Build an approval flow
Quick answer
Approvals that people actually complete: approval steps, dynamic approvers, reminders and rejection paths.
Key takeaways
- Decide one of or all of before building
- Design the rejection path explicitly
- Approve from email removes most delay
- Measure approval time, it dominates request cycle time
Choose the approval type
Ask for approval supports one user, a group, or a rule that resolves approvers dynamically, for example the requester manager. Decide whether one approval is enough or all must approve before you build anything.
Handle the rejection path
Most flows are built for the happy path and stall on rejection. Decide explicitly what happens: cancel the request, return it to the requester with comments, or route to a second approver.
Make approvals easy
Approval fatigue is the real failure mode.
- Send an email with approve and reject links so no login is needed
- Include the information the approver needs in the notification, not a bare link
- Add reminders and an escalation to the manager after a defined wait
- Report on approval cycle time, it is usually the longest part of a request
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Check your understanding
What is most often missing from an approval flow?
- A. A notification
- B. A defined rejection path
- C. A group
- D. A schedule
Show answer
B. A defined rejection path
Rejection handling is the common gap.
What removes the largest delay in approvals?
- A. More approvers
- B. Approve and reject from the email
- C. Higher priority
- D. More reminders
Show answer
B. Approve and reject from the email
Removing the login step is the single biggest improvement.