No More Bottlenecks: Accelerating Project Approvals & Streamlining Decision-Making with PSA Software

Think back to the last time your project got stuck. Maybe a client was slow to approve a key design phase. Or a stakeholder delayed signing off on a budget change. Or your team needed a quick “yes” to move forward with a resource request. These moments, where everything pauses while you wait for a decision, are more than just frustrating – they‘re costly. They throw off your timeline, waste resources, and slow down your entire project.

In professional services, approvals are everywhere. Proposals, scope changes, expenses, invoices, resource assignments – each one needs a green light to keep things on track. But when approvals rely on manual steps – sending emails, chasing signatures, asking around in meetings – they become slow, unclear, and hard to manage. You don‘t know who‘s holding things up. Deadlines slip. There‘s no clear record of what was approved or when.

Now imagine a better way. Approvals are routed automatically to the right people. Everyone gets the context they need up front. You can see the status of every decision in real time. And things move forward – without the drama. That‘s exactly what Professional Services Automation (PSA) software with built-in approval workflows enables.

This article explores why accelerating project approvals is essential for efficiency and project success. It highlights the challenges of manual approval processes and explains how Birdview PSA helps streamline workflows, reduce delays, and improve decision-making across your team.

The approval bottleneck: Why manual processes slow you down

Approvals are essential checkpoints in the project lifecycle, ensuring quality, controlling costs, and aligning stakeholders. Yet, if the process itself is inefficient, it becomes a bottleneck:

• Delays & Bottlenecks: The most obvious impact. Projects sit idle waiting for approvals, pushing back subsequent tasks and impacting the overall schedule. According to some reports, inefficient approval processes can delay projects by up to 25%.
• Lack of Visibility: Who has the request? Where is it in the approval chain? Without a centralized system, it’s impossible to get a clear, real-time status update, leading to uncertainty and delays in follow-up.
• Manual Chasing: Project managers or administrators spend valuable time sending reminders, making phone calls, and manually tracking down approvers. This is inefficient and takes time away from core project work.
• Missing Information: Requests sent via email or informal channels may lack necessary context or attached documents, requiring back-and-forth communication and slowing down the reviewer.
• Errors & Rework: Informal approvals or decisions made without a clear process can lead to misunderstandings, require rework later in the project, and potentially impact financial accuracy.
• Difficult Audit Trail: Manually tracking who approved what, and when, creates a fragmented or non-existent audit trail, making it difficult to review decisions, resolve disputes, or ensure compliance.
• Client Frustration: Delays in getting client approvals for proposals, changes, or deliverables can frustrate clients and impact their perception of your firm’s efficiency.

These problems are inherent in manual or disconnected approval processes. You need a way to manage decisions as a structured workflow, not a series of isolated communications.

What are project approvals? Necessary gates in the workflow

Project approvals are formal authorizations required at specific points in a project lifecycle to proceed with a task, phase, decision, or financial transaction. They are the formal “go-ahead” signals that ensure alignment and control.

Common project approvals in professional services include:

• Proposal/Contract Approval: Client sign-off to begin a project.
• Project Scope Approval: Client and internal stakeholders sign off on the detailed project scope.
• Change Request Approvals (Scope, Budget, Schedule): Official approval of requested changes to the project‘s scope, budget, or timeline.
• Resource Request Approvals: Authorization to assign a specific resource or type of resource to a project.
• Expense Report Approvals: Manager or finance approval of submitted project-related expenses.
• Time Entry Approvals: Manager approval of logged hours (often for billing or payroll).
• Invoice Approvals: Internal finance/management approval before sending an invoice to the client, and sometimes client approval of the invoice itself.
• Deliverable/Milestone Approvals: Formal acceptance of key project deliverables or completion of significant milestones, often by the client.

Each of these requires a clear decision, and the process for obtaining that decision can significantly impact project velocity.

How PSA software streamlines project approvals

Professional Services Automation (PSA) software is designed to integrate project approvals directly into the workflow, transforming them from potential bottlenecks into streamlined decision-making points. By digitizing and automating the process, PSA software provides the visibility, control, and efficiency needed to accelerate approvals.

Here‘s how PSA software, and specifically Birdview PSA, streamlines project approvals:

1. Centralized request submission & tracking:
   How PSA helps: Provides a single platform for submitting and managing all types of project-related approval requests.
   Advantage: Eliminates scattered requests across emails or systems. All approvals are tracked in one place, providing instant visibility into pending items.
2. Automated approval workflows:
   How PSA helps: Allows you to define custom, multi-step workflows that automatically route approval requests to the necessary stakeholders in the correct sequence.
   Birdview PSA Advantage: Birdview PSA offers robust, configurable approval workflows.
   Example: An expense report automatically routes to the project manager, then to finance.
3. Automated notifications & reminders:
   How PSA helps: Automatically sends notifications to reviewers when an action is required from them and sends reminders for pending requests.
   Birdview PSA Advantage: Birdview PSA sends automated in-app and email notifications to approvers when a request is waiting for their review.
   Useful Tip: Configure notification preferences in Birdview PSA to ensure key approvers receive alerts in their preferred method.
4. Clear context & attached information:
   How PSA helps: Approval requests are linked directly to the relevant project, task, expense, or invoice, with all necessary supporting documents or details attached.
   Advantage: Reviewers have instant access to all the information needed to make an informed decision without having to search or ask for clarification, accelerating the review process.
5. Formal decisions:
   How PSA helps: Provides a formal way for reviewers to approve or reject requests digitally within the system.
   Advantage: Ensures decisions are formally recorded and tracked, providing a clear record of the outcome and the approver. Eliminates the need for physical signatures.
6. Real-Time status visibility:
   How PSA helps: Provides dashboards and reports showing the status of all pending, approved, and rejected approval requests across projects.
   Useful Tip: Create a dashboard view in Birdview PSA specifically for tracking pending approvals by type or approver to manage the approval queue proactively.
7. Comprehensive audit trail:
   How PSA helps: Automatically logs all actions related to an approval request, including submission date, reviewers, comments, approval/rejection dates, and reasons.
   Advantage: Creates a complete, tamper-proof history of every decision, invaluable for audits, compliance, and resolving future disputes.
8. Integration with project data:
   How PSA helps: Approval workflows are integrated with core project data (tasks, budget, resources).
   Birdview PSA Advantage: Approvals in Birdview PSA are linked directly to the relevant project elements. For example, approving a change request can automatically update the project budget or schedule within the system. Approving a resource request updates resource assignments.
9. Client portal for external approvals:
   How PSA helps: Provides a secure way for clients to review and approve project items.
   Birdview PSA Advantage: Birdview PSA’s Client Portal allows you to include clients in approval workflows for items like proposals, deliverables, or invoices. Clients receive notifications and can approve directly through the portal, streamlining external decision-making.

Strategies for streamlined approvals with Birdview PSA

Implementing digital approval workflows with Birdview PSA can transform decision-making. Here are strategies to maximize the benefits:

• Map Your Existing Approval Processes: Before configuring workflows in Birdview PSA, map out your current approval processes for different request types (changes, expenses, invoices). Identify stakeholders and decision points.
• Define Clear Roles and Permissions: Ensure users in Birdview PSA have the correct roles and permissions to submit requests or act as approvers in workflows.
• Educate Your Team (and Clients): Provide training on how to use Birdview PSA’s approval features – how to submit requests, how to review and approve, and why the process is important for project efficiency. Train clients on using the Client Portal for approvals.
• Set Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Establish internal targets for approval turnaround times for different request types and communicate them. While Birdview PSA automates routing, setting expectations encourages timely review.
• Monitor Approval Dashboards: Regularly review the approval dashboards in Birdview PSA to identify bottlenecks (who has pending requests) and address them proactively.
• Gather Feedback and Refine: Periodically review the effectiveness of your approval workflows in Birdview PSA. Gather feedback from requesters and approvers and make adjustments to streamline the process further.

The benefits: Faster decisions, happier teams, predictable projects

Accelerating project approvals with PSA software delivers significant benefits for professional services firms:

• Increased Project Velocity: Projects move faster with fewer delays waiting for decisions.
• Improved Efficiency: Reduces time spent on manual chasing and administrative tasks related to approvals.
• Better Resource Utilization: Resources spend less time idle waiting for approval to proceed.
• Enhanced Predictability: Streamlined decision-making makes project timelines more predictable.
• Reduced Risk: Formal processes and clear documentation reduce the risk of misunderstandings and disputes.
• Improved Cash Flow: Speeding up invoice and expense approvals can directly impact your Quote-to-Cash cycle.
• Increased Transparency: Real-time status tracking provides visibility into the approval process for all stakeholders.

Slow, manual approval processes are a major source of bottlenecks and inefficiency in professional services projects. They delay progress, frustrate teams, and impact profitability.

Mastering project approvals requires moving beyond manual methods and implementing streamlined, automated workflows. Professional Services Automation (PSA) software, like Birdview PSA, provides the integrated platform to centralize request submission, automate routing, provide real-time status visibility, and maintain a comprehensive audit trail.

Empower your team to make decisions faster. Streamline your workflows and accelerate project delivery.

Discover how Birdview PSA can transform your operational efficiency

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are project approvals?
Project approvals are formal authorizations required at specific points in a project lifecycle to proceed with a task, phase, decision, or financial transaction, ensuring alignment and control.

Why is accelerating project approvals important?
Accelerating project approvals is important because delays in the approval process can create bottlenecks that hold up project progress, waste valuable resources, increase costs, and negatively impact project timelines and client satisfaction.

What are the challenges of managing project approvals manually?
Challenges include significant delays, lack of visibility into the approval status, time spent manually chasing approvers, missing information in requests, errors and rework from informal approvals, and difficulty maintaining a clear audit trail.

How does PSA software streamline project approvals?
PSA software streamlines project approvals by providing a centralized platform for request submission, automating approval workflows, sending automated notifications and reminders, ensuring requests have all necessary context, capturing digital sign-offs, and providing real-time status visibility.

Can PSA software help automate approval workflows?
Yes, PSA software allows you to define and configure custom, multi-step digital workflows that automatically route different types of approval requests (like change requests, expense reports, invoices) to the appropriate stakeholders in the correct sequence.

Does PSA software provide real-time visibility into approval status?
Yes, PSA software typically offers dashboards and reports that show the real-time status of all pending, approved, and rejected approval requests across projects, allowing project managers to see who has a request and identify bottlenecks.

Can clients be included in project approval workflows using PSA software?
Yes, many PSA software solutions include a client portal feature that allows firms to include clients in approval workflows for items like proposals, key deliverables, or invoices, providing a secure and transparent way for clients to review and approve directly within the system.

How does PSA software help maintain an audit trail for project approvals?
PSA software automatically logs all actions related to an approval request, including submission date, reviewers, comments, approval/rejection dates, and reasons. This creates a complete, tamper-proof digital history of every decision.

What types of project decisions often require formal approval?
Common project decisions requiring approval include proposals/contracts, detailed project scope, change requests (impacting scope, budget, or schedule), resource requests, expense reports, time entries, invoices, and key deliverables or milestones.

How can automating project approvals benefit a professional services firm?
Automating project approvals benefits a firm by increasing project velocity, improving operational efficiency, reducing time spent on administrative tasks, enhancing predictability, reducing risk through formal documentation, improving cash flow (e.g., with invoice approvals), and increasing transparency.