Why is my HubSpot quote approval stuck in email or Slack instead of HubSpot?
Usually one of three things, and only one of them is a plan limit.
Either quote approvals were never switched on, or the person who has to sign off holds a view-only seat and cannot press Approve in HubSpot at all, or the routing you need is a branching rule that lives in advanced approvals on Revenue Hub Enterprise.
1. Approvals are simply off
Quote approvals are a toggle in settings under Objects, then Quotes, then the Approvals tab, and HubSpot requires Super Admin permissions to turn them on.
Until that switch is on, no quote routes anywhere and every quote can be sent unchecked. The Slack message is the team noticing that and inventing the gate by hand.
2. The approver cannot approve
HubSpot: "Users in a Revenue Hub account with a hub seat that isn’t View-only can approve standard or advanced approvals." On top of the seat, an approver needs Super Admin rights or both Approve quotes permission and Edit permission for deals.
A person who fails either test can read the quote and cannot action it, so the decision moves to the channel where they can answer, which is email or Slack.
3. The rule you need branches, and branching is Enterprise
One threshold with one approver list is a standard approval and works on Revenue Hub Professional, including thresholds on discount and on quote amount.
Different approvers per condition, an ordered chain, and an exception list for named reps are all advanced approvals, which require Revenue Hub Enterprise. A team that needs those and is not on Enterprise ends up doing the branching in a person’s head, in Slack.
A fourth case worth ruling out
Legacy quotes. HubSpot’s standard and advanced approvals belong to the Revenue Hub quotes tool; on legacy quotes the only option is having all quotes approved by one user.
If your reps are still building legacy quotes, no approval rule you write will see them.
- HubSpot: Set up quote approvals
- HubSpot: Manage quote approvals
- HubSpot: Quote approval use cases and commonly used properties
- HubSpot: Set up legacy quotes (read 25 August 2026)
Quotations are HubSpot’s own wording, copied without alteration. HubSpot is a trademark of HubSpot, Inc. QuoteRelay is not affiliated with HubSpot. Plan names, prices and feature gates change: the date above is when these were read, not a promise about today.
It routes HubSpot quote approvals by rules you write, and sends the approver a signed single-use link. The approver has no HubSpot login and no seat. One rule stays free for good, with unlimited approvers on it.
If you are already on Revenue Hub Professional with a Revenue Seat, HubSpot’s own approvals cost you nothing further, and you should use those instead.