Work Order Approvals let you add spend control to work orders — requiring a review before a high-value job is sent to a contractor. This gives your team oversight of maintenance spend and activity before work begins.
This feature is available on Pro and Enterprise plans. To upgrade, Get in touch.
When a Work Order Needs Approval
A work order 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 Work order approvals tab.
Work orders that are still being drafted do not trigger the approval workflow.
Work Order Approval Statuses
Awaiting Approval — submitted for review; action is paused until a decision is made.
Approved — approved; work can proceed.
Rejected — declined by an approver; the submitter can correct and resubmit.
Cancelled — the work order was cancelled before or during the approval process.
Failed — error in workflow processing.
Submitting a Work Order for Approval
When creating a work order, you will see the following save options:
Save as Draft — keep editing later; no approval triggered.
Save and Approve — approves immediately, bypassing the workflow (only visible if you have the Can approve maintenance work orders permission).
Save and submit for approval — routes through the workflow.
When you submit for approval, the work order status changes to Awaiting Approval and the designated approvers receive an email notification with a link to review.
Note: To prevent users from bypassing approval workflows, remove the Can approve maintenance work orders permission from their role.
What the Approver Sees
Approvers receive an email notification and can also find pending work orders in the Approvals Hub.
Go to Approvals in the main navigation, or click the link in the notification email.
Select the Work order approvals tab.
The list shows all work orders awaiting approval with these columns:
Status — Awaiting Approval, Approved, Rejected, or Failed.
Description — the work order description.
Approvers — the people assigned to approve this work order.
Requested At — when the approval was requested.
Click any row to open the full approval detail — including property, description, contractor, cost estimates, and any maintenance notes.
How to Approve a Work Order
Open the work order in the Approvals Hub.
Review the details — property, contractor, scope of work, cost.
Click Approve.
Optionally add a comment, then confirm.
Approved work orders show as Completed in the Work order approvals table and work can proceed.
How to Reject a Work Order
Open the work order in the Approvals Hub.
Click Reject.
Enter a comment explaining the reason (required).
Confirm the rejection.
The submitter receives an email with your comment and can update the work order and resubmit.
Bulk Approvals
If you have multiple work orders to approve:
In the Work order approvals tab, tick the checkboxes on the rows you want to approve.
Click Approve Selected.
Optionally add a comment that will apply to all selected work orders.
Confirm.
How to Create a Work Order Approval Workflow
Navigate to Settings > Automation > Approval Workflows.
Click Create a new workflow.
Choose Work order approval
Enter a name, optional description, and select the applicable companies.
Click Next
The approval type is shown as a Work order 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 — select a Field (e.g. Budgeted cost), choose an Operator (e.g. greater than), and enter the Value.
Click Add condition to add further rules if needed.
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.
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.
Click Apply changes to save the step.
Repeat this process to add further steps.
Publishing the Workflow
When you're ready to activate your workflow, click Publish changes at the bottom of the editor. The workflow status updates to Published and will begin routing approvals immediately.
To save your work without activating, click Save as draft. Draft workflows are visible in your workflow list but will not process any approvals until published.
Filtering Work Order Approvals
Use the filter bar in the Work order approvals tab to narrow down the list:
Approvers — show only work orders assigned to a specific approver.
Companies — filter by organisation.
Month — for completed or rejected items, filter by time period.
Work Order Approval Permissions
By default, users who can create work orders can also approve them without a workflow. To enforce approval routing:
Navigate to Settings > Company & Users > Maintain User Roles.
Select the role to update.
Expand Dashboard Permissions.
Toggle Can approve maintenance work orders off.
Click Save User Role.
Note: Users added to an approval workflow step can still approve work orders even if this permission is disabled. Being able to manage work orders does not automatically give you the ability to approve them — these are separate permissions.
