Approvals
Ask teammates and people outside the workspace to approve an item, in steps or all at once, and keep a record of every decision.
Request an approval
- Open the item and find Approvals in the drawer. Choose Request approval.
- Give it a title and a note for reviewers, and tick the item's files that should be reviewed.
- Choose the review order: Step by step or Everyone at once.
- Add reviewers to each step: pick team members, or type a name and email address for anyone else. Set each step to Any one can approve or Everyone must approve.
- Send. Every reviewer on the first open step is notified.
Step by step allows up to 5 steps; each step can have up to 10 reviewers. Requesting, reminding, cancelling and sending a new version need permission to create and edit items on the board. Approvals are on every plan.
How a decision is reached
- Step by step: step 2 opens only when step 1 has passed, and so on.
- Everyone at once: all reviewers are asked at the same time.
- A step set to any one passes on its first approval. A step set to everyone passes when every reviewer on it has approved.
- A request for changes from any reviewer on an open step ends the round as Changes requested.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Awaiting approval | At least one step is still open. |
| Approved | Every step has passed. |
| Changes requested | A reviewer on an open step asked for changes. The round is over; the item itself is not changed. |
| Cancelled | Someone with edit rights cancelled the request. |
The state shows as a badge on the item's row on the board. An approval never completes, closes or moves the item by itself. If you want that, add an automation (below).
Reviewers outside the workspace
Each outside reviewer gets an email with a personal link. It opens a page with the item name, the note and the files to review, and two choices: Approve or Request changes, with a comment. No account is needed. Links expire after 30 days.
The decision is stored with the reviewer's name and email, the comment, the time, and the IP address and browser user agent of the request. If the reviewer's email is also an active contact on a client portal that shows the item, the approval appears in the portal and they can decide there as well.
Team reviewers decide inside the app from the item drawer. A request for your approval counts like an assignment, so it emails you right away under the default notification settings.
Reminders, cancelling and new versions
- Send reminder emails the reviewers on the open step again. One reminder per approval every 10 minutes.
- Cancel approval ends the request. Its history stays.
- Submit new version takes a new note and files, resets every decision to pending, opens the first step again and sends fresh links. Links from earlier versions stop working and say that a newer version was sent.
When an approval ends, the person who requested it gets an email with the outcome and any comment.
Automate on the outcome
In the board's automations, use the trigger When an approval is decided. Leave it on any outcome, or narrow it to approved or changes requested, then pick an action such as moving the item to a group, changing its status or notifying someone. See Automations.
History
Every request, decision, reminder, new version and cancellation is written to the approval's event log, which is not edited afterwards. The item drawer shows the steps, each reviewer's decision and comment, and the timeline.
Related
- Client portal: where clients see their approvals next to the rest of their work.
- Automations: every trigger and action.
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