Apex deal desk
Approve the deals that need it. Let the rest go out.
A deal desk exists to catch the quotes that would hurt the business, not to read every quote. Apex checks each one against the rules you write, sends only the exceptions to the person who owns that decision, and records why each was approved or sent back.
Line discount above 10% on tooling, or above 5% on service, goes to the VP Sales. Above 20%, also to the CFO.
Rules you can write
Each rule names a condition and an approver.
Rules are deterministic. The same quote always meets the same rule and goes to the same person.
- Discount
- Over a percentage off list, per line or on the whole quote, by product line or segment.
- Margin floor
- Below a margin you set, computed from ERP cost for each line.
- Total value
- Above a contract value, so large deals reach a VP or the CFO.
- Term
- Longer than your standard term, or with an unusual payment schedule.
- Currency and entity
- Quoted in a currency or from an entity that needs finance to look first.
- Non-standard clauses
- Edited terms, liability caps, most-favored pricing or termination rights.
How a quote moves
One queue, in the order your rules set.
- 01
The rep sends
Apex checks the quote against every rule before anything leaves.
- 02
Exceptions route
Each broken rule names its approver. A quote that breaks two rules waits for both, in sequence or in parallel, as you choose.
- 03
The approver decides
Approve, reject or send back with a note. The approver sees the rule, the line that broke it and the margin impact.
- 04
The quote goes out
Once every approval is in, the quote goes to the customer. The decision and its reason stay on the record.
Why rules, not inboxes
An approval in an email thread is not a control.
| Approvals by email and chat | Approvals in Apex | |
|---|---|---|
| What gets reviewed | Whatever a rep decides to ask about | Every quote that breaks a written rule |
| Who approves | Whoever answers first | The person the rule names |
| What they see | A screenshot or a summary | The quote, the rule and the margin impact |
| Record | Scattered across threads | On the quote, with the reason |
| Audit | Reconstructed after the fact | Ready when an auditor asks |
For the approver
Decide from the queue, not from a meeting.
Context in one view
Customer history, past discounts, current margin and the rule that fired, without opening five systems.
Delegation
Approvals pass to a named deputy when someone is away, so deals do not sit.
Reminders
An approver is reminded at intervals you set, and the rep can see where the quote is waiting.
Agents propose, people approve
The agent drafts. A person decides.
A quoting agent can propose a discount within your guidance or flag a quote that is likely to need approval before the rep sends it. It never approves anything: every approval is a person's decision in the queue.
Every agent stops at an approval gate until it has earned its way out of one. Nothing releases cash, commits spend or touches a customer without a person saying so.
Your dataModels that read your data run inside your environment, behind your firewall. No client data reaches a frontier lab.
Start here, keep the foundation
Start with deal desk approvals. Add the rest without starting over.
Start with approvals on top of your quotes. The customers and items behind each quote come from the ERP into your Ferrata foundation, and the same approval queue later handles invoice posting, credit notes and journals if you add billing or revenue. One queue, one set of approvers, one record.
FAQ
Questions, answered plainly.
What is a deal desk?
A deal desk is the function that reviews non-standard deals before they reach the customer: large discounts, thin margins, long terms or edited legal terms. It protects pricing and margin without slowing every quote. Apex gives it written rules and a single queue.
Which quotes need approval in Apex?
Only quotes that break a rule you have written. Typical rules cover discount over a threshold, margin under a floor, total value over a limit, longer than standard terms, a non-standard currency or entity, and edited clauses. A quote that breaks no rule goes straight to the customer.
Can one quote need more than one approver?
Yes. Each rule names its own approver. A quote that breaks a discount rule and a term rule waits for both, either in sequence (sales leader, then finance) or in parallel, depending on how you set it up.
Does an AI agent approve quotes?
No. Approvals are decided by people. An agent may suggest a discount within your guidance or warn a rep that a quote will need approval, but the decision is always recorded against a named person.
How is margin calculated for the margin floor?
From the cost of each item in your ERP, using the cost basis your finance team chooses, against the quoted price after discounts. The approver sees the margin per line and for the quote as a whole.
Is there an audit trail of approvals?
Yes. Every approval, rejection and send-back is stored on the quote with the rule that triggered it, the person who decided, the time and the reason they gave. It is ready when an auditor or a sales leader asks why a deal was priced as it was.
Related in Apex
- CPQConfigure, price and quote from the items and price lists already in your ERP.View
- Quote builderBlock-based quotes with templates, variables, options and a live price and margin preview.View
- Contract managementSigned contracts turned into structured terms, phases and billing schedules.View
- Price agreementsCustomer price lists, blanket POs and call-offs that draw down a framework.View
From Ferrata Labs
- Human in the loopWhy every consequential action waits at an approval gate.
- Quill, the quoting agentReads every inquiry, prices it against your rules, drafts the quote.
- How it worksAssess, Anchor, a first agent live in under 90 days, then your team.
- Book a discovery callThirty minutes on one workflow, and an honest answer on where to start.
Start with deal desk approvals, or talk it through first.
Thirty minutes with Ferrata Labs on one workflow. You leave with a view of where Apex fits, and an honest answer if the sequencing is wrong and you should fix something else first.
Your pricing, approval and billing rules are your advantage, and they stay yours. Apex is configured to the way you sell and bill. You are not handing over a playbook or fitting into a template.