Set up a document approval workflow without an IT team

Setting up a document approval workflow without IT comes down to three things: 

• Defining who needs to approve what

• Choosing a trigger (manual or automatic)

• Configuring routing rules in your document tool's UI

The typical setup looks like this: a document is created, a rule fires that routes it to one or more approvers in a defined sequence, approvers receive a notification and act on it inside the platform, and the document only moves to the recipient once every required approval is complete. The whole configuration usually takes under an hour.

Modern document tools have made this much more straightforward for ops teams, sales ops, and legal ops themselves. This means no engineering ticket, external tool, or IT involvement.

This guide covers PandaDoc’s UI-based setup for teams who want a process they can own and manage directly, with no code required.

If you want programmatic, CRM-triggered approval routing, that’s covered in our API-driven approval workflow recipe. 

Why ad-hoc approval processes create real risk

The real issue with Slack and email-based approvals is that there’s no record and no enforcement. A rep can send a document, regardless of whether approval has happened. The system doesn’t know the difference, and without an audit trail, no one’s paying attention.

Another issue is discount approvals. If they live in someone’s memory, you’ll end up with serious pricing inconsistency, since different reps will apply different thresholds. If no one knows what’s actually being approved, you’ll only find out that there’s a problem if a client comes up with a quote that you can’t honor.

Legal and compliance exposure is also a serious problem with ad-hoc approval processes. If your contracts don’t have standard terms already reviewed by legal, they’ll create liability that can show up later in disputes and renewals.

Ultimately, the problem is not having a process to follow. It’s not sustainable (or scalable) to rely on the expectation that someone will ask before sending. 

That’s where approval workflow software can help you out. 

What changes with a document approval workflow

A properly configured document approval workflow eliminates the gap between document creation and sending, replacing trust-based processes with enforced rules.

Here's what changes operationally:

Speed and routing

• Documents move to the next reviewer after the previous step is complete — no manual forwarding

• Approvers are notified automatically when their review is due, which removes the need to ping anyone over Slack or email

• Status is visible at every stage: pending, approved, rejected, or waiting on a specific person

Version control and accuracy

• No document reaches a client until every required internal reviewer has approved it — enforced by the system, not by trust

• Everyone reviews the same live file, not a copy forwarded as an attachment three days ago

• Rejected documents route back to the sender with inline comments, so the revision cycle stays contained

Accountability and compliance

• Every approval action is timestamped and logged automatically. You get a complete audit trail without manual record-keeping

• Sales, legal, and finance work from the same document at the same time, not separate versions in different states

Deals that stalled on internal approvals move faster, and the compliance risk from undocumented sign-off disappears.

See how it works — start a free trial

Is a document approval workflow the right setup for your team?

You're a strong fit if:

• You send contracts or proposals with pricing, discounts, or terms that need internal sign-off before going out

• One unapproved document could create a legal or financial problem for your company

• Your current "process" is a Slack message or email thread with no enforcement

• You've already had a contract go out wrong and want to prevent it happening again

Consider alternatives if:

• Every document is fully standardized and needs no review before sending

• You need CRM-triggered approval routing (that's the API recipe, not this one)

• Your company is so small that one person creates and sends all documents with no delegation needed

How to set up a document approval workflow in PandaDoc: step-by-step

Whether the goal is to require approval before renewals go out or add an approval step before quotes are sent, approval workflows are configured at the template level.

This means you can set it up once, and every document created from that template will automatically require approval before anyone can send it. 

No code and no external tools required. 

This is available on Business and Enterprise plans.

1. Enable approval workflow on your template

Open a template and navigate to the approval setting:

• In the classic experience: go to the Manage roles tab and toggle on Approval required to activate the workflow for all documents created from this template

• In the new experience: open the Workflow builder and click +Add step > Submit for approval

Once enabled, any document created from this template will need approval before it can be sent. That means the sender cannot bypass this step.

Note: Only Account owners, Admins, and Managers can set up and manage approval workflows. Members cannot edit workflow settings, but can be assigned as approvers.

2. Add approvers and approver groups

You have two options for adding approvers. The model you choose will depend on your review process:

Individual approvers: This is the best option when you need to add a specific named person as an approver. You can add them by name or email, and they’ll get a notification when the document is ready for review. 

Approver groups: This is how you can add multiple people to a group, and any one member can approve the document on behalf of the rest of the group. This prevents a bottleneck in case someone is unavailable, which means the deal doesn’t stall as a result. 

It’s also possible to enable “Give document sender authority to select approver” on the group. This allows the sender to choose a specific reviewer from a pre-approved list at send time instead of notifying the whole group. 

As an example, a legal team could create an approver group with three lawyers. Any one of them can approve on behalf of the group. So if someone is on holiday, you don’t have to worry about the review process coming to a halt. 

3. Set an approval order for multi-step review

If your team needs a sequential sign-off (e.g. Legal needs to review the document before Finance, etc.), having an approval order helps make sure that the document moves through reviewers in the right sequence instead of reaching everyone at the same time. 

• Add approvers in the order they should review, and the document will route to each one in sequence

• If any approver rejects, the document routes back to the sender, and the next approver in the sequence will not be notified until the document is corrected and resubmitted

For example, a SaaS company could set an approval order as: 1) Sales Manager → 2) Finance → 3) Legal. The Finance team will only see the document after the Sales Manager approves the document. 

Start a free trial

4. Send for approval and track the review

When a document is ready, the sender can submit it for approval. After that, here’s what happens from both the sender’s and approver’s perspectives:

• Document status changes to To approve, and the first approver receives an email notification

• The approver opens the document from their email or PandaDoc inbox and selects Approve or Reject; at this stage, they can add a comment either way

• The sender receives a notification when a decision is made, including any comments

• If approved, the document is released to send. If rejected, the sender edits and resubmits for approval — it does not automatically re-enter the approval queue

• Admins can approve on behalf of an unavailable approver when a deal can't wait

All approval actions, including who approved it, when, and any attached comments, are logged in the document audit trail and Latest activity tab. This means your contract approval process is well-recorded.

Something to note: Once a document is submitted for approval, it can’t be edited until it’s approved or rejected.

Take it further: conditional approvals for deal-based routing

If your team’s approval requirements vary by deal size or type, conditional approvals let the document review workflow adapt automatically without manual intervention.

Here’s what that means for your workflow and how it works: 

You can set conditions on individual approvers so they only get the document when specific thresholds are met. For example, Finance could review only if the total discount exceeds 15%, and Legal could review only if the document value exceeds $50K. 

If those conditions aren't met, the document will auto-approves for that approver and moves on to the next step without needing to manually skip the review. 

Now, these conditions can be based on document value, line item discount, total discount, or quote variables (for CPQ users). The conditions also support AND/OR logic, meaning the workflow could trigger a Finance review if the document value exceeds $25K AND the customer segment is Enterprise, for example. 

For example, a sales team can set conditional approvals so a Finance approver only receives contracts with deal values over $25K. Standard deals under that threshold move through automatically, without a bottleneck on routine business. 

Keep in mind: Conditional approvals are available on Business (as a paid add-on) and Enterprise plans. Conditions based on quote variables require PandaDoc CPQ. You can use AND or OR logic within a condition group, but not both in the same group.

Start a free trial

Implementation timeline and requirements

This is truly a fast-start solution. No engineering, no integration, and no external tools required.

• Typical setup time: 30–60 minutes to configure the workflow on a template and test end-to-end

• Account Admin or Manager: Will enable the workflow, add approvers and groups, and configure approval order (one-time setup per template)

• Legal, Finance, or RevOps lead: Will define the policy, including who needs to approve what, and at what thresholds

• Ongoing maintenance: Minimal — you want to update approver lists when team members change, and adjust conditions when thresholds shift

Results

When you have a functioning document approval workflow, you’ll be removing the uncertainty that can lead to delays. 

Here’s what you can expect:

• Contracts won’t reach clients without the required sign-off 

• Approval bottlenecks will always be visible and accountable, and managers can see exactly where documents are sitting and why

• Legal and finance teams will stop finding non-standard terms after signing

• Reps spend less time managing approval logistics and more time on selling

• Compliance audits are simpler, as every approval action is timestamped and on record

Next steps

Ready to set up a real approval process? Start a free trial or request a demo today.