Approval workflows for teams of 20–250

Stop chasing approvals.

Approval App routes every sign-off to the right people in the right order — and keeps the record for you.

14-day trial · No credit card · Export your data any time

nova.ggraf.com · request #1042recorded · time-stamped
Tooling renewal $14,000 · over $10k
Routing: Department head → Finance → VP (threshold step)
Department head · approved
Mon 09:14
Cleared
Finance · reviewing the contract
in thread · 3 comments
In review
!
VP · out today
auto-escalates to backup
Escalated
Audit trail3 of 3 steps logged · who, when, on what
Built for the person who runs operations — and quietly became the approval routing engine
The Tuesday you know

You haven’t got an approval process. You are the approval process.

A contract needs the department head, then finance, then the VP. There's no system, so you're the system — forwarding, bumping, reminding, and reconstructing who said yes when someone finally asks.

nova.ggraf.com · request #1031⏱ waiting 3 days
Marketing SaaS renewal · $8,200
Routing: Department head → Finance → VP
Department head · approved
Fri 14:02
Cleared
Finance · no response
no reminder sent · 3 days idle
Stuck
3
VP · not started
waiting on Finance
Queued
No escalation · no owner · last activity 3 days ago
01
Decisions sit

A request that should clear in an hour takes days — no routing, no escalation, no visibility into where it's stuck.

02
There’s no defensible record

When finance or an auditor asks who approved this and when, the honest answer is “let me reconstruct that.”

03
One person is the single point of failure

The whole process lives in one coordinator's head and inbox. When they're out, it breaks.

I’m not managing approvals. I’m chasing people. And when someone asks me who signed off on something three months ago, I have to go digging through email and hope I find it.

— the operations manager who became the routing engine
What changes

The routing you’ve been doing by hand — as an actual system.

Three things do the work you're doing now. Everything else is table stakes.

Core routing

Multi-layer routing, no flow-building

Set conditional, sequential, and group approvals — the VP step only fires over a threshold, finance always second. You configure it; you don't build and maintain a flow.

Replaces: forwarding and “bumping this”
In-context review

Review and discuss in context

Approvers see the actual document and raise the question on the request itself — one thread next to the item, not a reply-all that resets the whole conversation.

Replaces: the reply-all that loops in the wrong person
Audit trail

A clean audit trail, by default

Every decision is time-stamped with who, when, and on what. When the quarter-end question lands, you pull the trail instead of rebuilding it from email.

Replaces: an afternoon of email archaeology
And the table stakes: email + Teams/Slack notifications, integrations, and a public API — approvers act where they already are.
Before you ask

The honest answers to what you're already thinking.

We already do approvals in Teams / Power Automate.

If your approvals are single-approver and simple, Teams Approvals may be all you need — honestly. Teams move to us the moment there are two approvers and the status gets out of sync, or you want conditional routing without building and maintaining a Power Automate flow, or you need the approver to review the actual document in one place. We're the step after Teams Approvals stops keeping up.

Not for you ifyour flows are simple and you live entirely in Microsoft 365.

Another tool my team won't actually adopt.

Adoption is the real problem, not setup. Approvers don't log into a new app — they get the request in email and Teams where they already are, and approve in one click. The reminders and escalations do the chasing you're doing now.

Not for you ifyour approvers won't engage with any structured process at all.

Why pay when email works?

Email “works” the way being the routing engine works — it costs you the chasing, the stalled decisions, and the afternoon you lose when finance asks who approved something. The question isn’t our price; it’s what the current way costs you.

Not for you ifapprovals genuinely aren't costing you anything yet.
✉ Inbox · Approval App
Approval needed: Tooling renewal — $14,000
Department head approved · routed to you
Your turn — approve in one click
ApproveReject
or open the thread · 3 comments

Approvers act from email or Teams — no new app to log into

Where this fits

You’ve outgrown email. You’re not ready for $2,500 a month.

The honest comparison you're already running — against the tools you actually weigh us against.

Approval AppTeams Approvals / Power AutomateKissflow & enterprise BPM
Multi-approver status stays in syncYes — one source of truthAdaptive cards don't auto-update for other approversYes
Conditional routing setupConfigured, no flow-buildingBuild & maintain a Power Automate flowConfigurable, with a rollout project
Review the document in contextThreads on the item itselfReply-all / separate chatVaries; heavier
Audit trail by defaultTime-stamped, exportablePieced together across toolsYes
Starting priceFits a team your sizeBundled with M365, with the gaps above~$2,500/mo floor

Competitor facts as of 2026-06 — reviewed quarterly.

Use Approval App if

  • A request last got stuck for days because no one could see where it was
  • You have two or more approvers, or rules like “over $5k adds finance”
  • Someone has asked you who approved something — and you had to go digging
  • You want approvers to act in email and Teams, not learn a new app

Stick with what you have if

  • “Just ask Dana” still works for your team — you don't need this yet
  • Your flows are single-approver and live entirely in Microsoft 365
  • Approvals genuinely aren't costing you anything today
Plain pricing

Priced for a team your size.

A 14-day trial, and annual saves you two months. No card to start.

Starter
Flat / month

A flat monthly price for a small team running a handful of approval flows.

  • Core multi-layer routing
  • Email + Teams/Slack notifications
  • Time-stamped audit trail
Start free
Most teams start herePro
$10–12 / user / month

The volume tier — conditional routing, in-context review, and integrations for the whole team.

  • Everything in Starter
  • Conditional & threshold routing
  • In-context review & threads
  • API & integrations
Start free
Enterprise
Custom

For teams that need SSO, advanced audit, and a defensible record across the org.

  • Everything in Pro
  • SSO & advanced audit
  • Priority support — from the person who built it
Talk to Greg

Too small for this? If “just ask Dana” still works, you don’t need it yet. Come back when a request last got stuck for three days.

Stop chasing approvals.

Build your first flow this afternoon. Route every sign-off to the right people in the right order — and keep the record for you.

14-day trial · No credit card · Export your data any time