Having already processed hundreds of thousands of ticket approvals for use cases ranging from change management to travel requests, deal approvals, and much more, our next-generation Approve app offers supreme flexibility in how approvals are configured — while dramatically simplifying the setup process.
We've released this as a new app because the methods for defining approvals have fundamentally evolved. With Approve, recreating your approval flows is much easier than before; in some cases, setup time has been reduced by an order of magnitude.
What's carried over
- Approvals can still be initiated by agents or via triggers
- Approvers still don't need to be Zendesk agents
- Improved branding options for the approval email and portal
New and improved features
Flexible approval recipients
Approvals can now be configured to go to anyone — specific users or groups, users referenced on the ticket (requester, assignee, followers), users in the ticket's organisation, or approvers specified in ticket, organisation, or user fields. This enables workflows like automatic line manager escalation without any custom code.
Configurable approval thresholds
When approvals are sent in parallel, the minimum number of approvers needed can be set by absolute number or percentage.
Escalations as reminders
Escalations are now defined per approval rather than per approver. To send a reminder to an approver, simply set up an escalation to the same approvers as many times as needed.
Sequential approvals simplified
Sequential approvals are now handled with a single definition rather than multiple templates.
Approval visibility
Define who can add an approval to a ticket — admin, manager, or agent level.
Trigger flexibility
Send approvals automatically via a trigger, or use the trigger to add the approval to a ticket for the agent to send manually — making it a requirement to solve the ticket.
Customisable buttons
Choose the colour and label of approval buttons. An optional abstain button lets approvers indicate they won't respond, which can help escalations move faster.
Mark approvers as unavailable
Agents can mark an approver as unavailable so the approval escalates faster when needed.
Fully customisable ticket updates
Configure ticket updates for any state change in an approval request — add tags, post comments, change status, and more.
Complete branding control
Full branding options for the approval email and portal, including the ability to customise the portal hostname.
Improved admin experience
An admin view of all current approvals and the history of past approvals. A new audit log shows all events in the app. A new diagnostics section lets you check and repair issues without contacting support.
Passwordless approver portal
Approvers don't need an approval email to access the portal — they can enter their email address to receive a sign-in link.
Cloning
Clone approval definitions to speed up setup for similar workflows.