Track approval status

Every approval link has a status: Pending, Approved, Declined, or Expired. The dashboard surfaces pending ones so they don't disappear. Tracking these proactively is the difference between a smooth-running business and one with $20k of unsigned change orders floating in customers' inboxes.

Where to see it

Dashboard → Need approval (KPI card) shows how many change orders and estimates are waiting. Click through for the list, sorted by oldest pending first. Anything sitting more than 5 days needs a nudge.

Per-document view: open any estimate, change order, or invoice and the right-hand panel shows the approval status, who it was sent to, when it was last opened (we track link opens), and the timestamp it expires. This is the level of detail you want when a customer says they 'never saw it.'

What "Pending" really means

Pending means we've sent the email and the customer hasn't acted yet. Within Pending, there are three sub-states worth knowing: not opened (the customer hasn't even clicked the email), opened but not signed (they read it and are thinking about it), and replied with a question (the customer used the Questions link to ask for clarification).

If a document is Pending and 'not opened' after 24 hours, the email probably landed in spam — see Customer didn't get my email for the playbook.

Resending

If a customer says they didn't get it, resend from the change order detail page. The original link stays valid; a new email goes out. You can also resend with a different recipient email if it turns out the customer's signing email is different from the one we have on file.

Resending too many times can look pushy. Three resends across two weeks is the polite upper limit. After that, a phone call from the owner is more productive than a fourth email.

When links expire

Links default to 14 days. After that, status is Expired and the customer sees an expired-link page with instructions to contact you. Create a new one if the deal is still live — old links can't be reactivated for audit reasons (the legal weight depends on the timestamp being current at signing).

Declined approvals

If a customer clicks Decline, the status flips and you get an email with their reason (if they provided one). Declined documents are NOT auto-closed — the customer might decline once and then come back asking to re-engage. Keep them around as historical record until you're sure the deal is dead, then archive.

Bulk tracking for ops teams

If you have an office manager checking on pending approvals daily, set them up with a saved filter on the document list: Status = Pending, Age > 3 days. That's the call-back list for the day.