Use Case · Approval Workflows

Your team already approves by email — InboxIQ makes every approval tracked, routed, and auditable.

PO approvals, leave requests, access grants, and expense sign-offs all arrive as plain emails. InboxIQ classifies the request, routes it to the right approver, and records the decision — without any approver creating an account in a new tool.

Approvers act from their existing inbox Complete decision audit trail vs £2,500/month Kissflow minimum
The Problem

Approvals disappear, decisions aren't recorded, auditors ask questions

Approval requests disappear into email threads no one owns

A PO request sent Tuesday gets a "looks fine" reply on Friday — but no one captured the approver's name, the approved amount, or the timestamp. When the auditor asks for evidence, the thread is buried in someone's personal inbox.

Every approver needs a portal account

Kissflow, ApprovalMax, and Nintex all require approvers to create accounts and log in to act on requests. A finance director who approves three POs a month is expected to maintain a Kissflow login for those three clicks. Portal friction causes approvals to stall.

Approval tool pricing assumes every approver is a power user

Kissflow's £2,500/month floor is for the whole platform — including features an approval-only team will never use. ApprovalMax bundles features you don't need. InboxIQ charges per inbox, not per approver.

How It Works

From request email to auditable decision — without anyone leaving their inbox

1

A request arrives as a plain email

"I need sign-off on a £4,200 vendor invoice." "Requesting two weeks' leave from 15 July." "Need admin access to the production database." No form. No portal. The email is the request.

2

InboxIQ identifies the request type and approver

The semantic layer identifies this as a financial approval, a leave request, or an access grant. Routing rules determine the correct approver — CFO for invoices above £1,000, line manager for leave, security lead for elevated access. The approver receives a notification in their own inbox.

3

The approver replies and the decision is recorded

The approver replies approve or decline from Gmail or Outlook. InboxIQ captures the decision, timestamps it, links it to the original request, and creates an immutable audit entry. The requestor receives confirmation in the original thread.

Outcomes

What teams managing approvals by email report after 30 days

80%

Faster approval turnaround

Requests reach the correct approver before anyone manually reads and forwards the email.

100%

Approvals with a timestamped decision record

Every approval or rejection is logged with the approver's identity, decision, and timestamp — automatically.

0

New accounts for approvers to create

Approvers act from Gmail or Outlook. No platform onboarding required.

Built for the approval chain, not the approval tool administrator

  • No form builder required

    Approval categories are learned from email intent. No admin taxonomy to build before the first request routes correctly.

  • Multi-stage approvals

    Route to a secondary approver if the primary is unresponsive after a configured window. Business plan.

  • ApprovalPolicy auto-approval Enterprise

    Define conditions and a confidence threshold. Routine low-risk requests are approved automatically and logged as policy-triggered — no human step required.

Audit-ready by design

  • Complete approval chain logged

    Every request, routing decision, and approval logged with timestamp. Who requested, who approved, when, on what basis.

  • Evidence export for compliance

    Approval records are exportable for SOX, internal audit, or GDPR subject access requests. Sensitive HR and finance approvals are classified and access-scoped.

  • No minimum approver seat count

    InboxIQ charges per connected inbox. Adding five more approvers to the routing rules costs nothing — unlike Kissflow or ApprovalMax.

Related solutions

Handle more from the inbox

Every approval tracked, every decision recorded — from the inbox your team already uses.

Start free — no credit card required. Connect your approvals inbox in under 10 minutes.