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Ask for approval

A step that stops until a person decides. If they approve, the workflow continues one way; if they reject or time runs out, the other.

What it is for

Some steps should not run on their own: voiding an invoice, sending a reminder to an important client or telling the team about a discounted sale. Ask for approval puts a person in the middle: the workflow asks them and waits for their answer.

How to add it

  1. Click Add a step › Ask for approval.
  2. Under Who decides, choose The account owner, The owner or an admin or Anyone on the team.
  3. Under What you are asking, write what they should review. You can use variables like {{folio}} or {{total}}.
  4. Set the Time to decide in days, from 1 to 30.
  5. If you want, check Also notify in Slack.
  6. On the canvas, build what happens under If approved and under If rejected or time runs out.

How it reaches the person deciding

  • By email: each person in the group gets an email, in their language, with what is being asked and the Review and decide button.
  • In Cord: the Approvals page gathers everything waiting for their decision. It opens from the email button or from the notice in the Workflows list that says how many they have pending.
  • In Slack: if you checked the option and the account has Slack connected, the channel gets the notice with a link to the approval. Without Slack connected, the notice only goes by email and in Cord.

The person deciding does not need the Settings permission: belonging to the chosen group is enough. The account owner can always decide.

Deciding

On Approvals, each one shows the workflow, the document that started it, what is being asked and until when there is time to decide. Click Approve or Reject; you can leave a comment.

The first decision is the one that counts. It cannot be changed afterwards, and the workflow continues right away through the matching branch.

If nobody decides

When time runs out, the approval closes on its own and the workflow continues through If rejected or time runs out: the same branch as a rejection. Runs shows which of the two it was.

Where you see what happened

In Runs, the step says who was asked and what was asked. While it waits, it shows until when; once decided, it shows Approved by, Rejected by or Time ran out with no decision, and the comment if there was one.

Test does not ask anyone: it shows what would happen if it were approved.

Limits

Limit Value
Time to decide 1 to 30 days
Length of what is asked 2,000 characters
Length of the comment 500 characters
Inside a “For each” Not allowed

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