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Why every email that leaves a consultancy should be approved first

By Saqib Shah · · 6 min read

In short. An email that leaves your consultancy can commit you to a price, a date or a contractual notice, and you cannot take it back. So the emails that matter should be read and approved by a named person before they are sent. Set it up with a short rule list, a log of what was approved, and a named deputy for when the approver is away.

Why does an outgoing email need approving?

Because the sender cannot see the mistake they are about to make. A second pair of eyes catches the wrong figure, the wrong recipient, the promise nobody agreed and the notice sent in the wrong form.

Three kinds of mistake are worth guarding against:

  • A commitment. A fee, a date or a scope sentence in a quote or a reply that the firm now has to honour.
  • A notice with a deadline. Under section 110A of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, a construction contract must provide for a payment notice “not later than five days after the payment due date”, stating the sum and how it was calculated, and a sum of zero still counts. The Act does not say in that section what a late or wrong notice costs you, so ask your solicitor. We cover the clocks in contract clocks that start in an email.
  • A disclosure. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) lists “sending personal data to an incorrect recipient” as an example of a personal data breach.

Which emails need approval, and who approves them?

Not all of them. If every message waits in a queue, people will route around the rule. Pick the categories where a mistake costs money or trust, write them on one page, and keep routine mail out of it.

A simple rule set that a firm could start with (these are our suggestions, not a standard):

  • Needs approval: anything with a price, fee or commitment; any contractual notice or payment notice; any declaration or technical statement to a network operator or authority; payment chasers; any first message to a new external contact; any attachment containing personal data.
  • Does not need approval: meeting times, acknowledgements that commit to nothing, and internal mail.

Then name the approver for each category. A commercial or contractual message goes to the Managing Director or a named director. A technical declaration goes to the responsible engineer. The person who wrote the draft does not approve it. One name per category, plus one deputy.

Take Alex, a project manager at a fictional consultancy. Alex drafts a reply to a client about a variation and promises a revised programme by Friday. The approving director reads it, sees nobody has checked Friday with the design team, and changes it to a date the team has confirmed. The email still goes out the same day, and the firm keeps its credibility.

How do you keep a log of what was approved?

Keep one simple register, in the project record, not in someone’s inbox. For each approved message record the date and time, who it went to, the subject, who drafted it, who approved it, whether the approver changed it, and where the sent copy is filed.

Three habits make the log useful:

  • Fill it in at the moment of approval, not at the end of the week.
  • Keep the approved wording. If the approver edited the draft, keep the version that went out.
  • Look at it monthly. Repeated corrections to the same kind of message tell you where a template or a short briefing would help.

The log also helps if something goes wrong. The ICO says you should record all personal data breaches, whether or not they must be reported, and that a notifiable breach must be reported “not later than 72 hours after becoming aware of it”. A record of who approved what, and when, helps you work out what happened. It does not replace a breach log.

What do you do when the approver is away?

Decide before it happens, in writing. A queue that waits for one person on leave is how a notice with a deadline gets missed.

  • Name a deputy for each category, with the same authority, and tell the team who it is.
  • Set an out-of-office on the approver’s address that names the deputy.
  • Have a deadline lane. Anything carrying a contractual or statutory date is checked every working day by someone who can approve it, and the date is written at the top of the draft.
  • Check the waiting list daily. A message waiting is not a message sent, so someone should look at the queue each morning.
  • Never share a password so someone can approve on another person’s behalf. Use the deputy.

If nobody can approve and a deadline is close, phone the director rather than send unreviewed.

How does OpsWork handle this?

In OpsWork, an agent prepares the draft and the Managing Director sees it with three choices: Approve, Tell Emma (to change it) or Postpone. Nothing leaves until the Managing Director approves. You can run the same discipline in any firm with a rule list, a log and a deputy, whatever tools you use.

What to do next

  • Write the one-page list of emails that need approval.
  • Name an approver and a deputy for each category.
  • Start the log, even as a shared spreadsheet.
  • Add a daily check of the waiting list.
  • Tell clients and suppliers who to call if a response is urgent.

Frequently asked questions

Will approval slow the firm down?

Only for the categories on your list, and only as much as your approver takes to read a message. Routine mail goes out as before. Keep the list short so the rule is followed.

Can we use our email system to help?

Yes. The ICO suggests setting rules to warn senders when they use the CC field, setting a delay so errors can be corrected before the email leaves, and turning off the auto-complete of addresses. A delay is not an approval, so use it alongside the rule rather than instead of it.

Does approval need a person, or can a tool do it?

The decision belongs to a named person who is accountable for the firm’s commitments. A tool can prepare the draft and keep the record. It should not approve on the firm’s behalf.

Does this apply to internal email?

Not as a rule. The risk is in what leaves the firm. Internal mail that is about to be forwarded to a client falls under the rule once it is sent outside.

This is general information, not legal advice. Your contracts and your solicitor decide what a notice must contain and when it is due.

Sources

Checked against these sources on 23 October 2026.

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