Set up quote approvals

Super Admins or users with Approve quote permissions can turn on approvals to ensure the accuracy and consistency of a quote before sending it to a buyer. 

There are two categories of approvals you can use, standard approvals and advanced approvals.

Approval types

Standard approvals

Assign one or multiple approvers to review all submitted quotes. You can choose whether all approvers, or just one is required to approve the quote.

Advanced approvals

Includes everything in standard approvals, plus support for workflow-based rules. 

• Trigger approvals based on quote properties such as quote amount, discount level, SKU, billing frequency, net terms, or specific user attributes, or related objects (like line items or deals).
• Includes sequential approvals ranked by priority. For example:
  • Set a sales manager as first priority, a sales director as second priority, and legal as third priority. The sales director wouldn't need to approve the quote until the sales manager had completed their approval.
  • Set a sales manager as first priority, and legal as second priority. Legal wouldn't need to approve the quote until the sales manager had completed their approval.

Common approval examples

• Approving a quote above a certain discount.
• Approving a quote above a certain amount.
• Approving a specific SKU (Product) above a certain discount or amount.
• Approving quotes from a specific user (e.g., first 90 days of employment requires approval).
• Approving quotes with changes in billing frequency.
• Approving quotes with changes in net terms.
  

Common quote approval properties

The below table shows commonly used quote approval properties when using advanced approval workflows.

Turn on quote approvals

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Objects > Quotes.
3. At the top, click the Approvals tab.
4. Under Quote approval set up, choose one of the following options (it isn't possible to have both Standard and Advanced approvals turned on at the same time):
   • Standard: select Standard approvals to use standard approvals.
     • Click Edit settings to edit the approval requirements and approvers.
     • In the right panel, under Approval requirements, select All Approvers to have every quote approved by all approvers, or select Any Approver to have every quote approved by any one approver.
     • Under Approvers, click the dropdown menu and select the users who will be approving quotes (you can select multiple users). Quotes created by selected approvers won't require approval.
     • Click Save.
   • Advanced: select Advanced approvals to use advanced approvals.

Customize the approval workflow

The approval workflow is created with the workflows tool when advanced workflows are turned on.

You can customize the workflow manually, or use AI. To navigate to the workflow:

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Objects > Quotes.
3. At the top, click the Approvals tab.
4. Under Quote approval set up, click Quote approval workflow. The workflow will open in a new browser tab.
5. Learn how to use AI in workflows, or to customize the workflow manually, click the + below the trigger enrollment.
   
   
   
6. Add your actions. For example, you could:
   • In the left panel, click Branch, then select One property or action output.
   • Select the Quote amount property, then click Next. Set Branch 1 to greater than 5,000. This would be the start of an advanced approval workflow for any quotes above $5,000. Click Save.
   • If you want quotes to re-enroll, in the left panel, click the Settings tab, and toggle the Re-enroll switch on.
   • Click Save.
     
7. Under the greater than 5,000 action, click + to add a further action.
8. In the left panel, click CRM.
9.  Click Add approval step.
10. Add a message to the approver. You can add quote properties to the message using the Choose data variable list (e.g., quote amount, quote owner).
11. Click the Approvers dropdown menu, and select the approvers.
12. Click the Priority dropdown menu and select a Priority if this will be a sequential approval.
    
    
13. Click Save.
14. Click the + below Add approval step.
15. In the left panel, click CRM.
16. Click Start approval flow.
    
17. Under Approvers required, select one of the following:
    •  All approvers to require approvals from all approvers for quotes that meet the criteria
    • Any approvers to require one approval from any of the approvers for quotes that meet the criteria.
    • Sequential to notify approvers in priority order. Sequential approvals require approval by every approver at each priority step.
18. Click Save.
19. Click the + under None met. 
20. In the left panel, click Go to action.
21. Click the Start approval flow action.
22. Click Done.
    
    
23. In the upper right, click Review and publish to publish your workflow.

Set approval notifications

Approvers can set the type of notifications they'll receive for approvals in the notification settings of their account. Bell and email notifications are turned on by default.

HubSpot based notifications

To customize which notifications you'll receive for quote approvals:

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Notifications.
3. Scroll down and click to expand General.
4. Next to Approval activity, select which notifications you'd like to receive for approvals. Bell icon and email notifications are on by default.
   
5. These settings are for your own account. If users want to set their own notification preferences, they will need to do this from their own account. Super Admins in an Enterprise account can log in as other users.

Notifications in other apps

You can also get notifications in other apps, such as Google Chat, Microsoft Teams, and Slack. 

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar menu, navigate to Notifications.
3. At the top, click the Other apps tab.
   
4. Click the app you want to set up.

Give users permission to approve quotes

• Super Admins, and users with the Approve quotes permission can approve quotes.
• Users must have a core or Commerce Hub seat to approve quotes.
• Users are notified in-platform and via email, depending on their notification preferences.

Common approval scenarios

• Approval based on a certain product: use the SKU line items property, and nest it with discounts or any other property.
• Approve from one person, then another: use sequential approvals. 
  
• Approvals bypassed for specific users: to allow certain users to bypass approvals:
  
  • Once you turn on advanced approvals, you'll see two actions: Add approval step and start approval flow.
  • Create a branch and select the Quote. On the Quote owner, select is any of, then add the users who do not need approvals.
  • Add the Start approval flow action below the branch.
    
    
• Automatically require approval for certain users: use the Quote owner property and select each user. 
• A workflow configuration where approval is needed from two distinct properties, with two different approvers. For example, line item discount with approver A and e-sign enabled with approver B: below is an example of the workflow. In this case, if line items are between 25-40%, then approval is needed from Jason, and if e-sign is turned on, then approvals are needed from Lubai.
  
  

Next steps

• Create and send quotes.
• Manage quotes.
• Manage quote approvals.