Approvals and business processes often lead to delays in most organizations. Requests get lost in emails, decisions that need to be made sit stagnant in inboxes, and employees spend more time chasing sign-offs rather than doing the meaningful work.
This means in today's speedy world, we not only lose time, but we also lose accountability, and we stifle growth. To help solve this dilemma, organizations are choosing smarter systems and using technology to create structure, transparency, and accountability around approvals.
Modern project management tools are able to support these efforts by embedding approvals directly into the workflows, at the very least speeding up the decision-making process and ensuring the same procedures are followed after each approval.
Improving the approval process is not just about speed; it is about trust and alignment. When employees are aware of processes that happen in a reliable timeframe, they have the freedom to let go of worry and hesitation by not having to look back on either additions to the process or premature steps forward.
Leaders now have visibility into processes and can see how the bottlenecks and excess time spent can be used to implement preventative action rather than reaction after vital initiatives stall and find themselves in a position to work through risks.
By digitizing approvals and linking them to the day-to-day execution of business, organizations are able to continue to their ignition point beyond firefighting by creating a culture of assurance where processes work alongside their people rather than against them to support growth rather than suppress it.
Lark Base: structuring processes for clarity and accountability
Effective ways to manage approvals and business processes digitally - Lark base
Business processes often break down when information is siloed or when responsibilities are unclear. Lark Base addresses this by providing a structured environment where approvals and processes sit side by side.
Teams can design custom databases to track milestones, responsibilities, and customer commitments, ensuring transparency across departments. Dashboards give leaders visibility into how requests and approvals influence larger projects, while employees manage their work in views that suit them best—whether kanban boards, grids, or dashboards.
Automations keep process updates current without extra manual input, reducing errors and saving time. Base adapts to CRM app needs, helping teams track customer pipelines alongside projects and deliverables so that client priorities and internal accountability move forward together.
Lark Docs: capturing processes in living records
Approvals and processes often fail not during execution, but in preparation and communication. Lark Docs prevents this by ensuring that every workflow is documented, dynamic, and easy to update.
Teams can co-edit process documents in real time, ensuring that policies and approval requirements are always up to date. Embedding live data from Sheets keeps key metrics accurate, giving decision-makers the context they need when reviewing requests.
Inline comments allow clarifications in context, reducing misunderstandings that would otherwise result in delays. Version history creates a transparent record of how processes evolve, ensuring compliance and trust.
By linking Docs directly to approvals or Base records, strategies and processes written down never stay theoretical—they become living systems that shape execution.
Lark Messenger: keeping approvals close to daily collaboration
Effective ways to manage approvals and business processes digitally - Lark Messenger
A challenge in embracing any digital solution for approvals is to avoid taking them out of employees' daily work. Lark Messenger integrates approvals and process updates into everyday communication, minimizing this risk by enabling employees to receive notifications for pending requests in the collaboration platform where they'll work on those requests, making decisions visible without needing additional check-ins.
Availing threaded conversations keeps conversations organized around approvals. Pinned messages ensure employees notice what is most important about employees' ongoing processes and keep critical updates visible.
Messenger also connects these conversations directly to tasks, events, or approvals, ensuring there is a straight path from conversation to action. Messenger reduces context switching, embedding approvals into the natural flow of collaboration rather than interrupting it.
Lark Meetings: aligning stakeholders for smoother processes
Although digital approvals can streamline many business processes, sometimes discussions and alignment are still necessary before decisions can be made. Lark Meetings creates a setting for these discussions to happen and ensures that outcomes will get right into execution.
Employees just need to click once from Calendar to join the meeting so there is very little friction to bringing decision makers together. Everyone in the meeting can stay aligned with the use of screen sharing, live captions, and then even store the context for people who can't attend by recording the meeting.
Outcomes from meetings can be logged into Base, tethered to Docs, or transformed into tasks and approvals. In this way, discussions and decisions made in meetings get integrated in real time with work that is moving forward. Meetings are not islands of conversation. They are connected to a larger system of connected processes.
Lark Approval: the engine for faster decision-making
Effective ways to manage approvals and business processes digitally - Lark approval
Approvals are at the heart of virtually every business process, from expense requests to contract reviews. Lark Approval replaces hastily constructed systems with transparent and structured workflows. Requests are lodged through a customizable form that captures all pertinent information, limiting any back-and-forth as a result of missing information.
Requests are routed automatically to the designated stakeholders, meaning there is no delay and no need to manually forward approval requests. Notifications serve up items pending approvals in Messenger so that decision makers can still respond, without further obligatory catch-up meetings.
Each decision is logged in an automated workflow, demonstrating accountability and movement. Approvals go from a bottleneck to a smooth checkpoint that helps keep work on the same page with the organization’s strategic priorities.
