Approve an agreement before it goes out

Ask someone in your company to approve an agreement before any customer sees it, and, as the approver, approve it so Nova sends it for signing.

In the sidebar, open Agreements, then All Agreements, open the agreement and choose the Approvals tab. The page address is /agreements/ followed by the agreement and /approvals. When a step is waiting on you, Nova also sends you a notification that opens the agreement.

Some agreements need a manager's approval before a customer sees them. You name the approvers on the draft and request approval. After the last approval, Nova sends the agreement for signing on its own.

Before you start

• Approvers are participants. When you add or edit one on the Participants tab, open Advanced details, turn on This person also approves, and set the Approval order, Approval due at and Required approver.
• Requesting approval needs permission to request agreement approvals. Approving needs permission to approve them.

Steps

1. On the draft, press Request approval. It is at the top of the page, on Overview and on Approvals. The Request approval? window opens.
2. Under Delivery timing, choose Send immediately or Schedule delivery. This is when signers receive the agreement once the final approval is in.
3. Under Message and senders, check the channels and sender.
4. Press Request approval. Nova opens the Approvals tab and tells the first approver.
5. If you are the approver, open the agreement from your notification, or from All Agreements, and choose Approvals.
6. Find your step under Approval flow. A step waiting on you shows Actionable now.
7. Read the agreement on the Document tab if you need to.
8. Press Approve. Nova says Approval recorded. and moves to the next approver, or, after the last one, sends the agreement for signing (at the scheduled time, if one was set).

What you see

• Three tiles: Requested steps, Approved steps and Returned steps.
• Each step shows the approver, its status, its step number, their email, the due date and any Decision note:.
• Approval timeline on the right lists every request, reminder and decision.
• Remind approvers sends a reminder to everyone still waiting to decide. Cancel flow stops the approval and turns the agreement back into a draft you can edit.

If something looks different

• Request approval is missing: nobody on the draft is an approver yet, something still blocks it on Overview, or your role cannot request approval.
• Approve is missing on a step: it is not your turn yet, or your role cannot approve.
• Reject or Return for changes shows an error saying a reason is required: the page has no box for a reason yet. Tell the person who asked for approval what to change; they can press Cancel flow, fix the draft and request approval again.
• No approval flow: nobody on the agreement is set to approve it.

Open All Agreements