Contact Approvals let you control which new contacts become active in Re-Leased by routing them through a review process before they take effect. This helps ensure the accuracy and integrity of your contact database.
This feature is available on Pro and Enterprise plans. To upgrade, Get in touch.
Note: You can only have one Contact Approval workflow per company. For more on adding and editing contacts, see Contacts.
When a Contact Needs Approval
A contact enters the approval workflow when it is submitted for approval. At that point, its status changes to Awaiting Approval and it appears in the Approvals Hub under the Contact approvals tab.
A contact that has not yet been submitted remains in New (draft) status and can continue to be edited before submission.
Contact Approval Statuses
New — contact is being drafted; not yet submitted for approval.
Awaiting Approval — contact has been submitted and is waiting for a decision.
Approved — contact has been approved and is fully active.
Rejected — declined by an approver; the submitter can correct and resubmit.
Submitting a Contact for Approval
Open the contact you want to submit, or create a new one.
Complete all required details.
Click Submit for Approval.
The contact status changes to Awaiting Approval and the approval workflow begins automatically.
The designated approvers receive an email notification with a link to review.
If you have the approval permission, you may also see an Approve button, allowing you to approve the contact directly.
When Contact Approval Workflows Are Triggered
Contact approvals are triggered when new contacts are created from:
The Contacts page.
The Process Expense Invoices flow when adding a new Creditor (Credia Plus customers only).
Note: If you are an Invoice Intelligence customer, new contacts will not trigger a contact approval workflow. If a contact doesn't match any workflow conditions, they will auto-approve.
How to Approve or Reject a Contact
Approvers receive an email notification and can also find pending contacts in the Approvals Hub.
Go to Approvals in the main navigation, or click the link in the notification email.
Select the Contact approvals tab.
Click any row to open the full approval detail.
Review the contact details - name, email, phone number, company, category, and any other information entered.
Click Approve or Reject.
When rejecting, enter a comment explaining the reason (required). This is sent to the submitter so they know what to fix.
Confirm your decision.
The submitter receives an email with the outcome and can update and resubmit if rejected.
What the Approval Detail Page Shows
Contact details — name, email, phone, company, category, and other entered details.
Current approvers — shown as initials; hover for the full name.
Approve and Reject buttons (if you are an assigned approver).
Comments & History — a full audit trail of all activity on this approval.
A link to open the full contact record in a new window.
Contacts That Belong to Multiple Organisations
A single contact in Re-Leased can be associated with more than one organisation. When a contact is submitted for approval, each organisation it belongs to may have its own approval workflow and its own set of approvers. Approvals are handled per-organisation.
Filtering Contact Approvals
Use the filter bar in the Contact approvals tab to narrow down the list:
Approvers — show only contacts assigned to a specific approver.
Companies — filter by organisation.
Month — for completed or rejected items, filter by time period.
How to Set Up a Contact Approval Workflow
Navigate to Settings > Automation > Approval Workflows.
Click Create a new workflow.
Enter a Name and optional Description.
Select the Companies this workflow applies to.
Click Next
Click + Add a step to begin configuring your approval steps (see below).
Once your steps are configured, click Publish changes to activate the workflow.
The approval type is shown as a Contact approval badge in the top-right corner of the editor. You can save your progress at any time using Save as draft.
Defining Approval Steps
Click + Add a step in the workflow flow diagram.
Enter a Name for the step.
Under Conditions, set the rules that trigger this step
Click Add condition to add further rules if needed.
Under Reminders, set how quickly approvers are chased if they haven't acted. Select from 12 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 1 week, or Custom. A preview timeline at the bottom of the panel shows when the initial notification, reminder, and escalation will be sent.
Under Approvers, select who reviews this step — choose by Role, specific Users, or a Team. Only users with permissions for all selected companies will appear.
Under Escalation, select the backup approver(s) to notify if the primary approver doesn't act in time.
Click Apply changes to save the step.
Repeat this process to add further steps. Once your steps are configured, click Publish changes to activate the workflow.
Step Conditions
Set the rules that trigger each step in the workflow:
Field — Contact Tags or Contact category.
Operator — is one of (inclusive) or is not one of (exclusive).
Value — the tag or category that triggers the step. For example, selecting Creditor will trigger the workflow whenever a new vendor is created.
Contact Approval Permissions
By default, users who can create contacts can also approve them without going through a workflow. To restrict this:
Navigate to Settings > Maintain User Roles and select the role to edit.
Expand Contact Permissions.
Deselect Can approve contacts.
Click Save User Role.
Users with this permission removed will no longer be able to approve contacts outside the workflow. Users explicitly added as approvers within a workflow step can still approve, regardless of this permission.