What it builds
A requester fills in amount, category, justification. Over 5,000 the justification becomes required — a rule on the field, not a note in the training deck. Submitting routes by amount: a manager for most, a director over 25,000. The approver gets an email; the requester gets one when a decision lands.
Every request and approval is change-logged. Who approved what, and when, is a row in a table — not a search through a mailbox.
The primitives map
- Objects —
apr_requests,apr_approvals. The approval is its own record, so a request can carry more than one. - Forms — Request with a conditional rule on justification; Approval with decision and comment.
- Workflows — on submit, route by amount and email the approver; on decision, email the requester.
- Grids — awaiting my approval, oldest first; all requests by status.
- Screens — six: three per object from one screenflow. In the drawer they read new request, my requests, approval queue, request detail.
- Groups and actions — Requesters, Managers, Directors; approve is permitted to the last two only.
The build, as an op-log
configure-field sets the conditional rule. update-action-permissions keeps the approve button off a requester’s screen and rejects the dispatch if they find it anyway.
Starter prompt
Build a solution called Approvals with the prefix apr for purchase requests, creating the groups Requesters, Managers and Directors first. Objects: Request (requester, amount, category, justification, status) and Approval (request, approver, decision, comment). Make justification required when the amount is over 5,000, and turn the change log on so every decision is recorded. Add a workflow that emails a Manager when a request is submitted and a Director instead when the amount is over 25,000, and a second one that emails the requester on decision. Add a grid of requests awaiting my approval and generate the screens. Preview the diff before committing.
Change the thresholds and the group names; the shape holds for expense claims, access requests or contract sign-off.
Screens (placeholders)
Screenshots pending [PLACEHOLDER: screenshots of the built app — request form with the conditional rule active, approval queue, request detail with change log]
Extend it
- Add an ExternalService step on approve that posts the request to your finance system, Zapier, Make or n8n.
- Add a PDF of the approved request, generated by the workflow and attached to the email.
- Add a third tier — a second director approval over 100,000 — as one more branch in the same workflow.
Related
- Use case: Workflow and approvals
- Blueprint: Intake form and survey
- Role page: For operations