Escalation paths

Approval routing for high-value or ambiguous payment decisions

Some payment decisions need a pause, not a hard stop. Agents can keep moving on the standard path while Conto holds only the transactions that need human approval.

Industries

Supply chain · Billing · Fintech treasury · Travel & events

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Best for

Large orders, travel, credits

Controls

Thresholds, escalation, records

Outcome

Humans review exceptions only

How an exception reaches a human

Exception

A payment trips a policy. $8,500 to quilldata.io is over the monthly cap.

Approval request

Conto packages the full context and creates one request.

agentprocurementamount$8,500rulemonthly cap

Slacktoken

Emailtoken

Telegramtoken

WhatsApptoken

Webhooktoken

Dispatched in parallel. Every link carries a signed, single-use action token (SHA-256).

One-click decision

The reviewer decides right from the message.

ApproveDeny

The token is validated and consumed atomically. First valid response wins. The rest expire, so no decision lands twice.

Resolved

Approved, the payment executes. Denied, it stays blocked. Either way it is logged with who decided, when, and through which channel.

Routine spend never stops. Only exceptions ask a human, on whatever channel they already use.

Approval queues with the triggering rule attached

Approval queues include the request context, the triggering rule, and the final decision so teams do not have to reconstruct the payment story later.

Approval queue2 pending

procurement-agent → Quill Data

quilldata.io · data

$8,500.00

counterparty trust · newwaiting 4m

ApproveDenycontext

procurement-agent → Northwind Ops

over weekly limit · waiting 12m

$3,150.00

How ambiguous payments pause for approval

Agents keep their fast path for routine spend while Conto turns high-value or unclear requests into reviewable payment decisions.

Step 1

The agent reaches a decision boundary

A purchase, payout, or credit request is valid enough to consider, but large or unusual enough that it should not clear automatically.

Step 2

Conto routes the request into approval

Threshold rules, counterparty requirements, or policy combinations switch the request from autonomous execution to approval-needed.

Step 3

Humans review with full context

Approvers see the request amount, recipient, category, and the specific rule that triggered review before deciding to release or reject it.

Controls that decide what needs a human

Approval rules evaluate amount, category, recipient, and policy context so human review is reserved for the exceptions that need judgment.

Threshold-based holds

Apply approval only where spend, risk, or ambiguity crosses a line, without turning every payment into a ticket.

Policy-aware escalation

Use category, counterparty, or budget rules to decide whether the request should route to review, not just the amount.

Clear approver context

Surface the rule result directly in the approval flow so reviewers understand why the payment paused.

Release from the same control plane

Approvals happen inside the same payment and audit layer that blocked the request in the first place.

Demo

Supply chain in action

Supply chain applies this solution to a realistic agent payment workflow, with approved payments, review paths, and blocked requests visible from request to settlement.

Autonomous procurement with bidding and approval workflows.

Billing agents can issue credits and refunds without giving away revenue.

Money movement and treasury management for fintechs.

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Conto products behind exception review

Human review

Approvals

Route only the payment requests that need judgment to a human reviewer, with the triggering policy, recipient, amount, and agent context already attached.

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Runtime controls

Policy Engine

Define the rules for how agents spend, then evaluate every payment request before funds move. Conto keeps limits, categories, trust requirements, and approval rules in the transaction path.

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Financial visibility

Audit and Reconciliation

Attach agent, counterparty, policy, approval, and execution context to every transaction so finance can understand what happened without chasing separate systems.

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