An estimate built at your catalog rates goes out as normal. The moment a rep types a different price on a line, the send locks and Request approval appears. The request carries only the lines that moved — was, is, and what the difference costs — and the rep's note lands in the contact's notes. The approver's email has Review and approve, which opens the estimate with the decision in front of them. They can approve, decline with a reason, or set their own price on any line, and an amber Waiting on you banner stays on their home screen until nothing is waiting. A product priced at $0 on a SmartBuild estimate is held the same way until a manager marks it Reviewed — OK to send.
Also called: price approval · discount approval · manager approval · off catalog price · reps discounting · approve a price
Only a changed price locks the send
Quantities, sizes, markup and labour are all free. A line priced off its catalog rate is the one thing that locks the estimate, because the catalog rate is the one number you blessed in advance. Change it back and the lock is gone, with no request and no waiting.
Lock too much and reps route around the system; lock nothing and margin leaves one line at a time.
The catalog rate is the only number on an estimate whose departure can be detected rather than guessed at, so it is the honest boundary.
Approve it, or set your own price
The approver sees only the lines that moved — was, is, and the difference — and can type a new rate on any of them in the unit that means something for that line. The total and the difference update as they type, and approving writes their number onto the estimate and tells the rep exactly what was set.
Managers rubber-stamped prices they half-agreed with rather than lose two days to a decline and a retype.
The real conversation is usually a different number, not a yes or a no.
An approval is for these prices, not forever
Each approval records the exact set of prices it covers. Edit any of them afterwards and the lock comes straight back. The server works the exceptions out itself every time, so the lock cannot be talked around by the screen that asked.
Approve a $400 door once, and without this it could go out at $40 next week.
An approval that does not name what it approved is not an approval.
Waiting on you, at the top of the screen
Anything waiting shows as a solid amber bar on the approver's home screen — who is waiting, on what, for how much, and for how long. It does not dismiss; it goes away when the queue is empty. The email's Review and approve button lands on the estimate with the decision already open.
A sale waiting on an email that was missed is a rep with nothing to do.
Every other strip in the app is a nudge; this one is a queue, and a dismissible blocker is just a blocker you forget about.
A $0 part waits for a manager too
When a SmartBuild product comes back at $0 because it is missing from your price book, a rep cannot send until an admin or sales manager clicks Reviewed — OK to send, or the rep can ask an admin to clear it. The clearance covers those exact parts; a new missing one brings the check back. See the SmartBuild integration.
A short estimate leaves unnoticed — or a sale waits days for a small part to be added to a price list.
A small missing part should not hold a sale, but a short estimate should not leave without someone with authority looking at it.
- 1Price a line off your catalog rate and the estimate locks. Request approval — or change it back, and the lock disappears.
- 2Add a note if you like; it lands in the contact's notes.
- 3The approver's email has Review and approve; it opens the estimate with the approval panel ready.
- 4Approve, decline with a reason, or type a new rate — the total and the difference update as you type, and the button becomes Approve at your price.
- 5The approval covers exactly the prices it was shown. Edit a price afterwards and the lock comes back.
- 6Until it is decided, an amber banner on the approver's home screen shows what is waiting on them, oldest first.
An estimate built entirely at catalog rates is already approved — you set those numbers. A rep typing a different price is where margin quietly leaves, usually to close a deal at the end of a long day. So a changed price needs a signature before a customer sees it. But approve-or-decline was the wrong shape: a manager looking at a rep's $13 a square foot rarely thinks yes or no — he thinks eleven, and the only route to eleven was decline, explain, wait for a retype and a second request. Now he can say eleven: one tap from the email opens the decision, and he sets his own price on the line. The approval is bound to the exact prices it was shown, because otherwise approving a $400 door once would license shipping it at $40 later. And a blocked sale is a rep with nothing to do, so the queue sits at the top of the approver's screen, not in an inbox.
- Reps changing catalog prices on estimates without anyone signing off
- Approvals that could only say yes or no, not a different number
- An approval for one price being reused for a different one
