Connect to IntercomSupport agents make judgment calls all day. Refund a customer who's outside the policy window. Offer a credit for a service failure. Grant an exception for a key account. These are real decisions with real consequences, and right now most teams handle them through a Slack DM, a verbal yes in a meeting, or a best guess.
The problem isn't the decision. It's that there's no record of it. When finance asks who approved the $500 credit, the answer is usually someone's memory. When you want to check whether you're being consistent across agents, there's nothing to review.
Approvals is Supportman's solution to this. Agents request approvals from inside the Intercom inbox. Managers approve or reject in Slack, with a reason. The decision - and the reason - stays on the record.
Here's how to get set up and start using it.
Getting access
Approvals is currently in limited beta. It's free during the beta period and available to all plans, but it needs to be enabled on your account manually.
To get access, email [email protected] with your account details and we'll turn it on. Once it's enabled, the Approvals module will appear in the Supportman panel inside your Intercom inbox.
How agents request an approval
Open any conversation in Intercom where an approval is needed. In the apps sidebar, open the Supportman panel. You'll now see an Approvals section alongside the existing Share options.
Select the request type that fits the situation. If there isn't a type to suit you, choose Other - or email [email protected] with what you'd like to see.
Add a short line of context in the details field - enough for the manager to understand what's being asked and why. Something like "Customer outside the return window, been with us 3 years, item arrived damaged" gives a manager what they need to decide quickly.
Submit the request. It posts immediately to your #intercom-approvals channel in Slack.
How managers approve or reject in Slack
The approval request appears in #intercom-approvals as a Slack message from Supportman. It shows who's requesting, when they requested it, the request type, and the details the agent added.
There are two buttons: Approve and Deny.
Click either one. You'll be prompted to add a comment - this is required, not optional. The comment doesn't have to be long. "One-time exception, approved" or "Outside policy window, declined" is enough. The point is that the reason is on the record.
Once you submit, the decision is done. It takes a few seconds to flow back to Intercom.
What the agent sees
Back in the Intercom inbox, the Supportman panel updates to show the outcome. The agent sees whether the request was approved or denied, who decided, and the manager's comment.
They don't need to check Slack. They don't need to ask. The answer comes back to them where they're already working.
The audit trail
Every approval request, decision, and comment is stored in the #intercom-approvals Slack channel. If you need to review what's been approved, you can scroll the channel or search it.
For a more structured view, Approvals supports CSV export. The export gives you every request in a spreadsheet: date, agent, request type, context, manager, decision, and comment. Useful for monthly finance reviews, QA sessions, or any situation where you need to account for credits and exceptions.
What Approvals is good for (and what it isn't)
Approvals works well for any decision that currently happens via Slack DM or verbal agreement - refunds, credits, exceptions, off-policy replies. If your agents are currently pinging managers before acting, Approvals gives that process a structure and a paper trail.
It's not a replacement for agent autonomy on routine decisions. If agents can handle something within their normal authority, they should. Approvals is for the things that genuinely need sign-off - not for creating unnecessary bureaucracy on everyday interactions.
A useful way to think about it: if you'd want to be able to answer "who approved this and why" six months from now, that's an approval. If you'd never need to, it probably doesn't need to go through the process.
Getting help
If you run into anything during setup - the panel not appearing, a request not routing correctly, or questions about how to configure it for your team - email [email protected]. We're actively working with beta users and will respond quickly.
More detail on the Approvals feature is at supportman.io/approvals.