Audience: System Administrators and Power Users
Overview
Approval workflows in Contract Eagle can be simple or complex, depending upon your requirements. In this article we show three typical patterns of approval workflow at different levels of complexity.
All approval workflow is built using Approval Rules, which must be configured by an administrator.
Each approval rule defines when approval is required, who must approve, and the sequence of steps in the approval workflow. The progress of a contract through the approval workflow is determined by the contract status.
Depending on your configuration, a contract may:
Require a single approval (simple!)
Pass through multiple approval steps in sequence
Collect additional information through custom approval forms (most complex/advanced).
Example 1: Simple One-Step Approval
Description
A one-step approval is the simplest approval workflow.
When a contract meets the approval rule's conditions, it is sent to an approver.
This setup is commonly used for:
Low-risk contracts
Standard templates
In this example, Alice creates an Employment Contract within the HR Business Unit.
Before the contract can proceed to signing, Alice must obtain approval from the HR Manager, Harry.
How it works
Alice submits a contract of type Employment Contract with status Under Negotiation within Business Unit HR. This combination of contract type, status and business unit determines that the approval step should be triggered.
Approval Step - HR Manager Harry reviews and clicks a button to approve or reject the contract. The approved contract proceeds to the Signing stage with status Pending Signature.
If the contract is rejected, the contract status changes automatically to Cancelled.
Example 2: Sequential Approval (Multiple Steps)
Description
Sequential approvals require a contract to be approved by multiple approvers in a defined order.
Each approval step becomes active only after the previous step is completed.
This workflow is typically used when approvals depend on:
Role hierarchy (e.g. Legal → Finance → Management)
Increasing risk or contract value
Department-specific responsibility
In this example, Bob creates a Supply Agreement that requires approval from multiple stakeholders before it can proceed to signing.
Note: When an approval step is assigned to a role, it means the user assigned to that role in the contract record will be responsible for completing the approval.
How it works
Bob submits a contract of type Supply Agreement with status Pending Approval. This combination of contract type and status determines that the first approval step should be triggered.
Approval Step 1 - The user assigned as Contract Owner in the contract reviews and approves it. Once approved, the contract status changes automatically to Financial Approval Required.
Approval Step 2 - The user assigned to the Finance Manager role receives the contract after Step 1 is approved. Once approved, the contract status changes automatically to Awaiting General Manager Review.
Approval Step 3 - General Manager David completes the final approval. Once approved, the contract proceeds to the Signing stage with status Pending Signature.
If the contract is rejected at any step, the contract status changes automatically to Cancelled.
Example 3: Sequential Approval with Custom Approval Forms
Description
In addition to sequential approvals, approval steps can be enhanced with custom forms. This allows the capture of additional details during the approval process and dynamically branch or skip approval steps based on the approver’s responses.(Available for Ultimate/Enterprise subscriptions only).
Custom approval forms allow approvers to provide structured input, such as selections or numeric values. The captured data can be saved in the contract’s User-Defined Fields and used to control the approval flow.
This setup is useful when:
Additional information is required during the approval process
Approvers must confirm specific conditions before proceeding
Approval paths depend on contract details (for example, if the contract value is 0, financial approval is not required)
Conditional logic is needed to route contracts differently
In this example, Carol creates a Procurement Contract within a Custom Intake Form. The approval path is determined based on the provided information, such as total costs and the contract initiator.
How it works
This workflow applies to Procurement Contracts created across all Business Units and uses custom approval forms to control the approval path.
Carol submits a Procurement Contract within a Custom Intake Form.
Approval Step 1 - If the contract has total costs > 0, the first approval step is assigned to the user assigned to the Finance Manager role. They complete a custom approval form and submit their approval (or rejection).
If the contract has no costs, the Finance Approval step is skipped.
a) If the contract initiator = Other, an additional Risk assessment step is required. Carol must complete a Risk Assessment custom form before the contract can proceed.
b) If the contract initiator = Your company using a standard template, the Risk Assessment step is skipped. The contract status changes automatically to Business Manager Approval Required.
Approval Step 2 - The user assigned to the Business Manager role completes a different custom approval form and submits their approval.
During this approval step, Business Manager can go beyond approve or reject - for example:
They may approve with conditions, which can trigger an email notification to the Contract Owner or automatically create follow-up tasks. The contract status changes automatically to Awaiting Executive Manager Review.
They may return the contract to the Contract Owner for further information. The contract status changes automatically to Further Information Required.
Approval Step 3 - The final approval step is assigned to Executive Manager Simon. Simon reviews the contract and clicks a button to approve or reject it.
Once approved, the contract proceeds to the Signing stage with status Pending Signature.
If the contract is rejected at any step, the contract status changes automatically to Cancelled.
Viewing Approval Progress
Users with access to contract records can view approval progress directly from the contract:
On the Contract Summary screen
In View and Edit screens
This provides immediate clarity on the contract's progress through the approval workflow and what needs to happen next.
