Field Work Approval Benchmarks 2025: How Fast Are Industry Leaders Moving?

Contractors working with Suncor Energy processed 11,700 work tickets through our platform last year. Companies sending approvals to Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL)—with requests flowing to 355 different decision-makers—chose Aimsio’s Client Portal to manage that complexity.

While DocuSign handles basic signatures, Aimsio’s Client Portal functions like an embedded DocuSign with the field-specific features contractors actually need: automated reminders, multi-approver workflows, and real-time status tracking.

But don’t just take our word for it. The numbers tell a compelling story about how businesses are embracing digital approvals and the dramatic impact on operational efficiency.

The Data: A Billion-Dollar View of Digital Approvals

To understand the current state of digital approvals, we analyzed an unprecedented dataset from our Client Portal feature spanning 2024 and early 2025. Our analysis covered:

• 120,000 tickets processed through Aimsio
• Over $1 billion in total value
• Primarily Canadian operations across various industries

This represents one of the largest datasets of digital approval transactions in the Canadian market, giving us unique insights into how businesses are managing their approval workflows.

What Gets Approved?

The distribution of ticket values reveals interesting patterns about digital approval adoption:

• 25% of ticket approvals were valued under $1,000 (even “quick fixes” benefit from streamlined digital processes)
• 62% fell between $1,000-$10,000 (the sweet spot)
• 13% exceeded $10,000 (the big jobs that can make or break your quarter)

What this means: Digital approvals aren’t just for small transactions—businesses are confidently using Aimsio’s Client Portal for approvals across their entire value spectrum.

The 99% Approval Success Rate That’s Changing Everything

Here’s the number that made us do a double-take: 99% of digital approvals go through successfully. Not 70%. Not 80%. Ninety-nine percent.

Break that down:

• 91% of tickets were approved on the first submission (no back-and-forth)
• 8% were approved after a second attempt (quick fixes, not process overhauls)
• Combined 99% approval rate (when stakeholders can review documents digitally, approvals happen)

Compare this to your current process. How many approval cycles have died because someone couldn’t find the right signature? How many times have you re-printed documents because edits kept coming?

The 99% success rate isn’t just a nice metric—it’s proof that digital processes eliminate the friction that kills traditional approvals.

Why 24-Hour Approvals Are Your New Superpower

Perhaps the most striking finding relates to approval speed. In today’s fast-paced business environment, the ability to get approvals quickly can be the difference between winning and losing a project.

The new reality:

• 59% of approvals came within 24 hours
• 81% were approved within 5 days
• Only 8% took longer than 10 days
  

What Fast Approvals Actually Mean

For Your Crews: They know they’re getting paid quickly, so they stay focused on the work, not the paperwork.

For Your Cash Flow: Faster approvals mean faster billing, which means cash in the bank instead of tied up in receivables.

For Your Growth: When you can move fast, you can take on more projects, respond to emergencies, and outmaneuver slower competitors.

The CFO’s Perspective: Turning Faster Approvals Into Balance Sheet Savings

For financial executives, these approval speeds translate directly into improved Working Capital management. Faster approvals mean lower Work in Progress (WIP) balances, which improves cash flow and reduces carrying costs.

The Real Cost of Slow Approvals: A Financial Example

Let’s put real numbers to what slow approvals actually cost your business.

Assuming the industry average approval time is 20 days, once Aimsio gets you to 5 days, that’s 15 days of capital savings on every single ticket.

Here’s what that means for a contractor processing $10 million in annual ticket value:

• Capital tied up in traditional process: 20 days at 7% cost of capital
• Capital tied up with Aimsio: 5 days at 7% cost of capital
• Days of savings: 15 days per ticket
• Annual interest savings: Approximately $29,000

That’s nearly $30,000 back in your pocket every year—money that was previously just sitting in your line of credit, earning nothing for you while your bank collected interest.

Scale that up to $50 million in annual tickets? You’re looking at $145,000 in annual savings just from faster approvals. These aren’t theoretical savings—they’re real reductions in your cost of capital that flow directly to your bottom line. When you can approve 81% of your tickets within 5 days, you’re not just improving efficiency—you’re optimizing your balance sheet and reducing your borrowing costs.

Industry Leaders Setting the Standard

The adoption of Aimsio’s Client Portal by major industry players demonstrates the platform’s enterprise readiness.

Quick stats from our top users:

1. Suncor Energy: 11,700 approval requests, 241 active approvers
2. Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL): 9,700 approvals, 355 approvers

The question isn’t whether digital approvals work—it’s whether you can afford to keep using the old way while your competition moves faster.

Beyond Digital Signatures: The Aimsio Advantage

While many platforms offer basic digital signature capabilities, Aimsio’s Client Portal goes further:

• Automated reminders ensure approvals don’t fall through the cracks
• Multi-approver workflows handle complex organizational structures
• Sequential or parallel approval options provide flexibility for different business processes
• Real-time status tracking gives complete visibility into the approval pipeline
• Integration with existing systems eliminates the need to manage separate platforms
• Third-party validation confirms revenue occurrence has taken place and your crews are meeting customer expectations
• Complete financial visibility provides a clear picture of revenue and job costing, with confidence that no valid sales are omitted

Is Your Approval Process at a Competitive Advantage or Disadvantage?

The data doesn’t lie. Companies using digital approval workflows are processing 99% of their submissions successfully, with 81% of approvals happening within 5 days. They’re managing billions of dollars in transactions without the chaos that comes with manual processes.

Meanwhile, if you’re still relying on the old ways, every day you wait is money left on the table. Your competition is moving faster and capturing opportunities while you’re chasing signatures.

The future of business approvals is digital, efficient, and remarkably effective. At Aimsio, we’re not just part of that future—we’re building it, one approval at a time.

See the Full Breakdown

We’ve only scratched the surface here.

Download our complete 2024/2025 Digital Approvals Report and get:

• Full approval success rates (first try, second try, overall)
• Speed benchmarks (how fast approvals actually happen)
• Top companies using digital approvals at scale
• Performance comparisons for your current process
• Financial impact calculations

The companies in our dataset didn’t get to $1 billion by accident. They got there by eliminating the bottlenecks that slow everyone else down.