Approval Workflows in Microsoft 365
Requests travel through a fixed chain of steps, each with its own deadline. If nobody responds, the task goes to the named deputy and then one level up – it does not turn into an approval. Every decision stays on the case with time, person and comment.
Approvals rarely fail on the decision
A request rarely sits because somebody is thinking hard about it. It sits because nobody knows it is sitting. The line “can you just approve this?” arrives as an email among sixty others, and whoever reads it is often not sure they are the person who should decide at all. The requester sees none of this. All they know is that no answer comes, so they chase – usually the wrong person, usually too late.
The real difficulty sits one level below that. Hardly any business can recite its own approval chain end to end. Up to €500 the team lead decides, above that the department, and above a larger amount the managing director – and “a larger amount” is, in a great many firms, genuinely the most precise wording anyone can offer. Then come the cases nobody has ever talked about: who approves the approver's own leave? What applies when the cost centre belongs to the person raising the request? While those rules live only in individual heads, no software can execute them – a digital run forces you to say the chain out loud once, and that is the uncomfortable but most valuable part of the project.
Which leaves the question every chain has to answer: what happens when nobody responds? Two answers are common and neither is any good. Either the case simply sits – then digitising it has bought you a nicer waiting room. Or it counts as approved after a few days – then silence buys consent, and afterwards nobody can tell whether a person agreed or merely never looked. So we build the third way: remind, hand over to the deputy, escalate. The case keeps moving without a decision being invented for it.
Which approvals are worth it
We start with the request type that occurs most often and has the clearest thresholds. Further types later share the same form, the same deadlines and the same deputy rule.
Purchase requests and capital spend
The most common starting point, because the rules are clearest here: amount, cost centre and category decide who signs off. A framework agreement removes whole steps from the chain.
Leave, flexitime and special leave
Many cases, small amounts, and by far the most queries. What matters is less the approval than the check of who else in the team is already off in the same period.
Travel costs and expenses
Receipts hang on the request and the check follows fixed limits. Reimbursing your own line manager always needs a second step, whatever the amount.
Quotes, discounts and contracts
Here the chain hangs on the deviation rather than the amount: discount band, contract term, payment terms. What gets approved is the exception, not the standard case.
HR matters
Few cases, the strictest permissions. Hiring request, salary change, reference letter – what counts most here is who may see the request in the first place.
Documents and approved versions
Work instructions, inspection plans, data sheets: the goal is not speed but the evidence of who approved which version, and when.
A run in which a deadline passes
An example case worth €18,400: step 1 decides on time, at step 2 the deadline passes and the deputy takes over, step 3 is still open – and purchasing stays blocked.
Request BA-2481 · submitted Monday, 08:14
- Item
- Crane control replacement
- Amount
- €18,400
- Cost centre
- 4200 Production
- Raised by
- M. Kern, Maintenance
-
Mon 15:40
1 · Technical check
Maintenance team lead · 1 working day
Need confirmed, attached quote reviewed, comment left on the case.
approved -
Wed 09:00
2 · Budget approval
Cost centre 4200 · 2 working days
Deadline passed. The deputy picks up the card and agrees the same day.
deputy -
by Thu 12:00
3 · Managing director
from €10,000 · 3 working days
Open, with the time left shown in the overview. Reminder goes out tomorrow.
running -
then
4 · Place the order
Purchasing · only after step 3
No buying without a complete chain – not even once a deadline has passed.
blocked
What happens when a deadline passes
| When | What the run does | State |
|---|---|---|
| 4 hrs before | Reminder to the person responsible, in Teams and by email, with the time remaining. | running |
| deadline passed | The named deputy receives the task as well. Both see the same card, the first decision counts. | deputy |
| +1 working day | The case moves one level up, carrying the trail so far and a note on which step ran out. | escalated |
| after that | The request stays open and appears in the weekly overview. It does not count as approved. | never automatic |
Deputy rule
- Absence is in the calendar. The task goes to the deputy straight away, without waiting for the deadline.
- No deputy on file. The case waits out the deadline and then escalates directly to the next level up.
- Deputy is the requester. Ruled out. The step is skipped and the level above it decides.
Silence is not consent. No request is approved by the clock running out. The run only makes sure it never sits unnoticed.
The line that matters is the last one in the deadline table. A passed deadline moves the case, it does not decide it – build approval by expiry into a chain and you can never show afterwards that anyone actually looked.
Steps, deadlines and amount limits are an example and are set together with you. Whether a level has a deputy at all, and where it escalates to, is your call – we model what your approval matrix says.
From request to executed approval
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Capture the request in full
The form sits where the work happens: in Teams, on the intranet or as a card in SharePoint. Mandatory fields and attachments are checked before the run starts – an incomplete request never reaches an approver.
-
Derive the chain from the data
Amount, cost centre, category and requester determine the sequence of steps. The thresholds live in a list, not in the flow: when responsibility for a cost centre changes, that is one entry, not a change request.
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Deliver, remind, decide
Every step gets an approval card in Teams and the same information by email, attachments included. Deciding is one click, at the desk or on a phone; a rejection requires a comment.
-
Handle the deadline running out
A reminder goes out before the deadline. After it, the named deputy takes over, and then the case escalates one level up. It is never approved by the clock – it stays open and visible.
-
Execute and log
After the last approval, whatever the request triggers happens: raise the order, book the absence, publish the document, update the record. The trail with time, person and comment stays with the case.
What changes day to day
Today
- Approvals go out as an email asking for a reply
- Who may decide only becomes clear by asking around
- A request sits there until somebody chases it by phone
- While the manager is on leave, the case stands still
- Who agreed and when sits in somebody else's mailbox
With a digital approval run
- The approval arrives as a card in Teams, with the detail
- Amount and cost centre set the chain automatically
- The run sends its own reminder before the deadline
- During an absence the named deputy takes over
- The trail stays on the case, with time and comment
Where the approval run stops
Digitising approvals sounds like a form-building job. We settle these four points before quoting:
- An unresolved chain does not get clearer in software. If nobody today can say with authority who decides above which amount, that is not a job for a workflow but for an hour with your management. We are glad to chair that hour, but it stays organisational work. Until it is done, do not start the project – you would only be casting the current confusion in concrete.
- At small volumes it does not pay. If you have twelve approvals a month and two approvers sitting in the same corridor, a word across the desk beats any card in Teams. The benefit starts at the point where nobody can answer how many requests are open right now. Below that you are mainly buying a rule set that wants maintaining.
- Speed cannot be forced. Reminders, deputies and escalation keep a case visible and keep it moving; they do not replace a decision. If a manager does not decide as a matter of habit, the run only makes that visible earlier and to more people. Useful, but it is a leadership question rather than a technical one.
- An approval is not a signature. A click in Teams is a documented internal decision with a timestamp, but not a qualified electronic signature in the sense of the EU eIDAS regulation. Where a contract has to be signed with legal effect, we attach a signature service to the end of the chain. Whether you need one is a question for your legal advisers; we do not advise on it.
Fits your Microsoft 365
Scope and price
The entry price covers one request type with up to three steps, your thresholds, deadlines and the deputy rule. What moves the price, we say before the quote.
- Request form in Teams or SharePoint, with mandatory fields and attachments
- One approval chain with up to three steps and your thresholds
- Rules as a list: amount limits and responsibilities changeable without us
- A deadline per step, with a reminder before it runs out
- Deputy rule and escalation to the next level up
- An audit trail per case and an overview of the open requests
- Documentation, handover session and 30 days of support
What increases the price
- More than three steps, or parallel approvals side by side
- Several request types, each with a chain of its own
- Handover to an ERP, DATEV or an industry system after approval
- Approvers without a Microsoft 365 account of their own
- Qualified electronic signature at the end of the chain
Several request types with chains of their own, parallel approvals and handover to an ERP typically land in the range of our Workflow Advanced package from €2,490. We quote the binding fixed price after the intro call.
All prices excl. VAT · operation and further development optionally via a support package
What you get
-
Production approval run
Set up from the form to the triggered action and signed off with real requests in a pilot team
-
Documented approval matrix
Amount limits, steps and deputies as a table you can maintain yourself later or have us change
-
Deadline and escalation rules
Including the cases where a request deliberately stays open instead of moving on
-
Training for approvers and requesters
How a deputy is named and what happens during an absence when nobody has been named
Frequently asked questions about digital approvals
These solutions fit alongside
Automate Leave Requests
The most common single case, with logic of its own: remaining days, blocked periods and who in the team is already off.
Automate Purchase Requests
The same chain ahead of buying: raise the need, check the budget, place the order.
SharePoint Document Workflows
When the approval hangs on the document: version, reviewer and filing in one run.
Accounts Payable Automation
The step after: approving the invoice that arrives from the order you signed off.
Do you know how many requests are open right now?
In the free intro call we walk through one of your approvals: which steps it has today, who decides above which amount, and what happens when that person is away for two weeks. Afterwards you know whether your chain can be written down – and whether the run carries at your volume.
Book a free intro callWhere digital approval workflows creates value in everyday work
Requests and decisions are managed in Microsoft 365 with complete information, role-based approval levels, reminders and an audit trail.
Three concrete operating scenarios to compare with your own process.Approve investments
Amount, cost centre and category determine the correct approval chain automatically.
Keep requests complete
Required information and attachments are validated before a decision is requested.
Prove decisions
Time, comment and participating roles remain traceable for every request.
A strong fit when …
Microsoft 365 is already the main workplace and information should move reliably between Teams, SharePoint, Outlook and Planner.
- You handle recurring approvals using repeatable rules.
- The intake, target system and accountable business role can be named clearly.
- Exceptions are allowed to remain visible and move to people deliberately.
Deliberate automation boundary
Conflicts of interest, unusual amounts and decisions outside documented guardrails move to a higher approval level.
Explore the technical approach and platformsEstimate time savings with your own volume
The calculator uses 11 minutes today and 3 minutes after automation as fixed example assumptions. It does not replace process analysis.
Illustrative estimate based on the visible assumptions — not a guarantee.