Step by step guide to setting up approval workflows in Octavehq

If your team drowns in long email threads every time something needs sign-off, you’re not alone. Approval workflows are supposed to make things smoother, but most tools overcomplicate it—or worse, bury you in settings you don’t need. This guide is for folks who want real control and clarity, with a no-nonsense walkthrough of setting up approval workflows in Octavehq. Whether you need a basic manager sign-off or a multi-step review, you’ll find out what actually works, what’s just noise, and how to avoid common roadblocks.

Step 1: Know What You Actually Need

Before you click a single button, get clear about your goal. Ask yourself: - Who really needs to approve this thing? - Does everyone need to approve, or just one person in a group? - Should approvals happen in a specific order, or all at once? - What happens if someone’s out of office?

Pro tip: Most teams overcomplicate this. Start simple. Get approval from the people who care, and add more steps only if you need them.

Step 2: Get Into Octavehq and Find Approval Workflows

From the main dashboard, look for “Workflows” or something similarly named in the sidebar.
If you don’t see it, you might need admin permissions—or your plan may not include it. (Yes, this is annoying, but better to find out now.)

Under “Workflows,” you’ll see a list of any workflows your team already set up. Don’t be afraid to poke around and see how they’re built.

Step 3: Start a New Workflow

Click “New Workflow,” “Create Workflow,” or whatever button starts the process (Octavehq sometimes changes the label—if you don’t see it, check for a plus sign).
Give your workflow a name that’s actually useful. “Q2 Budget Approvals” beats “Workflow 4.”
Add a short description. This saves headaches later when you wonder “What the heck is this for?”

What works: Clear, specific names.
What doesn’t: Generic names you’ll forget in two weeks.

Step 4: Define Your Trigger

Every workflow needs a starting point—a trigger. This could be:

When someone submits a form (e.g., “New Purchase Request”)
When a document changes status (e.g., “Draft” to “Ready for Review”)
When a task is marked complete

Choose the trigger that matches your process. If you’re not sure, think about when you want the approval process to kick off.

Ignore for now: Fancy conditional triggers, unless you have a real reason. Keep it basic until you know you need more.

Step 5: Add Approval Steps

Here’s where most people get bogged down. Octavehq lets you add multiple approval steps. For each step:

Name the step. (“Manager Approval,” “Finance Review,” etc.)
Assign approvers. Choose people, groups, or roles. If your org changes a lot, use roles—it’s less maintenance.
Set the order. Decide if all approvals happen at once (parallel), or one after another (sequential).

Real talk: Don’t add five layers of approval unless you have to. Most bottlenecks come from too many cooks in the kitchen.

If you need conditional logic: (e.g., “If amount > $5,000, route to CFO”)—Octavehq supports this, but it’s easy to overuse. Only add conditions you can explain to someone in 30 seconds.

Step 6: Customize Notifications (But Don’t Overdo It)

By default, Octavehq will send notifications to approvers when it’s their turn. You can usually tweak:

Email or in-app notifications
Reminders after X days
Escalations if someone’s slow

What works: Reminders after 2-3 days.
What doesn’t: Notifying everyone about every step. That just trains people to ignore alerts.

Set up reminders that actually help. Too many notifications and people tune them out.

Step 7: Set Up Escalation and Delegation Rules

What if someone’s out sick or just not paying attention?

Escalation: After X days with no response, send to their manager or another backup.
Delegation: Let approvers assign someone else (if your process allows).

Don’t skip this step. It’s the difference between a workflow that works and one that gets stuck every time someone’s on vacation.

Step 8: Test With a Real Use Case

Don’t just trust that your workflow works. Run a real test:

Start the workflow as a dummy user (or yourself).
Walk through each step. Approve, reject, delegate—make sure every path works.
Check that notifications show up where and when they should.
Try breaking it: What happens if someone ignores a step? Or declines? Better to find out now.

Pro tip: Testing with a small group first will save you public embarrassment later.

Step 9: Launch to the Team (and Actually Explain It)

Once you’re sure the workflow works, roll it out:

Announce it in plain English. (“From now on, purchase requests go through Octavehq. Here’s how.”)
Show a quick demo—screenshots or a 2-minute screen share is plenty.
Link to the workflow or add it to your team’s wiki.

Don’t: Just email a link with “FYI.” People will ignore it.

Step 10: Keep an Eye on Bottlenecks and Tweak

The honest truth: No workflow is perfect out of the gate. Check in after a week or two:

Are approvals getting stuck with one person or step?
Are people complaining about too many emails?
Is someone always delegating? Maybe they shouldn’t be in the process.

Octavehq’s analytics can help, but just talking to your team usually surfaces issues faster.

What to Ignore (At Least for Now)

Integrations with everything under the sun: Unless you have a real, current need, skip setting up integrations until your basic workflow is humming.
Custom branding: Your team cares about approvals, not colors and logos.
Hyper-granular permissions: Start broad, tighten later if you hit real problems.
Approval comments: Useful sometimes, but can be a time sink. Don’t force people to write essays.

Wrap-up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Fast

There’s no prize for the fanciest workflow. Most teams get tripped up by trying to plan for every scenario on day one. Build the smallest thing that works, watch how it goes, and tweak as you learn. Octavehq gives you plenty of knobs to turn, but the real magic is in keeping people (and approvals) moving—not in building a Rube Goldberg machine.

If you hit a snag, don’t be afraid to strip it back and try again. The best workflows are the ones people actually use.