Most growing businesses do not decide to skip contract approvals. It just happens. Someone signs a vendor agreement to get a project moving, a manager commits to a subscription without checking the total cost over the term, and three months later finance finds a charge nobody recognises.
A contract approval workflow fixes this. Done well, it makes sure the right person sees an agreement before it is signed, without turning every purchase into a week of waiting. This guide covers how to build one that your team will actually use.
What a contract approval workflow actually is
An approval workflow is a simple, repeatable path that a contract follows before it is signed. It answers three questions: who needs to review this, in what order, and what happens once they sign off.
The mistake most businesses make is treating approval as either everything or nothing. Either every contract gets waved through, or every contract needs the founder's signature. Neither scales. The goal is to match the level of scrutiny to the size of the commitment.
Set approval thresholds by value and risk
Start by deciding who can approve what. The cleanest way to do this is by annual contract value, with a few exceptions for higher-risk agreement types.
| Annual value | Who approves | What they check |
|---|---|---|
| Under $2,000 | Team lead | Need, budget fit, basic terms |
| $2,000 - $15,000 | Department head | Cost over full term, renewal terms, exit options |
| Over $15,000 | Finance or founder | Total commitment, liability, notice periods, alternatives |
Then layer in risk-based exceptions. Some contracts deserve a closer look regardless of value: anything with an auto-renewal clause, anything that touches customer data, and anything with a personal guarantee or unusual liability terms. Flag these for senior review even if the dollar figure is small.
Map the steps before you automate anything
Before reaching for a tool, write down the path on a single page. A workable SME approval flow usually has four stages:
- Request - the person who wants the contract logs what it is, what it costs, and how long it runs.
- Review - the right approver checks it against the thresholds above.
- Sign - once approved, the contract is signed and dated.
- File - the signed contract goes into your repository with key dates captured.
That last step is the one most businesses forget, and it is the one that causes the most pain later. An approval workflow that ends at signature leaves you exactly where you started: a signed contract with no reminder attached and no central record. The workflow is not finished until the contract is stored and its renewal date is tracked.
Keep it fast or watch it get ignored
The fastest way to kill an approval process is to make it slow. If getting sign-off takes a week, people route around it. A few rules keep the process honest:
- Name a backup approver for every threshold so nothing stalls when someone is on leave.
- Set a response expectation - approvers reply within two business days or it escalates.
- Keep the request form short. Counterparty, value, term length, renewal type, and a one-line reason is enough.
- Do not ask for approval on renewals you have already committed to. Review those before the notice window instead.
Where Miova fits in
An approval workflow controls what happens before signing. Miova takes over the moment the ink is dry, which is where most processes fall apart. Once a contract is approved and signed, you forward it to Miova by email and the key details are extracted automatically: counterparty, value, start and end dates, renewal terms, and notice periods.
From there, the contract sits in a central repository everyone with the right access can see, and automated reminders fire ahead of each renewal and notice deadline. That closes the loop your approval process opens. The team that signed off on a contract at the start gets a prompt to review it before it renews, so approval is not a one-time gate but an ongoing decision.
The monthly expiry summary also gives whoever owns approvals a forward view of what is coming up, so renewals get the same scrutiny as new agreements rather than rolling over by default.
Start small and tighten over time
You do not need a perfect process on day one. Start with two thresholds and a single approver, write down the four steps, and make sure every signed contract lands in one place with its dates tracked. Once that habit holds, add the higher thresholds and risk exceptions. A workflow people follow loosely beats a detailed one they ignore.