Instead of — forwarding
The route is defined once
A Template says who acts and in what order. Everyone who starts that kind of work gets the same chain, resolved against today's org chart.
Who has to act,
in what order.
Orgworks routes documents and decisions through your org chart, and keeps the record of exactly who approved what — and which version they were looking at.
The same five ideas cover "my manager, their manager, and IT" and "deliver the board packet, collect a vote on each agenda item, send the results to the secretary, archive everything." You don't rewrite anything in between.
Route slip
Standing desk — $1,480
REQ‑2214
Bundle — 3 documents, 4 fields
| Step | Route to | Action | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | D. Okafor requester | submitted | Mar 3 |
| 2 | M. Reyes manager | approved | Mar 3 |
| 3 | S. Patel manager × 2 | approved | Mar 4 |
| 4 | J. Lindqvist role: it‑approver | waiting | — |
| 5 | Archive the Bundle no one — Orgworks does it | queued | — |
Started by D. Okafor Template: Purchase approval v4
The problem
Approvals live in inboxes. Inboxes are not a record.
The chain is in someone's head. The attachment has been forwarded four times and nobody knows which copy is current. Somebody's on leave and the request has been sitting for nine days. When an auditor asks who approved the $40k spend, the answer is a search.
Instead of — attachments
The Bundle travels with it
Documents and fields ride along from step to step. New upload means a new version, never an overwrite. Approvals record the version on the table.
Instead of — searching
The Timeline is the answer
Every action appends to a record that is never edited or deleted. Who was asked, who acted, what they decided, when, on which documents.
The words you'll use
Five nouns, and nothing else to learn.
These are the terms in the product, in the training, and in the support conversation. There is no second, internal vocabulary underneath.
| Term | What it is | How you'd say it |
|---|---|---|
| Template | A reusable definition of a workflow — the steps, who acts, in what order. Versioned; once published it can't change under running work. | "Use the purchase approval template." |
| Request | One running instance of a Template. It pins the version it started with, so editing the Template never disturbs work already in flight. | "Three requests are waiting on you." |
| Bundle | The documents and fields that travel with a Request. Assembled at the start, added to along the way, delivered and archived at the end. | "The signed quote is in the bundle." |
| Step | One stage of a Request: who must act, what kind of action, and when it counts as done. | "It's on the IT step." |
| Timeline | The history of a Request, in order, in plain language. Written as things happen; never rewritten afterward. | "Check the timeline." |
What it does
Simple chains and board meetings are the same machine.
A straight line of approvals is the general model with every knob left at its default. Turning the knobs doesn't move you onto a different product.
Routing & approval
- Sequential chains, or several people in parallel on one step
- Branches on the Bundle's own fields — over $10k, add the CFO
- Rejection can route back for a fix instead of killing the request
- Assign by person, by org chart position, by role, by group, or from a field
- Done means: everyone, first decision wins, quorum of N, or a majority
Documents & audit
- Every upload is a new version; nothing is overwritten
- Each approval records the exact document versions it was given
- Every change appends to a record that's never edited or deleted
- Who was asked is captured when they're asked — reorgs don't rewrite history
Time & automation
- Reminders after N hours; escalation to the manager after N more
- Steps that act on their own: archive, email the bundle, call a webhook
- A step can start a child request and wait for it to finish
- Requests that start themselves — 30 days before a certificate expires
- Cron schedules and inbound webhooks for external systems
Board voting
- A ballot per agenda item — yes, no, or abstain on each
- The threshold is counted per item, and failed items don't fail the meeting
- Board members vote from a signed link — no account, no login
- Every vote is still attributed and on the record
- Results are written up, delivered, and archived without anyone doing it
Some things people route
Four workflows, one product.
Finance & ops
Purchase approval
Manager, then their manager, then IT. Over a threshold it picks up the CFO on the way. See the flow
Compliance
Insurance renewal
Nobody remembers to start it. It starts itself 30 days out, gets signed off, and archives its own paperwork. See the flow
Governance
Board meeting
Packet out, a vote on each motion, results written up and filed — from board members who never log in. See the flow
Property
Move-in
Your leasing system posts to a URL and the whole checklist starts, assigned to the right people. See the flow
See it route something of yours
Bring a workflow you run on email today — an approval chain, a renewal, a board packet. We'll build it as a Template on the call and walk a real Request through it.
Request a demo
30 minutes. No slides.