For partner ops and partner managers deciding how a registration, referral or request gets signed off before it counts.Run a submission approval workflow shows you where the controls are. This guide is the decision in front of that: how many approvers a submission really needs, who they should be, and what each outcome does to the partner on the other end. Getting it wrong in either direction is expensive. Too loose and unqualified deals land in your pipeline with a partner already told yes. Too tight and partners wait days for an answer, which is the fastest way to teach them not to register the next one.
What you’ll achieve
An approval model you can defend: the right number of steps, the right approver on each one, outcome messages that tell a partner what to do next, and a clear view of what this model can and cannot express, so you find out here rather than three weeks into a rollout.Before you start
1
Know who actually owns the decision
Approval is a business decision before it is a setting.
Write down who is accountable for saying yes to this form: a named person, whoever manages that partner, or anyone on the team.
That answer maps directly onto the options below.
2
Have partner ownership wired, if you plan to route by it
Two of the four approver options resolve per partner rather than to a fixed person, and both need ownership set on the partner record.
See Wire partner ownership and Set up partner team roles.
Steps
Decide how much of a gate you need
1
Start from what the submission triggers
A submission with no gate is accepted the moment it arrives, and its CRM automations run immediately.
That is the right answer more often than teams expect: a referral you would never turn down, an event registration, a support request.
Add a gate only where a wrong yes costs you something, because every gate you add is latency a partner feels.On the form’s Automation tab, Enable Approval Gate is what holds submissions as Pending instead.
Turning it on also switches on Introw AI validation and seeds a first step set to Anyone, so the gate starts permissive and you tighten it from there.
2
Pick the approver for each step
Steps run in order, and each step carries exactly one approver. Your options:
- Anyone - any team member in your organisation can approve. Use it when speed matters more than who signs, and for the first step of a queue your ops team works together.
- A specific team member - one named person. Precise, and the only option that stalls when they are on holiday, so keep it for genuinely personal sign-off.
- A partner team role - resolves per partner to whoever holds that role on the submitting partner. This is how one form serves a hundred partners without a hundred rules.
- Fund owner - on MDF forms only, resolves to the owners of the fund the request is routed to. See Set up an MDF program.
3
Add a second step only for a genuinely different judgment
A second step is worth its latency when the second approver is deciding something the first cannot: a discount beyond policy, a fund commitment, a strategic account.
It is not worth it when the second approver is just double-checking the first.
Chain the steps in the order the decision actually travels, since each one must approve before the next is asked.Removing the last step switches the gate off entirely, which is the quickest way back to auto-acceptance.
4
Let AI take the routine volume
On a high-volume, rule-based form, most submissions are decided by criteria you can write down.
Enable Introw AI validation, describe the policy in plain language, and set how autonomously it may act.
It accepts, declines or returns on its own only above the certainty threshold you choose, and everything below it still reaches a human.This is the one lever that shortens the queue without loosening the rules, and it is why a two-step gate is survivable at volume.
See AI approvals.
Know what each outcome does
1
Read the six statuses
Every submission sits in exactly one state, and the state decides what can still happen to it.
An Error is not a decision.
It means the submission could not be written, so treat it as work rather than an outcome: fix the value it tripped on and resubmit.
2
Choose between decline and return deliberately
They read very differently to a partner, and only one of them is reversible on your side.
- Decline ends it with your decline message. If circumstances change, Reopen at the top of a declined submission sends it back to Pending, where it re-enters the gate from the first step and AI validation runs again.
- Return keeps it alive and hands it back. Use it whenever the answer is “not like this” rather than “no”.
3
Write the outcome messages once
Set the Accept and Decline messages on the form so every partner gets a reason rather than a status change, and edit them per submission when a case deserves it.
A decline that explains what would have qualified is the difference between a partner registering again and a partner giving up.
4
Treat accept as final
An accepted submission cannot be un-accepted, because accepting is what created the record in your CRM and told the partner yes.
If you accept one in error, correct the record in your CRM and use Return to ask the partner for a corrected submission.
On forms where a wrong yes is costly, that is the argument for a gate rather than for an undo.
Show the partner where their submission stands
1
Put their submissions in their portal
Partners chase you for status because nothing shows it to them.
Add the Form submissions section to the portal experience from the Forms group in the section picker.
It lists that partner’s own submissions with a Status column, so “where is my registration” answers itself.
See Every section you can add to a portal.
2
Understand what a returned submission looks like to them
A partner who reopens the form finds their previous answers already filled in and your reviewer’s return comment shown alongside them, and their edit resubmits the same submission rather than creating a second one.
That is why Return does not fragment your inbox, and why a returned submission is worth a specific comment: the comment is the instruction they act on.
3
Confirm the outcome emails have recipients
Outcome emails are org-level, not per-form.
On Default settings, open the Notifications tab and give Form submission accepted, Form submission declined and Form submission returned their recipients under the Submissions group.
See Control who gets notified.
What this model cannot express
Worth knowing before you design around it, because each of these has a route that gets you most of the way.Verify it worked
Submit a test through the form and follow it end to end. It should arrive as Pending (or Auto accepted if AI cleared it), name the approver you expect on its current step, and change status as each step signs off. Decline it and confirm the partner receives your decline message and that Reopen puts it back to Pending. Return a second test and confirm the partner’s form comes back prefilled with the return comment attached. See Test a form before partners see it.Related
Run a submission approval workflow
Where every control in this guide lives.
Customize the submissions inbox
Review by the columns you decide on.
Register and approve a deal
The same model applied to deal registration.
Implementation reference
Full configuration options.