When designing a ticket lifecycle, one of the first questions to ask is: Should an approval step come first? In many cases, the answer is yes.
The Role of Approvals in Automation
From a business perspective, approvals can be necessary right away—think about onboarding a new user or processing a critical request. But beyond that, approvals serve a tactical function in automation-heavy workflows.
In my approach, the approval step gates the rest of the lifecycle. That means no automation runs until someone has reviewed and validated the request. This is a good practice because:
✅ It prevents automated actions from being triggered prematurely.
✅ It ensures that human oversight is part of the process when needed.
✅ It helps catch errors before automation takes over.
Of course, you can automate everything right from the start. But sometimes, it’s worth having a quick human review before automation kicks in.
If your workflow involves taking action on behalf of a user, consider adding an approval step—it could save you from unexpected issues down the road.
Check out this recent webinar I did on Power Automate where approval in Tikit was the first step in a New User Onboarding lifecycle!
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