How I digitized a paper-based approval process

Northwind still ran one process entirely on paper: approvals. Print the request, walk it to a manager, get a signature, scan it, email the scan.

It worked, in the sense that things did eventually get approved. But the old flow had a predictable life cycle — a form on paper, a manager signs it, someone scans it, someone emails the scan, and someone, eventually, loses it. Every step was a chance for the paper to stall or vanish.

The worst part was not the signing. It was that there was no record you could search. When a request went missing, the only honest answer was a shrug. So I built a digital version that keeps the governance and drops the paper.

How it works

The request becomes a Google Form, and the rest of the flow runs from the submission:

1. A requester fills in the Google Form instead of a paper sheet.
2. The submission triggers an email to the approving manager.
3. The email carries two links: Approve and Reject.
4. The manager clicks one — no login, no app, no scanner.
5. The click flips the request’s status column in the tracking Sheet.
6. A row is appended to a separate audit log: who, what, when, and the decision.

The manager’s whole task is now one click in an email they already opened. The underlying pattern is the one I describe in Build an email-based approval system.

Why it stuck, and what it fixed

The easy mistake would have been to redesign approvals entirely while I was in there. I deliberately did not. We did not change what needed approving, or who approved it — only how the request travelled. Because the rules felt identical, nobody resisted the change and adoption was almost free.

This is also where the change paid off most clearly. Before, “where’s the original?” meant a hunt through email and scans; after, a sortable Sheet shows every request and its decision in 200ms. Nothing gets lost, because nothing is ever a loose piece of paper. There is no more printing, scanning, or walking paper between desks; every approval is a click that suits a busy manager; and the complete, searchable audit trail is written automatically. Governance stayed exactly the same, so the trust people already had in it transferred straight across.

When you digitise a process, change the medium, not the rules. Keep the governance people already trust, and adoption stops being a fight.