Understanding Approval Workflows + How to Use Them

Table of contents

1. What are approval workflows?

2. Types of approval workflows

3. How to design an approval workflow

4. Approval workflows in project management

5. Elements of an approval process workflow

6. Examples of approval workflows

7. Advantages of approval workflows

8. Common approval workflow challenges

9. Choosing the right approval workflow software

10. Bring clarity to every approval

11. Approval process workflow FAQs

What are approval workflows?

An approval workflow is a defined set of steps where tasks, documents, or decisions must be reviewed and approved by one or more stakeholders before progressing. It’s a type of business process workflow that ensures quality control, compliance, and stakeholder alignment — especially in high-stakes or cross-functional work where supervison of vital steps is critical.

Here’s how it works: A team member submits a piece of work — like a creative asset or a contract draft. That submission triggers a workflow where it’s routed to various stakeholders, who measure the deliverable against predefined approval criteria. Each approver reviews the work, adds feedback or approves it, and the task moves forward (or back for revision). This continues until final approval is given.

But wait, aren’t most approvals given informally within teams? Well, unlike ad hoc approvals over email or chat, formal approval workflows ensure:

• Accountability: Every task is traceable and feedback can be actioned in a timely manner

• Structure: Everyone knows the sequence of steps and who is responsible for approvals at any given stage

• Speed: Automated routing and email notifications keep things moving without a project manager (PM) pestering the team

• Documentation: Audit trails and version control reduce risk and allow for a transparent, well-documented review process

I’ve seen teams set up automated approval workflows for everything from marketing assets to legal compliance reviews — anywhere a business might need multiple approvers, diverse stakeholders, and strict compliance.

Types of approval workflows

Approval workflows aren’t one-size-fits-all. Depending on the workflow type, industry, or approval criteria, businesses may need different levels of structure, flexibility, or decision-making logic.

Choosing the right type of approval workflow is essential for keeping teams aligned, reducing delays, and ensuring that review and approval steps support — rather than stall — business operations.

Here are three common types of approval workflows used across industries:

1. Process approval workflow

A process approval workflow follows a clearly defined, repeatable sequence of steps detailed in predetermined rules.

Each task moves through a specific, documented approval flow, where individual approvers are assigned based on rules and role-based permissions. This type of workflow works best when the process is routine and consistent, such as submitting an expense report, generating a purchase order, or conducting policy reviews. Because of their consistency, process approval workflows are prime candidates for automated approval workflows to cut down on manual data entry and improve efficiency across the entire process.

Let’s say a mid-sized marketing agency creates a process approval workflow to handle vendor invoices. Once a team member submits an invoice, the workflow triggers an approval request routed first to the finance lead for verification, then to the operations manager for budget sign-off. Email notifications keep approvers updated on due dates and approval status, and the workflow includes audit trails to track the full sequence of approvals.

This structured way of managing approvals helps the agency minimize errors, improve communication across departments, and complete the process in a timely manner.

2. Project approval workflow

A project approval workflow is more flexible than a process-based one. While it still follows a general structure, this type of workflow allows for adjustments depending on project scope, stakeholders, or deliverables. It’s best suited for creative, collaborative, or evolving work — where the approval conditions or tasks may shift as the project progresses.

Imagine that a software company builds a project approval workflow for its quarterly product launch campaigns. The initial review of messaging starts with marketing leadership, followed by legal and brand compliance checks, before moving to final approval by executive stakeholders. Because each launch varies in size and complexity, project managers adjust the task lists and approvers using workflow templates inside their project management software.

The flexibility of this approval process workflow allows the team to adapt without losing control — and helps them avoid wasting time by keeping everyone on the same page throughout the review process. However, it can be time-consuming to document a project approval workflow process before every project, and bottlenecks can still be found if errors are made while keeping track. Nonetheless, for larger, ad hoc projects, a project approval workflow is important.

3. Case approval workflow

Finally, a case approval workflow is used when the outcome isn’t known upfront and must evolve based on information gathered along the way.

This workflow type is often found in investigative or decision-heavy processes — such as customer complaints, compliance issues, or insurance claims — where each next step depends on the result of the previous one. It often requires manual review, multiple approvers, and dynamic routing logic.

In a hypothetical example, an enterprise HR team sets up a case approval workflow to manage internal promotion requests. When a department head submits a promotion case, it enters a structured review process that begins with HR business partners conducting an initial review of that specific employee’s performance history and compensation benchmarks.

If the case meets predefined approval criteria, it’s escalated to the compensation team to evaluate salary band alignment, and then routed to senior leadership for final approval. Throughout the workflow, approval rules determine which decision makers need to be involved based on the employee’s role, grade, or department.

This workflow allows HR to handle complex promotion cases in a consistent, compliance-friendly, and auditable way — while also ensuring that decisions are made fairly and based on the right inputs at every step of the entire process. Ultimately, a case-by-case type of approval flow supports compliance with company policies, helps manage requests efficiently, and gives the organization the flexibility to adapt to several factors before reaching a decision.

How to design an approval workflow

Ready to get started designing your own approval workflow process?

The steps below outline how to create an approval workflow that aligns with your team’s needs, reduces all that unnecessary back-and-forth, and improves overall visibility.

1. Map the entire process from start to finish

Start by identifying the exact sequence of steps involved in your review and approval process. What triggers an approval request? What happens next? What constitutes final approval? What happens if it’s not approved?

Outline every stage — from initial submission to final sign-off — so you have a clear view of the process. This mapping helps you identify bottlenecks, define decision points, and ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

2. Define roles and approvers at each step

Every step in your approval workflow should have a clear owner. Assign approvers based on role, expertise, or authority level. Use permission levels to control who can edit, review, or approve each task.

If your workflow involves multiple approvers, clarify whether approvals happen in sequence or in parallel. Defining this upfront prevents approval delays and confusion over responsibilities.

3. Establish approval criteria and rules

Set specific, objective approval criteria that help stakeholders make fast, informed decisions. For example, an expense report approval might require attached receipts, proper budget codes, and manager justification.

You should also create approval rules — conditions that determine how the workflow progresses. For instance, requests over a certain dollar amount may require additional approvers. This step ensures decisions align with company policies and reduces the need for manual intervention.

4. Use workflow templates to standardize repetitive tasks

For recurring approval processes — like content publishing, hiring requests, or vendor onboarding — use workflow templates to save time and drive consistency. Templates make it easy to replicate proven workflows without building from scratch each time.

In Wrike, teams can use workflow templates to create structured, automated paths for task approvals, helping to reduce errors and eliminate back-and-forth communication.

5. Automate notifications and status updates

To keep everyone aligned, build in email notifications, in-app alerts, or dashboard widgets that update stakeholders on approval status and due dates. This helps avoid delays caused by people simply not knowing it’s their turn to act.

Automated alerts also improve communication and reduce the need for manual follow-ups — especially in workflows with many steps or remote participants.

6. Plan for exceptions and manual reviews

Not every approval can follow a predefined script. Your workflow should allow for manual review or exception handling, such as routing a task to legal, pausing for clarification, or escalating unresolved approvals.

This is especially important in more complex or high-stakes workflows where context matters and blanket rules aren’t enough.

7. Test and optimize the workflow over time

Once your workflow is live, track how it performs. Are approval requests moving quickly? Where do delays happen? Are all key elements aligned? Use workflow analytics and feedback from team members to spot inefficiencies and make adjustments.

With a tool like Wrike, teams can monitor real-time progress, gather insights, and refine workflows based on actual usage, making the approval process workflow smarter with every cycle.

Approval workflows in project management

Project management is full of moving parts: Timelines, dependencies, cross-functional collaboration, and documentation. Without a reliable approval workflow, key decisions can slip through the cracks, delaying progress and increasing the risk of rework. That’s why approval workflows are a core part of project execution, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved.

In project environments, approval workflows are often tied to milestone reviews, resource allocations, scope changes, or the delivery of client-facing assets. These workflows add structure to the review process, clarify roles, and make it easier for teams to stay aligned throughout the entire process.

What makes approval workflows essential in project settings?

• Keeps stakeholders on the same page: With predefined approval steps, everyone knows what’s expected before work moves forward. This reduces ambiguity and supports better cross-functional communication.

• Improves efficiency by reducing delays: Automated notifications and task assignments keep the process moving without requiring constant manual check-ins.

• Supports decision making and accountability: Approval requests are documented, time-stamped, and traceable — helping project managers justify decisions and maintain transparency.

• Reduces compliance risks: In regulated industries or complex projects, a clear workflow approval process ensures that decisions follow policy and that all necessary sign-offs are obtained.

• Enables faster project delivery: When teams don’t have to chase down approvers or dig through email threads, they can spend more time on execution and less time waiting.

How teams use Wrike for project approvals

In Wrike, approval workflows are built directly into tasks and projects. Teams can:

• Add multiple approvers and define whether approvals should be sequential or parallel

• Set due dates for approvals to keep timelines on track

• Create approval conditions based on task status, project stage, or form input

• Automate email notifications and in-app alerts when action is needed

• Track approval status in dashboards, calendars, or Table views

For example, a product development team might build a project approval workflow that routes final prototype designs to engineering for feasibility review, then to legal for compliance, and finally to leadership for launch go-ahead. Each stage has clear ownership, and project managers can see where approvals stand in real time — no need for manual follow-ups or status meetings.

Approval workflows help project managers maintain momentum while ensuring that nothing important moves forward without the right sign-off.

Elements of an approval process workflow

If you’re starting to build an approval workflow process, then it’s tempting to simply create a directory of people who need to sign off, attach a document repository for signature collection, and then call it a day. But an effective approval workflow is so much more.

In fast-moving teams, one thing becomes clear: Approval workflows — important for reducing delays and improving accountability — need to be built with intention. An effective workflow process is a structured system with clearly defined components — each one helping teams stay organized, reduce friction, and complete tasks with confidence.

Let’s jump into the key elements of a high-functioning approval process workflow, especially in fast-paced business environments where timing, accuracy, and accountability matter.

Examples of approval workflows

Approval workflows come in many forms, depending on the type of task, the number of stakeholders, and the level of complexity involved. Below are three typical examples, each illustrated with step-by-step approval flows and contextualized for project environments.

1. Document approval workflow

Project-based teams, especially those in marketing, legal, and client services, rely on document approval workflows to ensure quality, compliance, and timely delivery.

When multiple stakeholders need to share documents, review them, and sign off on what’s inside, a structured approval process helps maintain accountability and prevent last-minute surprises.

In this example of a document review and approval process above, an agency managing multiple campaigns needs to keep content deliverables moving while coordinating with internal and external reviewers. Using Wrike, the team automates the review and approval process, with clearly defined deadlines, notifications for multiple approvers, and version history all in one place.

This kind of workflow reduces the time spent chasing approvals, maintains a clear audit trail, and ensures the content meets internal and client approval criteria detailed in the company’s style guide before final delivery.

2. Purchase order (PO) approval workflow

In large, project-driven organizations, purchasing delays can stall timelines and disrupt delivery. A purchase order approval workflow helps ensure that every spend request is reviewed, budget-aligned, and properly documented before execution.

In this example, a company managing an enterprise IT rollout needs to process equipment and software purchase requests efficiently, without losing control of budget oversight or compliance. Using Wrike, they create a standardized workflow with tracking that automates routing based on cost thresholds, stakeholder roles, and department budgets.

Finance and procurement teams rely on this structured workflow to control spending, ensure compliance, and avoid project execution delays due to budget gaps or unapproved purchases. Plus, the approval workflow minimizes risk, aligns spending with project scope, and reduces the back-and-forth typical of manual purchase workflows, as automated approval rules in Wrike apply approval conditions based on the request’s size or category.

3. Employee onboarding approval workflow

When a new hire joins a team, multiple departments — from HR to IT to legal — need to coordinate quickly to help them get off to a smooth start. A structured onboarding approval workflow reduces delays, ensures compliance, and creates a consistent employee experience.

In our example approval workflow above, a company hiring a new project manager needs to coordinate multiple internal handoffs before the start date.

By building an approval workflow in Wrike, each team receives their task automatically once the previous step is approved, helping to make sure that the entire process moves forward without manual intervention.

This workflow improves coordination, reduces missed steps, and helps HR deliver a more professional onboarding experience — all while keeping approvals securely documented and compliant with company policies.

Advantages of approval workflows

Without a clear approval process, even simple projects can get stuck. Unanswered requests, unclear roles, and lost documents slow down progress — and create frustration across teams.

That’s why structured, trackable approval workflows are so valuable: They bring order to complexity, improve accountability, and reduce delays across the entire process.

Here are the key benefits of implementing approval workflows in your team or organization.

1. Improved efficiency

Manual approval chains often involve chasing down approvers, switching between tools, or resending files. With automated approval workflows in place, these delays disappear. Tasks move forward the moment they’re approved, stakeholders get real-time alerts, and project managers can spend less time following up and more time leading execution.

2. Increased transparency and control

Approval workflows give teams visibility into who’s approved what, when, and why. This transparency is essential for tracking approval status, managing expectations, and keeping stakeholders aligned. Whether you’re waiting on an executive sign-off or a compliance review, there’s no need to ask around — it’s all documented.

Dashboards in Wrike show live status updates, and built-in audit trails provide full visibility into the review and approval history for every task or document, so you have all the info you need in one place to track and monitor an approval workflow as it happens.

3. Fewer errors and bottlenecks

When approvals happen over email or chat, mistakes may creep in: outdated versions, skipped steps, or missed sign-offs. A structured approval process workflow prevents these issues by defining the exact steps, roles, and conditions required for work to progress.

By using workflow templates and role-based routing in Wrike, teams reduce manual data entry and eliminate the need for last-minute fixes or rework.

4. Stronger compliance and risk management

For industries that rely on regulatory documentation, contracts, or policy-driven workflows, approvals aren’t just helpful — they’re mandatory. A well-designed workflow makes sure no task is marked complete without the right approval conditions in place.

Wrike’s approval workflows support compliance issues by enforcing company policies, requiring specific inputs before progression, and documenting every decision point for internal or external audits.

5. Faster project delivery

Projects stall when decisions are delayed. Approval workflows keep timelines intact by defining ownership, sending automated reminders, and making it easy to track requests in real time. This helps avoid bottlenecks and allows project managers to adapt quickly when timelines shift.

In Wrike, teams can monitor all pending and completed approvals at a glance, which speeds up delivery, especially when multiple projects run in parallel.

6. Better stakeholder communication

With everything centralized, stakeholders don’t need to ask, “Where is this?” or “Who’s reviewing it?” Approval workflows keep everyone on the same page, improve collaboration, and reduce unnecessary check-ins.

When paired with Wrike’s notification system and status updates, teams stay aligned without relying on status meetings or lengthy email threads.

Common approval workflow challenges

Even with the best intentions, approval workflows can break down if they’re poorly designed, too rigid, or disconnected from daily operations. These challenges often lead to missed deadlines, frustrated team members, and inconsistent decision making.

Here are some of the most common issues that impact the effectiveness of an approval workflow process — and what to watch for as you build your own:

1. Lack of clear approval conditions

When approval conditions aren’t clearly defined, approvers may not know what to look for, leading to delays, subjective decisions, or repeated revisions. Teams need consistent, documented criteria to support quick and informed sign-offs.

2. Too many manual steps

Relying on spreadsheets, emails, or chat threads to move approval requests forward increases the chance of human error. Manual processes slow down reviews, create version confusion, and make it harder to keep track of where things stand.

3. Unassigned or unavailable approvers

Without assigned approvers — or clear backup roles — workflows get stuck. If a stakeholder is out of office or unclear on their role, the approval flow can halt altogether, impacting project delivery timelines.

4. No visibility into approval status

If stakeholders can’t see where a request stands, they may follow up prematurely or miss their window to act. Lack of visibility leads to duplicate efforts, repeated outreach, and wasted time.

5. Inflexible workflows

Rigid workflows that don’t allow for exceptions or route variations can be more of a burden than a benefit. Real-world business processes often require adaptive logic to reflect different project types, approval levels, or escalation paths.

6. Poor integration with project management tools

When approval workflows are disconnected from the tools teams already use — like project management platforms — the entire process becomes harder to manage. This separation can lead to siloed decisions and inconsistent documentation.

7. Missing audit trail

Without an audit trail, teams have no formal record of who approved what, when, and why. This creates compliance risks, especially for financial approvals, contract workflows, or regulated industries.

8. Delayed final approvals

Even if a workflow is working smoothly up to the final step, executive final approval can often become a bottleneck. This usually happens when workflows lack due dates, notifications, or tiered approval options.

Choosing the right approval workflow software

Not all tools offer the same level of flexibility, automation, or integration. Use this checklist to evaluate and compare solutions when selecting an approval workflow management software that fits your operational and project management needs:

• Supports custom approval flows with conditional logic

• Enables automated approval workflows to reduce manual intervention

• Allows configuration of detailed approval conditions and escalation rules

• Provides a complete audit trail for compliance and accountability

• Tracks final approval and supports multi-level sign-offs

• Sends real-time email notifications and reminders to approvers

• Displays live approval status through dashboards or reports

• Integrates with existing workflow and project management software

• Supports both sequential and parallel approval requests

• Offers reusable workflow templates for consistent processes

• Includes role-based access and permission levels for approvers and contributors

• Scales with growing teams and increasingly complex approval process workflows

This kind of checklist helps teams find the best approval workflow software for their needs, with a special focus on features that support both efficiency and control — two of the biggest reasons approval workflows are important in modern project environments.

Bring clarity to every approval

Approval workflows are how work gains momentum, stays on track, and meets the standards your team relies on.

With Wrike, you can build structured, scalable approval flows that eliminate bottlenecks, reduce manual effort, and bring full visibility to every step. Whether you’re managing marketing deliverables, purchase orders, or onboarding processes, Wrike gives you the tools to route tasks, define approval conditions, and track progress in real time ... all in one place.

Approval process workflow FAQs