01 Article
An approval step is a promise that a person will look before something irreversible happens. It only works if the right person sees it quickly and has what they need to decide.
Where to put them
- Before money moves: refunds, payouts, journal entries.
- Before access changes: new admins, removed users, API keys.
- Before messages leave the company in someone's name.
Who approves
Name a person, not a channel. Channels diffuse responsibility. Add a backup who is not in the same time zone, so a run never waits on one person's calendar.
How long to wait
Most teams settle on 30 minutes for operational approvals and four hours for finance. After that, Tessel escalates to the backup and records why.
If nobody ever rejects an approval, it is probably in the wrong place.
Review your approval steps every quarter. The trace shows how often each one was approved, rejected or escalated, and how long people took.
Written by the people who build Tessel. We publish notes on engineering, operations and product every few weeks.
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