Approval Workflows

Approval workflows give you control over which orders are processed automatically and which need a human sign-off before a Shopify draft order is created.

Last updated: March 2026

How the approval flow works

1
Employee places order
The employee adds products to the cart in the portal and clicks "Place order".
2
Auto-approve check
TeamCo checks the group's approval setting. If auto-approve is enabled, the order skips the queue and a Shopify draft order is created immediately.
3
Auto-approved path: order confirmed
Order status → Approved. Shopify draft order is created. The employee receives an order confirmation email and can proceed to checkout.
4
Manual approval path: order queued
Order status → Pending. Approval recipients are notified by email. The order appears in the Pending Orders section of the portal.
5
Approver reviews the order
An Admin or Buyer with approval rights opens the order in the portal, reviews the items and total, and clicks Approve or Reject.
6
Approved: draft order created
Shopify draft order is created. The employee is notified and can proceed to checkout.
7
Rejected: order cancelled
The employee receives a rejection email with the reason. No draft order is created.

Screenshot: Pending orders in portal

Configuring approval rules per group

Approval rules are set on each employee group. To configure them:

1
Open the company and go to the Groups tab
2
Edit the group you want to configure
3
Scroll to Approval Settings
4
Toggle "Require order approval" to Yes
5
Select Approval Handler
Choose Shop Admin or Buyer.
6
Optionally enable "Use Own Approval Settings"
This lets you choose specific approvers for this group, overriding the company-level approvers.
7
Select Approval Recipients
Choose the specific Admins or Buyers who should receive approval-request emails.
8
Save the group

Screenshot: Approval settings in group edit

Auto-approval vs. Manual vs. Inherited

Setting	Behaviour	Best for
Auto-approve: Yes	Orders from this group are approved instantly. No approver is notified. Shopify draft order is created immediately.	Trusted employees or low-value routine purchases.
Auto-approve: No	Every order waits in the Pending Orders queue until an approver acts on it.	High-value purchases or groups where oversight is required.
Inherit from company	The group uses the parent company's auto-approve setting. If the company setting changes, all groups set to Inherit update automatically.	When you want consistent behaviour controlled from one central place.

Managing pending approvals in the portal

The Pending Orders page is visible to employees with the ADMIN and BUYER roles. Each pending order shows:

Employee name and group.
Order total and line items.
Date submitted.
Approve and Reject action buttons.

Clicking Reject opens a modal that requires the approver to enter a reason. This reason is included in the rejection email sent to the employee.

Screenshot: Reject order modal with reason field

Email notifications

Three email templates are sent automatically during the approval workflow:

Email type	Sent to	When
APPROVAL_REQUEST	Approval recipients	Order is submitted and requires manual review.
ORDER_APPROVED	Employee who placed the order	Approver clicks Approve.
ORDER_REJECTED	Employee who placed the order	Approver clicks Reject — rejection reason included.

All emails are sent in the employee's preferred language (15 languages supported). The shop owner can override this to a single language for all emails in Admin → Settings → Email Templates.

You can customise the content of all three email templates in Admin → Settings → Email Templates. Each template has a preview mode so you can see the rendered email before saving.

Approvals and budgets work independently

Budget enforcement and order approval are separate checks. An employee can have sufficient budget remaining but still require approval before the order is processed. Similarly, an auto-approved group is still subject to budget limits — if an order exceeds the budget, checkout is blocked regardless of the approval setting.

See the Budgets guide for details on how budget limits and overrides work.

Was this page helpful?