Approval stops being a chain of emails
An email-based workflow doesn't have one flaw but three: you cannot see where a document is stuck, there is no trace of the decision, and the approver's holiday stops everything.
Who this is for
- Companies approving cost invoices by forwarding emails
- Organisations where nobody knows whose desk a document is on
- Finance teams hunting for proof of an approval from six months ago
What it covers
- Approval paths with rules
Who approves, up to what amount and in what order — written into the system instead of into custom.
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The rule also covers the cases everyone knows about and nobody has written down.
- Deputies and deadlines
An absence doesn't stop the flow, and a document sitting too long chases itself.
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This is usually the first thing people notice after launch.
- A full decision trail
Who approved what and when, together with the version of the document at that moment.
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Reconstructing a case from a year ago stops being archaeology in an inbox.
- Wired into the accounting system
An approved document moves on automatically.
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Without that the workflow is only a prettier inbox and somebody is still retyping.
In depth
Where the resistance usually is
With the people who approve quickly today, because they do it with one tap in an email. If the new workflow needs a login and three screens, approvals slow down and the system earns a reputation it won't recover from. That one detail decides these rollouts more often than the rest of the scope combined.
Where we start
By writing down the rules that today exist only as custom: who may approve up to what amount, and what happens when they are away. That is often the hardest part of the project and it usually isn't technical.
Questions about this scope
Is this the same as a DMS?
Not quite. A DMS stores documents; a workflow handles what happens to them — who has to decide, and what happens when they don't. If you already have a DMS, we usually build the workflow layer beside it.
Can it be rolled out for cost invoices only?
Yes, and that is usually where we start. It is the most countable process in a company: the number of documents and the approval time are known, so the effect can be measured without argument.
What about electronic signatures?
For internal approval an authenticated trail in the system is usually enough. A qualified signature comes in where the law or the other party requires it — and it is then a separate integration, quoted separately.
The parent service and related scopes
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