What review is actually looking for
- Total and line items match the accepted estimate exactly.
- Parties named correctly, including the legal entity name of your business.
- Property address matches the site that was visited and measured.
- Exclusions present and job-specific ones added.
- Payment schedule triggers and due windows filled in.
- Required signer roles set, including your own business representative.
- No clause text edited for this deal without an approval on record.
Who should review
Someone who did not build the document. The person who priced the job stopped seeing their own assumptions hours ago. In a small business that is the owner or the office manager; as you grow it becomes a role rather than a person.
The reviewer does not need to re-price the work. They need to confirm the document says what the deal was.
Thresholds instead of universal review
Reviewing every contract is how review gets abandoned. Pick triggers: value above a set amount, any clause edited from the template, any custom payment schedule, any change to warranty or exclusions. Everything else sends on the strength of the template.
That keeps small work fast and puts attention where a mistake is expensive.
Record the approval
An approval that lives in a conversation cannot be checked later. Whoever approved, and when, should be attached to the contract record — both so the process is auditable and so the reviewer has a reason to actually look.