Request Approval
Everything so far — the request, the estimate, the price review — has been preparation. Approval is where it becomes real: the estimate stops being a draft and becomes the baseline your project tracks actual costs against.
1. Request Approval
Section titled “1. Request Approval”Once your estimate is priced and reviewed:
- Open the Project Summary page.
- Click Request Approval.
- Confirm the estimation revision you’re submitting.
- Assign an approver, if one isn’t already set.
This creates an approval request. Nothing about the estimate is locked yet — the approver still needs to make a decision.
The estimation workspace can also request approval or open the pending request. Direct approval, when offered, still validates that the decision belongs to the designated approver.
2. What the Approver Sees
Section titled “2. What the Approver Sees”The approver opens the request from their tasks and reviews the estimate one more time: prices, section margins, quantities, and any open review findings. They then record one of these decisions:
| Decision | What happens |
|---|---|
| Approved | The estimate becomes the active baseline. Cost groups are generated and the project enters cost tracking. |
| Rejected | No baseline is created. The project stays editable — it comes back to you for rework, with the decision recorded for the record. |
After a rejection, use the approver’s comments to revise the estimate. The decision stays in the project history.
At approval, choose Cost Control grouping: summary, section, system, or module. This organizes budget for recording costs; it is not Summary’s viewing selector. Start early cost tracking is a separate project action: it creates a preliminary baseline without formal approval, allows estimating to continue, and cannot authorize a finalized client proposal.
3. What Changes Once Approved
Section titled “3. What Changes Once Approved”The moment the estimate is approved:
- It becomes the project’s active baseline — the reference point everything downstream compares against.
- Cost groups are generated from the estimate structure, ready to receive actual costs.
- The project becomes visible in cost tracking, where invoices, commitments, and actual costs get recorded against the baseline.
- The line and margin editor becomes read-only; use a new revision for further financial work — see Estimation Sections.
4. Why This Step Matters
Section titled “4. Why This Step Matters”Approval is what gives your estimate an answer to “who approved this, and under which prices.” Every later comparison — budget vs. actual, variance, a re-baseline after a scope change — refers back to this moment. Without it, there’s no fixed point to measure against.
5. Next Step
Section titled “5. Next Step”Your first project now has an approved baseline. When actual costs are available, compare them with that plan and review what the next estimate should use: