Set up quote approvals

Turn on approvals for quotes to enroll them in an approval process. Maintain accuracy and consistency before sending quotes to buyers. There are two types of approvals you can set up: standard approvals and advanced approvals. Learn more about each type below. Once approvals are set up, learn how to manage quote approvals.

Approval types

Set up standard or advanced approvals in quote settings. You can't turn on both standard and advanced approvals simultaneously.

Standard approvals

Assign up to 10 approvers to review quotes that match your configured filters. Filters are based on properties and determine which quotes need approval. Select whether a single approver or all approvers should give approval. For example, you could set standard approvals to:

• Require approval on quotes above a certain discount amount.
• Require approval on quotes where e-signature is the acceptance method used on the quote.
• Require approval on quotes where a specific line item is above a certain discount amount.

Advanced approvals

Advanced approvals also use property filters, but use workflow-based rules for more detailed customization.

Using advanced approvals, you can:

• Trigger approvals based on quote and line item properties such as quote amount, discount level, SKU, billing frequency, net terms, and specific user attributes, or related objects (e.g., deals).
• Use sequential approvals ranked by priority. You can add up to five sequences, and ten approvers per sequence. For example, you could set a sales manager as first priority, a sales director as second priority, and a legal representative as third priority. The sales director won't need to approve the quote until the sales manager has completed their approval, and the legal representative won't need to approve the quote until the sales director has completed their approval.

Review common approval scenarios.

Turn on quote approvals

Turn on standard 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 approvals, toggle the Approvals switch on.
5. Under Standard approvals, click Edit next to Quotes.
   
6. In the right panel:
   • Under And these conditions are met, click + Add filter to add a property to filter on.
   • Click the Filtering on dropdown menu and select the object for which you want to view properties for.
   • Under Object information, click [Object] properties.
     
     
   • Use the search bar to search for a property.
     
     
   • Click the property you want to filter by.
   • Configure the filter.
   • Under and, click + Add filter to add additional filter criteria.
     
     

1. • Under Then do this, click the Approvers dropdown menu and select the users who can approve quotes. You can select multiple users.

7. • Under Approver requirements, select All approvers required or At least one approver required. If selecting At least one approver required, when one approver approves a quote, it won't be sent for approval to the other selected users. If selecting All approvers required, if one of the approvers is absent when an approval is sent, the quote can't proceed without their approval.
   • In the With this approval note field, enter a note. Quote creators and approvers will see this note when an approval takes place. For example, you could enter the reason the quote needs approval, based on the filter you've set.
   • Click Save.
8. Toggle the Quotes switch on to activate approvals.
   
   

Turn on advanced 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 approvals, toggle the Approvals switch on.
5. Under Advanced approvals, toggle the Advanced quote approvals switch on. 
6. Click Edit to set up the advanced approval workflow.

Customize the advanced approval workflow

The approval workflow is created using the workflows tool when advanced workflows are turned on. The workflow has two actions you can configure:

• Add quote approval step: use this action after defining approval criteria (e.g., approve quotes above a certain amount, or approve quotes by certain users). Once added, add a message for approvers, select who should approve the quote, and their priority if it's a sequential approval.
  
  
• Start quote approval flow: if a quote approval step hasn't been added above this action, quotes will be auto-approved. If a quote approval step is added, the quote approval flow will start. Set the quotes that enter the approval workflow to get approval by all approvers, any approvers, or sequentially. 
  
  

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 Advanced approvals, click Edit to navigate to the workflow.
5. Learn how to use AI in workflows, or to customize the workflow manually, click + below the trigger enrollment. 
   
   
6. Add your actions. For example, you could:
   • 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. Review common approval scenarios for other use cases.
8. Under the criteria action (e.g., > 5,000), click +. In the left panel:
   • Click to expand the CRM section, then click Add quote approval step. 
   • In the Message to approver field add a message. You can add quote properties to the message using the Choose data variable list (e.g., quote amount, quote owner).
   • Click the Approvers dropdown menu, and select the approvers.
   • Click the Priority dropdown menu and select a Priority if creating a sequential approval.
   • In the upper right, click Save.
9. Click + below Add quote approval step.
10. In the left panel:
    • Click to expand the CRM section, then click Start quote approval flow. 
    • 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.
    • In the upper right, click Save.
11. Click + under None met. 
12. In the left panel:
    • Click Go to action.
    • Click the Start quote approval flow action. If following this method, quotes that don't meet the approval criteria won't go through approvals. If you still want quotes that don't meet approval criteria to go through a separate approval, add a separate Add quote approval step action under the None met branch.
    • Click Done.
      
      
13. In the upper right, click Review and turn on to turn on the workflow.

Set approval notifications

Approvers can set the type of notifications they receive for approvals in their notification settings. 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 the General section.
4. Next to Approval activity, select which notifications you'd like to receive for approvals.
5. These settings only apply to your own account. Other users need to set their own notification preferences. Super Admins in an Enterprise account can log in as other users to set their notifications.

Notifications in third-party apps

You can also get notifications in third-party 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.

Next steps

• Learn how to create and send quotes.
• Learn how to manage quotes, including managing draft, published, and expired quotes, tracking activity, and exporting quotes.
• Learn how to manage quote approvals.