Approvals on the record
An approval that lives in an email thread is an approval you will spend an afternoon reconstructing later. Who actually signed off? In what order? Before or after the terms changed? When the answer matters, to counsel, to an auditor, to a board, “I think it was approved” is not good enough.
PaperlessZen™ turns sign-off from a scattered conversation into part of the document’s record.
The right people, in the right order
You define the path a document takes. A gift agreement might route to the gift officer, then to advancement services, then to counsel or a dean when the terms call for it. A contract might take a different route. Whatever the path, the document moves through the people who have to see it, in the order they have to see it, and nothing skips a step because someone was out that week.
You define the path
Gift officer, then advancement services, then counsel or a dean when the terms call for it.
The document moves in order
Everyone who has to see it does, and nothing skips a step because someone was out that week.
Each approval is captured
Who looked at it, who approved it, and when, recorded alongside the document.
Outside parties countersign by secure link
The completed document lands back on the record with its trail intact.
You define the path
Gift officer, then advancement services, then counsel or a dean when the terms call for it.
The document moves in order
Everyone who has to see it does, and nothing skips a step because someone was out that week.
Each approval is captured
Who looked at it, who approved it, and when, recorded alongside the document.
Outside parties countersign by secure link
The completed document lands back on the record with its trail intact.
Real paths, not straight lines
Actual sign-off is rarely a single-file line, so the paths you define do not have to be either.
- Conditions, in plain language. A step can apply only when the terms call for it: counsel joins when a gift is restricted, a dean signs when a naming condition is involved. You write the condition the way you would say it. Leave it empty and the step always applies.
- Steps that run together. Reviews that can happen at the same time do. Advancement services and the business office can look at a document in parallel, while anything that must wait its turn, like a signature that goes in sequence, still waits.
- Delegates. Each step can name who may act for the approver. A document does not sit still for two weeks because one person is at a conference, and the trail records who actually acted.
Paths are defined per folder, so gift agreements, contracts, and board resolutions each follow the route that fits them, and every new document filed there picks up the right path automatically.
When one document needs its own treatment
A defined path covers the normal case. Some documents are not the normal case. For a single document you can see exactly where it stands, what is complete, what it is waiting on, and what comes next, and act on it directly: add a one-time step for just this document, or send a reminder to the person it is waiting on. The exception is handled on the record, not in a side conversation the record never hears about.
The trail stays attached
Every review and approval is captured alongside the document. Who looked at it, who approved it, and when, all part of the record rather than a thing you rebuild from memory and inboxes months later. When someone asks how a decision was made, you open the document and the answer is right there.
This is what makes an approval defensible.
Not a recollection, but a trail you can hand to counsel without assembling it after the fact.
Countersignatures without the attachment shuffle
When someone outside the institution needs to countersign, a secure link handles it. No confidential agreement gets emailed as an attachment and forwarded three times. The outside party signs through a controlled link, and the completed document lands back on the record with its trail intact.
Why it belongs with the document, not beside it
Approvals matter most in exactly the situations where documents are most sensitive: gift agreements, contracts, board resolutions. Keeping the sign-off attached to the document means the authority behind a record travels with the record. Years later, the document does not just show what was agreed. It shows who agreed to it.
Approvals work hand in hand with automations and governance, and external signing connects to the donor portal. See it in context in the gift agreement workflow.
Frequently asked questions
Can we control who signs off, and in what order?
Yes. You define the path a document takes, gift officer, then advancement services, then counsel or a dean when the terms call for it, and it moves through those people in that order.
Where does the approval history live?
Attached to the document. The record of who reviewed it, who approved it, and when stays with the file, so you are never reconstructing an approval chain from email later.
How do outside parties countersign?
Through a secure link rather than an email attachment, so a countersignature happens without confidential files drifting around inboxes.
What happens when an approver is out of the office?
Each step can name a delegate, someone who may act for the approver, so a document does not sit still for two weeks because one person is away. The trail records who actually acted.
Do steps have to happen one at a time?
No. Steps that can happen together run together. Two offices can review in parallel while the path still holds anything that must wait, like a signature that goes in sequence, in its proper order.