Automation Approvals
Review, approve, or dismiss the messages and charges held back by automations that need your say-so before they run.
Any automation set to "Require my approval first" does not send or charge on its own. Instead it lines the action up and waits for you. This gives you a check before anything money-related or sensitive goes out, which is why the invoice chase, debt chase, and GoCardless charge recipes are set this way to begin with.
Finding What Is Waiting
When something needs your attention, a Pending approvals button appears above the automations list with a count of how many are waiting. Opening it switches to the approvals view, and the Back button returns you to the list. If you manage more than one business, the business filter you set on the list carries through, so you review one business at a time when you want to.
Reviewing an Action
Each waiting item shows enough to make a quick decision without opening anything else:
- Automation name: which automation produced it.
- Recipient: whether it is going out by email or text, and to whom.
- Preview: the subject and message exactly as the customer would receive them, with the customer's details already filled in.
Approve or Dismiss
- Approve: accepts the action and queues it to go out. A message is sent, or a charge is collected, shortly after. Once approved it leaves the pending list.
- Dismiss: throws this one away without sending. Use it when the message is no longer needed — for example the customer has already paid. Dismissing only affects that single item, not the automation itself, which stays active and will queue the next match as normal.
Approvals are decided one at a time, so you can approve the ones you are happy with and dismiss the rest. If you find yourself approving everything an automation produces, consider switching it to run automatically; if you keep dismissing, tighten it up with conditions so it only queues the cases you actually want.
Related articles
- Automations: the list screen, where the pending approvals button lives.
- Creating an Automation: where you choose automatic sending or approval.
- GoCardless Billing Request Flow: useful background when approving a charge and the customer has no mandate yet.