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Approval process
The approval process in CPQ is a structured workflow triggered when specific pricing or margin-related thresholds are breached. It involves the Pricing Team and Sales roles (Sales rep, Sales Leadreship, Sales Support), each responsible for validating different conditions in the quoting process. The process aims to ensure profitability, pricing consistency, and governance without disrupting the sales flow.
Approval Triggers
The approval workflow is triggered under two main conditions:
Line Item Level Breach: If any quote line item falls below the predefined floor price, it requires approval from the Pricing Team.
Quote-Level Margin Breach: If the overall margin for the quote falls below the target threshold, approval is required from Sales Leadership.
Both conditions can be triggered independently or simultaneously, leading to different paths in the workflow.
Sequential Approvals
Although the system technically supports parallel workflows, the approval process will follow a sequential approvals to preserve pricing governance:
The Pricing Team reviews and approves any line items below floor pricing.
After this step, if the overall quote margin is still below target, the Sales is prompted for approval.
Margin and Floor Price Determination
The target margin is determined using a lookup table that considers:
Quote size
Customer industry type
Product or service type
The margin is calculated from:
Net price (from CPQ)
Estimated cost of servicing the deal (from external cost tables)
Applicable rebates and discounts
service charges, payment period.
Approval Logic and Workflow Steps
Each quote submitted goes through an algorithm that evaluates the triggers. The logic is summarized as follows:
Scenario 1: Only line item(s) breach floor (requires Pricing Team approves).
Scenario 2: Only quote margin is low (requires Sales approve).
Scenario 3: Both conditions breached (Sequential approval réquires Pricing Team then Sales approvers ).
The system will capture and store these evaluations, allowing the quote to follow the appropriate path dynamically.
Roles and Permissions
Sales Representatives: Can modify quotes while in "Open" status. Cannot modify once submitted for approval.
Pricing Team: Can approve/reject quotes; they do not modify pricing during approval.
Sales approvers: Can approve/reject quotes that meet line-item pricing but fall below margin targets.
Modifications after rejection are allowed by returning the quote to the "Open" status. (See Quote Lifecycle)
The Sales approver is selected by the Sales rep in the quote header, for validation
Notifications and Reminders
Edit Detailed notification chapter
The system sends notification emails to the approval process stakeholders depending on the progress
There is 3 notifications
Approval Request Notification: Sent to the approvers (Pricing Team, OR Selected Sales Approver with following Elements:
Quote summary
Link to open the quote in CPQ
A reminders can be configured to send every day if the quote remains in “in review” Status.
Rejection notification : Sent to the Sales Rep when one of the approver reject the Quote, the email notification contains the following Elements:
Rejection Reason
Link to open the quote in CPQ
Approval Notification : Sent to the Sales Rep when the approver approve the Quote, the email notification contains the following Elements:
Link to open the quote in CPQ
A proposal of the email texts will be made during the Build phase and can be subject to adaptation.
Specific Cases and Considerations
Quotes rejected at any stage require the sales team to either rework or clone them before resubmission.
Only customer and owner information may remain editable during approval workflow. Editable customer information can be only (fields to documents): contact person address, company VAT, Contact person name and title.
9. Summary Diagram (To Be Designed)
The Diagram below represents the full process logic, highlighting:
Trigger evaluations
Sequential approval gates
Final outcomes (Approved, Rejected)