Approval Workflows Setup Guide

This guide takes you from no approvals to a working setup that enforces your discount, product, and legal-terms policy on every quote and subscription. By the end you will have one enabled ruleset with ordered rules, approver groups that will not stall, and notifications reaching the right people. It assumes you have read the overview. Approvals are configured in the dashboard under Settings → Workflows → Quotes → Approvals. There is no public API for rulesets, rules, or approver groups in the 2026-04-01 API; approval events are available as webhooks.

Prerequisites

Admin access to your Alguna organization, with permission to manage approval rulesets.
At least one product configured.
Team members with user accounts who can act as approvers.

Step 1: Plan the policy

Decide what needs sign-off and who gives it.

Scenario	What triggers it	Typical threshold
Large discounts	A product’s discount exceeds a percentage	15–25%
Discount on a strategic product	A specific product is discounted beyond a threshold	Product-dependent
Non-standard terms	A standard legal clause has been modified	Any deviation
Product governance	A particular product is on the subscription	Premium products
Blanket review	Every subscription, during a pricing migration	n/a

Sketch the approver hierarchy before building it — for example Sales Managers up to 20%, VP of Sales up to 35%, CFO above that. Each level becomes an approver group on a rule.

Step 2: Create a ruleset

Open Settings → Workflows → Quotes → Approvals

Click New ruleset and give it a name and description.

Choose the quote types it applies to

Select New quote, Amendment quote and/or Renewal quote. The whole ruleset applies to the selected types; see quote types for how each is evaluated.

Decide on justification

Turn on Require justification if the requester must explain why the deal needs approval. A rule that matches unconditionally never asks for one.

Choose what happens after approval

Pick the post-approval action — activate the subscription, send for signature, or manual (the rep progresses it) — and whether progression is automatic, manual, or the requester’s choice.

Leave it disabled for now

A disabled ruleset is skipped during evaluation. Enable it after the rules are in.

Every enabled ruleset is evaluated. Within a ruleset only the first matching rule by priority applies, so a deal picks up at most one rule per ruleset — but one from each ruleset. Put each concern (discounts, legal, product) in its own ruleset.

Step 3: Add rules

Click New rule in the ruleset

Give it a name and description.

Set the condition

One or more condition types, combined with ALL or ANY. See Step 4.

Add approver groups

At least one. See Step 5.

Set the priority

Lower numbers run first. See Step 6.

Enable the rule

Disabled rules are skipped.

Step 4: Conditions

Condition	What it checks	Fields
Product is present	A specific product is on the subscription	Product
Any product has discount exceeding threshold	Any product’s discount crosses a threshold	Operator, threshold, discount type
Specific product has discount exceeding threshold	One named product’s discount crosses a threshold	Product, operator, threshold, discount type
A standard clause has been modified	The quote deviates from your standard legal terms	None
Always require approval	Every subscription	None

Operators: greater than, greater than or equal, less than, less than or equal, equal, not equal. Discount type: percentage or fixed amount. A percentage threshold and a fixed-amount threshold are different tests; pick the one that matches how your reps discount. Combining: ALL means every condition must hold; ANY means one is enough. The “always” condition cannot be combined or negated.

Because only the first matching rule in a ruleset applies, an “always” rule makes every lower-priority rule in that ruleset unreachable. Give it the highest priority number unless you intend it as an override.

Details and examples on Approval Rules.

Step 5: Approver groups

Each rule carries one or more groups. A group defines who approves and how many are needed.

Setting	Options
Strategy	`all` — every approver must approve. `any` — one is enough. `minimum` — a set number must approve.
Minimum approvals	The count required when the strategy is `minimum`.
Approvers	Named users. Leave empty to mean any user holding the approver role.
Routing mode	`static` — the same approvers for everyone. `by_requester` — routing entries map sets of requesters to sets of approvers, so a rep’s own manager is asked.

The rule also has a groups strategy — whether all of its groups, any one group, or a minimum number of groups must be satisfied.

A group with one named approver stalls when that person is away. Prefer the approver role, or name several people with an any strategy.

Step 6: Priority

Within a ruleset, rules run lowest number first and the first match wins, so ordering decides who is asked.

Priority	Rule	Condition
1	CFO Approval	Any product discount ≥ 35%
10	VP Approval	Any product discount ≥ 20%
20	Manager Approval	Any product discount ≥ 15%

A 40% discount matches the CFO rule and stops. Reversed, the manager rule would match first and the CFO would never be asked. Reorder by dragging rules in the ruleset.

Step 7: Configure notifications

Approvers are emailed when a request needs them. To add Slack:

Connect Slack

Under Settings → Workflows → Quotes → Approvals, open the Slack settings panel.

Choose the workspace and channel

Requests are posted there and approvers can act on them from the channel.

Check the connection status

The panel shows whether the connection is enabled, disconnected, or needs reconnecting.

To drive your own notifications, subscribe to the approval webhooks: approval_request.created, approval_request.approved, approval_request.rejected, and approval_flow.completed.

Step 8: Test

Build a deal that should trip a rule

Create a draft subscription with, say, a 25% discount on a covered product.

Check the approval summary

Before publishing, the subscription shows which rules matched and which groups must approve. If nothing matched, revisit the condition and whether the ruleset and rule are enabled.

Walk it through

Have an approver approve or reject from the dashboard or Slack and confirm the flow ends where you expect, and that the post-approval action runs. See Approval Flows.

Test a deal that should pass

Confirm a standard deal goes through untouched.

Step 9: Roll out

Enable one ruleset covering your highest-risk case, usually deep discounts.
Watch a week of real deals and confirm the approvals that fire are the ones you expected.
Add rules for terms and product governance once the first is settled.
Add an “always” ruleset only for a defined period, such as a pricing migration, and disable it afterwards.

Troubleshooting

A rule never triggers

Check, in order: the ruleset is enabled; the rule is enabled; a lower-numbered rule in the same ruleset is matching first; the condition’s discount type matches how the discount was applied; the product on the condition is the product on the subscription.

Too many approvals are required

Every enabled ruleset contributes one rule. Consolidate related rules into a single ruleset.

An approval is stuck

Open the flow and see which group is outstanding. An all group waits for every named approver; a group with no members waits for any user holding the approver role.

Approvers are not notified

Confirm the approver has a user account and email address, and that the Slack connection shows as enabled.

Overview

Guides

Getting Started

Customers

Pricing & Packaging

Quotes (CPQ)

Subscriptions

Entitlements

Invoices

Credits & Wallets

Usage Metering