? Require 3 bids if over $25k
- Contract renewals auto-flag for review 60 days before expiry
- Approved suppliers get auto-added to contracts, unapproved ones trigger alerts

What You Can’t Do (Let’s Be Honest)

This isn’t magic. You still need:

- Someone to set sane approval rules (garbage in = garbage out)
- Basic contract templates in Oneflow
- To actually train teams on WHY approvals matter

But you can eliminate 80% of the chasing, CC’ing, and "per my last email" replies.

Ready to Stop babysitting Contracts?

ApproveThis isn’t another tool – it’s the missing layer between your contracts and the people who need to OK them. Combined with Oneflow via Zapier, you get:

- Faster closes: Deals don’t stall waiting for internal sign-offs
- Fewer errors: No more "Oops, I thought legal reviewed this"
- Audit trails: Every approval or change is tracked, because compliance isn’t optional

Try ApproveThis free for 14 days, or book a demo to see how it works with your Oneflow contracts. No sales scripts, just a 20-minute walkthrough.

P.S. If you’re still manually approving contracts, your competitors are already using this.