Get every governed decision to the right authority.
Route professional-services decisions through explicit approval paths connected to policy, contracts, milestones, changes and supported payment states. Approvers get the context they need; the engagement keeps a clear record of who decided what, when, and under which authority.
Stage 2 · Budget Owner + Legal — Required · parallel · all required. Budget Owner approved; Legal pending.
1 of 2External Finance Advisory
Explicit authority
Know which role or authority is required for the decision.
Context attached
Approvers see the object, version, trigger and evidence.
Version-aware
Approval stays connected to the exact version decided.
Decision evidence
Decisions and material routing events create a durable record.
Controlled exceptions
Explicit authority and evidence; no hidden bypass.
Five states, always labelled in words.
Shared across Contracts & Controls. A state describes the scope of an authoritative workflow decision — nothing more.
No approval is required for this decision under the current configuration.
A required approver decision has not yet been recorded.
Required approvals are recorded for this exact version.
The decision was rejected or returned for changes; history is kept.
Handled through an explicit, permissioned and recorded exception path.
Approvals scattered across email create uncertainty.
Governed decisions, where configured.
Representative decision points across the engagement. Not every engagement requires every approval.
“Is this exact contract/SOW version approved for signature?”
May unlock execution readiness when all required conditions are satisfied.
The resolved route for one decision.
An Approval Plan is derived from authorized rules and context, then frozen for the request unless a governed re-plan event occurs. Select a stage.
Approval Plan · Plan version 3
Recommended implementation · illustrativeBudget Owner + Legal
Decision request ID
Stable, with no sensitive meaning encoded.
Subject + version
The exact authoritative object reference.
Trigger
Rule/version or explicit manual authority.
Plan version
Immutable; changes create a re-plan event.
Steps
Order, mode, authority, completion condition.
Current state
Pending, in review, completed, blocked...
Evidence refs
Pointers — not cloned sensitive content.
Downstream action
What may proceed after completion.
Trigger. Route. Decide. Resolve. Record.
Select a step to see what the system is responsible for.
Everything needed to decide — in one place.
Try a decision. Returns and rejections need a reason, and a newer version blocks decisions on stale context.
Policy Profile “Regulated Advisory” v6 requires legal review for this service category · commercial threshold crossed.
If approved, Legal’s step completes and execution readiness is signaled to Contracts. Signature remains a Contracts action.
Five ways a decisioncan travel.
Recommended routing patterns. They appear in the product only where implemented and approved.
Role or authority scope — not a free-form job title.
Approve, reject, return for changes; optionally request context.
Due date, reminders and escalation. No auto-approval by timeout.
Optional separation-of-duties check — never silently waived.
Approve the exact version — and know when it changes.
Contract v5 was created after Legal’s review of v4. The v4 approval is preserved in history; v5 needs its own decision.
A decision, not money movement.
Milestone acceptance
Routes acceptance authority, shows evidence, records the decision.
Milestone and engagement state updates acceptance.
Payment release prerequisite
Records required business approval where configured.
Payment Protection validates conditions and executes or blocks release.
Active dispute
Shows that a decision may be blocked or routed differently.
Dispute / Payment Protection own hold and resolution.
Refund / cancellation
May route a required authority decision if configured.
Refund & Cancellation applies policy and financial action.
Availability handled — without authority leakage.
Delegation is time-bounded, scoped and recorded
Configure routes. Keep authority where it belongs.
Organization governance
Define which units, spend bands, service categories and risks require approval.
Authority administration
Maintain approver roles and scopes, budget ownership and acceptance authority.
Workflow configuration
Reusable route templates and escalation — without granting decision authority to admins.
Engagement execution
Create decision requests from real engagement objects; surface progress.
Evidence & review
Retain decision evidence; route cross-engagement reporting to Audit & Reporting.
Continuous improvement
Privacy-safe aggregate analytics to reduce unnecessary approvals while keeping required controls.
Fast for every side — safe for each one.
For approvers
AI summarizes. Accountable people decide.
AI may assist with
- Summarizing the decision packet with source links.
- Highlighting material changes between versions.
- Drafting a rationale for the approver to edit or accept.
- Prioritizing the queue using transparent operational factors.
- Suggesting missing context before review.
AI must never silently
- Submit an approval, rejection, exception or payment decision as the accountable actor.
- Invent policy reasons, authority or evidence.
- Conceal uncertainty or omit contradictory sources.
- Rank decisions using sensitive traits or opaque criteria.
- Override separation-of-duties, delegation or authority constraints.
Right authority
Exact version
Durable recordApproval Workflows, answered.
Every decision, to the right authority.
See how approval plans, decision packets and durable evidence fit your organization.
Routing patterns, delegation and escalation shown here are recommended designs and appear in the product only where implemented and approved. Approval Workflows records business decisions; it does not move money or sign agreements. Approval status represents the scope of an authoritative workflow decision; it does not replace legal, regulatory, procurement or professional judgment and does not by itself execute payment or milestone acceptance.