Discount approvals before the customer sees a price
Discounts over your limit and large deals wait In Review for the right approver, whoever or whatever drafted them.
- 5/5 on G2
- 4.2 on Capterra
- Building QuoteCloud since 2013
On QuoteCloud's Business plan, approval workflows start when an order form's discount percentage or total value passes your threshold. The document waits In Review until each approver agrees, and only then can it be sent. The same rules apply to drafts created by automations or an AI assistant through the MCP service.
Last reviewed by the QuoteCloud team
A sample renewal order form for a fictional software vendor, Plinthwork, behind a checklist titled 'Before Theo can send'. The items tick off one by one: 140 Growth seats at $32, a renewal discount of 12% against a 10% limit, a 24-month term, and the rule matched, discount percentage greater than 10. The panel ends with the approval status: approved by Hollis Grant, the sales director.
12% asked, 10% allowed: Hollis decides
Mossbank asked for 12% off a two-year renewal. Plinthwork's rule says anything over 10% needs the sales director, so the order form went In Review the moment Theo requested approval. It couldn't be sent until Hollis approved it.
Hollis sees the same document the customer will see: the seats, the discount on each line, the term and the total contract value. Approve and it's ready to send; decline and Theo updates it and asks again.
- The Discount column shows the agreed percentage on each line
- In Review until every approver agrees
- Decline / Approve in the document's workflow panel
- Every request and decision in the activity log
Approval workflow: Business plan
Renewal order formsMossbank's renewal, as Hollis sees it
| Item | Qty | Monthly | Once-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription · Growth plan | |||
Growth seatsPW-GRW · Per seat · change the number of seats12% off
|
140 seats | $3,942.40 | — |
Analytics add-onPW-ANL · Per seat12% off
|
140 seats | $739.20 | — |
Single sign-on & audit logPW-SSO · Per account
|
1 | $250 | — |
| Options Tick to add | |||
API capacity packPW-API-1M · +1 million calls a month
|
1 | $120 | — |
Premium supportPW-SUP-P · Named support engineer, 1-hour response
|
1 | $450 | — |
| Once-off | |||
Training for new usersPW-TRN · Two live sessions for the 20 added seats
|
1 | — | $1,200 |
- Monthly after discount
- $4,931.60/mo
- Once-off
- $1,200.00
- Total contract value over 24 months
- $119,558.40
Prices ex tax. Plinthwork invoices the subscription monthly in advance; repeating charges are shown here for agreement, not billed by QuoteCloud.
Document workflow
ApprovedTriggered when Discount percentage greater than 10
- Hollis GrantSales directorApproved
Must be approved before the order form can be sent.
- Approval request sent by Theo Marchetti
- Approved by Hollis Grant
Approval workflow · Business plan
What a deal desk can set
Approval rules live under Settings › Workflow on the Business plan and apply to every template and every author.
Discount triggers
Start a workflow when a document's discount percentage is greater than your limit, such as 10% for account executives.
Total value triggers
Send large deals for a second look when the total value passes a threshold, such as a $250,000 ramp.
Approvers by role
Choose approvers from a role, such as sales director or deal desk, and require all of them to approve.
Different paths by size
A Switch node sends documents down different paths, such as one approver under a value and two above it.
Start from a template
Workflow templates include Approval by Discount Level and Approval by Value Threshold, ready to adjust and activate.
Approvals in your own tools
Zapier can start a Zap when a review is requested and approve or reject a workflow, on Essentials and up.
QuoteCloud on Zapier
A $368,260 ramp waits for two people
Calloway's three-year order has no unusual discount, but its total value is over Plinthwork's $250,000 limit. That rule needs both the sales director and the deal desk.
Hollis has approved; Wen Zhao in finance hasn't yet, so the order form stays In Review and nobody can send it to Noor Haddad yet. When Wen approves, Theo sends it.
- Total value greater than $250,000
- Must be approved by all approvers
- Then sent by a person, never automatically
Approval workflow: Business plan
Ramp and usage calculatorsDocument workflow
In ReviewTriggered when Total value greater than $250,000
- Hollis GrantSales directorApproved
- Wen ZhaoDeal desk & financeWaiting
Must be approved by all approvers before it can be sent.
- Approval request sent by Theo Marchetti
- Approved by Hollis Grant
Approval workflow · Business plan
Calloway: the three-year order
| Item | Qty | Unit price | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription, by contract year | $353,760 | ||
Year 1 · 150 Scale seats × 12 moInvoiced monthly in advance |
1 year | $79,200 | $79,200 |
Year 2 · 220 Scale seats × 12 moInvoiced monthly in advance |
1 year | $116,160 | $116,160 |
Year 3 · 300 Scale seats × 12 moInvoiced monthly in advance |
1 year | $158,400 | $158,400 |
| Implementation | $14,500 | ||
Implementation, fixed feeDiscovery, store data migration, SSO, training |
1 fixed | $14,500 | $14,500 |
- Subtotal
- $368,260.00
- Tax (10%)
- $36,826.00
- Total
- $405,086.00
Put your discount limits into QuoteCloud
Free for 14 days, no credit card required. Approval workflows are on the Business plan; try them during the trial.
Whoever drafts it, the same rule applies
A rep in the editor, a Zap creating an order form from your CRM, or an AI assistant connected through QuoteCloud's MCP service: each one makes an ordinary QuoteCloud document. Over your limit, it waits In Review, and a person sends it.
Drafts from your AI assistantSet up a discount rule in five steps
How Plinthwork's deal desk set the 10% limit. It took one workflow.
Open Workflow
Go to Settings › Workflow and create a workflow, blank or from the Approval by Discount Level template.
Set the trigger
Choose Discount Percentage, Greater Than, and type your limit, such as 10.
Add the approval
Add an Approval node, choose approvers from a role and decide whether all of them must approve.
Finish both paths
End with Ready to Send for an approval and Reject to Send for a rejection, then save.
Test and activate
Test it on a draft order form, then set the workflow to Active for every template.
Discount approval questions
What can trigger an approval in QuoteCloud?
On the Business plan, an approval workflow can start when a document's discount percentage or total value passes the threshold you set. A Switch node can then send documents down different paths, for example one approver for mid-sized deals and two above a higher value. The document waits In Review until it's approved.
Can the customer see a document that's waiting for approval?
No. While a document is In Review it can't be sent. The approver opens it, checks the lines, discount and totals, and approves or declines in the document's workflow panel. Once every required approver has approved, the account executive sends it to the customer.
Do approval rules apply to documents created by Zapier, the API or an AI assistant?
Yes. Documents created through Zapier, the API or an AI assistant connected with QuoteCloud's MCP service are ordinary QuoteCloud documents, so the same approval rules apply. An assistant creates drafts for your team to review; a discount over your limit still waits for an approver, and a person sends it.
Can approvals depend on margin rather than discount?
QuoteCloud's approval triggers include the discount percentage and the total value, which most deal desks use for SaaS order forms. Costs and margins can be kept on price lines and hidden from the customer, so the approver can check them, but we don't describe a margin-based trigger.
Which plan includes approval workflows?
Approval workflows are on the Business plan, along with product discounts, the Gantt chart, content locking, version history and the AI Co-Worker. Essentials includes price tables, the API, Zapier, Make and the MCP service. Both plans start with a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Where approvals show up
Renewals, ramps and expansions all pass the same rules.
-
Renewal quotes from usage dataSeats used against seats licensed, turned into a renewal order form before the agreement's expiry date.Explore
-
Ramp, usage & ROI calculatorsSeats × tier price × term, ramped by year, in a spreadsheet block whose cells set the price lines.Explore
-
Renewals & QBRs drafted by your AI assistantAn assistant connected through QuoteCloud's MCP service drafts from your CRM and usage data; your account executive reviews and sends.Explore
- Seat-based order formsSeats, plan and term the customer can adjust on the price lines before signing, with the totals following.
- Plan tiers & add-onsStarter, Growth or Scale as a single choice in the order form, with add-ons the customer ticks.
- Implementation statements of workDiscovery, migration, set-up and training as milestones, a plan on a Gantt chart and a deposit on signing.
- QBR reports with expansion quotesUsage, adoption and recommendations in one report, with the expansion lines the customer can tick and sign.
- Security reviews & DPAsYour security answers, data processing terms and policies as locked blocks and attachments in the agreement.
- CRM, billing & data integrationsHubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Xero, QuickBooks and your own systems, connected the way each one really connects.
- Software & SaaS templatesReal QuoteCloud templates for SaaS proposals, software quotes, SLAs and acceptance forms.
- QuoteCloud implementation for software vendorsYour price book, order form and renewal templates, approval rules and integrations set up with your team.
- FAQAnswers to the questions software vendors, account executives and customer success teams ask most.
Every discount over your limit, approved first
Free for 14 days. No credit card required.