Converting quote to order when paid

I think something changed a while back. When a quote is paid, it has to be converted to an order. We would like to leave it as a quote, until they actually approve it. We require payment up front so they have to pay in order for the quote to move through but sometimes they just want to pay before a certain time so they pay the quote even though art is not approved.

If this is not possible, it would be great to have a place order on hold for quotes. That way, once the order is approved, it is manually on hold until we release it. This causes some problems when a customer approves an order or pays for it, but the order isn't ready. It moves automatically to orders, and we would like it to stay in quotes.