- Features > Quote Approval Workflows
Quote Approval Workflows
Route quotes through structured approval workflows automatically. Define approval thresholds by deal value, margin, or discount depth — and ensure every quote that needs review gets it without manual intervention.
60%
Faster approval cycle times
Zero
Off-policy quotes shipped without review
100%
Approval decisions captured and auditable
The Challenge
Quote Approvals Are Manual, Slow, and Inconsistently Enforced
Most sales organisations have a pricing or discount policy — a set of rules about what sales reps can offer and at what point management review is required. In practice, these policies are enforced inconsistently, because the enforcement mechanism is manual.
Reps email managers for approvals, managers respond when they are available, and the process is tracked — if at all — through a thread of emails that no one can find three weeks later. Urgent deals bypass the process entirely. Low-value deals consume senior manager time unnecessarily.
Without structured approval workflows, it is impossible to ensure that every quote requiring review actually receives it before being sent to the customer. Off-policy quotes are discovered after the fact — often when the order arrives and the margin is already committed.
The lack of a structured process also makes it impossible to analyse approval patterns — which reps require the most approvals, which deal types are consistently approved or rejected, and whether the approval thresholds are set correctly for the business.
How It Works
How Quote Approval Workflows Work in Mercura
Mercura's quote approval engine evaluates every quote against a set of configurable rules — deal value thresholds, margin floor, discount depth, customer segment, or any combination of these factors. When a quote triggers an approval condition, it is automatically routed to the designated approver with full quote context and one-click approve or reject actions. Approvers receive notifications via email and in-platform. The rep is notified of the approval decision automatically. Approval chains support multi-level routing — a front-line manager approves first, and only escalates to a director if the margin or discount threshold crosses a second trigger. All approval decisions are logged with timestamp, approver identity, and any comments entered during the review.
What's Included
Key Capabilities
- Rule-based approval triggering by deal value, margin, discount, or any custom field
- Multi-level approval chains with conditional escalation
- One-click approve/reject with optional comment from any device
- Automatic notification to rep on approval decision
- Approval expiry — time-boxed approval validity prevents indefinite holds
- Delegated approval — approver can reassign to a colleague when unavailable
- Full approval audit log — every decision timestamped and identity-attributed
- Approval performance analytics — cycle times, rates, and rep-level approval frequency
The Difference
Before and After Quote Approval Workflows
- Approvals managed through email — slow, hard to track, frequently skipped
- Off-policy quotes sent to customers before review
- Urgent deals bypass approval — policy inconsistently enforced
- No audit trail — who approved what and when is unknown
- Approval analytics impossible — no data to improve the process
- Approval triggered automatically — no manual routing or follow-up required
- Off-policy quotes cannot be sent without required approval completed
- Threshold-based routing — only deals that need review consume manager time
- Full audit trail — every approval decision permanently recorded
- Approval analytics surface bottlenecks and policy calibration opportunities
Real-World Application
Example Use Case: Process Equipment Manufacturer
A process equipment manufacturer had a pricing policy requiring director approval for any quote where the net margin fell below 28%. In practice, the policy was enforced only when a rep remembered to seek approval — estimated compliance was below 50%. After implementing Mercura's approval workflow, every quote that breached the 28% margin threshold was automatically held and routed to the relevant director before the rep could send it. In the first month, 23 quotes were caught by the workflow that would previously have shipped without review. Of those, 11 were returned for repricing, recovering an estimated margin improvement significant enough to justify the platform investment in the first quarter alone.
Quote turnaround dropped from 3 days to under 4 hours.
Business Impact
Why Quote Approval Workflows Matter
Quote approval workflows are the enforcement layer for your pricing and discount policy. Without them, policy exists on paper but not in practice. With them, every quote that requires review is reviewed — automatically, without depending on rep compliance or manager vigilance. For manufacturers where margin protection is a strategic priority, approval workflows are not optional — they are the mechanism through which pricing policy becomes commercial reality.
Enforce Your Pricing Policy Automatically
Book a demo to see how Mercura routes every quote that needs approval to the right person — before it reaches the customer.
Let’s build together.
We empower manufacturers to master product modeling, streamline quoting process, reduce errors, and ultimately deliver the tailored solutions that customers demand.