Approvals

An approval chain describes the intended route for a contract type and value band. Each agreement can refer to a chain, while its approval steps record the people who must decide on that agreement. A step has a sequence, an approver role, a named team member, a status and a service target in hours. The deciding person can record the date and rationale with an approved or rejected outcome.

Contract Manager should check that the route matches the agreement before moving it to pending approval. The contract may be an MSA with a large value or a narrower NDA. The chain’s contract type and value range provide context for the selection. Once the steps are present, the manager can see which named approver is next and which decisions are already recorded.

• Route definition. Approval chains carry code, name, applicable type, value bounds and the intended approval roles.
• Individual steps. Each step points to one contract and one approver, with a sequence and decision state.
• Decision evidence. Decision date and rationale stay with the step so later reviewers can see the actual judgment.

A pending step calls for a human decision. A not started step is a later part of the route. Approved, rejected and skipped have different meanings and should remain distinguishable in the contract record. The manager should not infer approval from the fact that a route exists or from a contract status alone.

Decide who maintains approval chains, which roles apply to each contract type and value band, and how to handle a missing or unavailable approver. Agree whether a skipped step needs a reason, how a rejection returns the contract to review, and who is allowed to set the parent contract to approved after required steps are complete. Keep team member roles and active status current so the selected approver can be identified.

A Contract Manager prepares a high value service order and selects an applicable chain. The ordered steps name Legal Counsel and CFO as approvers. Counsel reviews the redlines and records an approved decision with a rationale and date. The CFO sees the pending step, checks contract value and term, then records the financial decision. The Contract Manager checks both decisions before changing the parent agreement from pending approval to approved. If the CFO rejects, the record keeps the rejection and its reason for the next revision.

• Approval inbox — Find pending decisions assigned to approvers.
• Approval decisions — Review completed or skipped steps with dates and reasons.

Read approval and execution for the decision and signature handoff, or return to redline resolution when wording needs another pass.