Approvals: reviewing, approving and sending back posts

Approvals (sidebar: Approvals under Calendar while posts wait for your approval, otherwise More, then Approvals; in the full menu Publish, then Approvals; or /app/approvals) is where reviewers see each post exactly as it will appear on the account and decide: Approve or Request changes. Posts only arrive here when your workspace has an approval chain; see Setting up the approval chain.

Only members with the "approve content" permission see this page. By default that is the Owner, Admin and Reviewer roles; an Editor does not approve. Anyone else who opens the address sees a no-access message. An Editor who was given the permission sees the page, but a step is only decided by the roles set for it: on such a card the buttons are replaced by "For a reviewer or admin to decide" (or "For an admin to decide"). The number on the Approvals item in the sidebar is the count of requests waiting in the current workspace for a step your role decides (a Reviewer's count leaves out Admins only steps). On a phone, a Reviewer finds Approvals in the bar at the bottom of the screen.

How a post gets here

1. The author writes a post in Create. When the workspace has an approval chain, the composer shows "Approval: (your steps). When the last step approves, it publishes at the time you chose - or straight away for Publish now." and the buttons read Send for approval (Publish now chosen) or Schedule & request approval (a date and time chosen).
2. Other ways in: Queue it on Posting queues sends the post for approval with the queue slot as its time, and Check and send for approval (or Send for approval) on an account of a post in Content sends one account on its own. In a workspace with no approval chain, → In review on the post's page sends every checked account to the reviewers at once; a post with no checked account answers "Check a channel first: press Validate on it below. A reviewer approves channels that passed their checks."
3. The author can fill Note for approvers (optional); you see it on the card as Note: ....
4. One approval request is created per account for step 1 of the chain, and the post's status becomes In review. Everyone who may decide that step, except the person who sent it, is told "Approval requested", for example "A post is waiting for "Brand check" approval (reviewers and admins): "(the post's first words)"". It comes in the bell and also as an email with Open Approvals: Email for Approvals is on until a member switches it off in Notifications. Once the request is decided, these notifications are marked read for everyone.

Step by step: approve a post

1. Open Approvals. The Waiting tab (the default) shows open requests, newest first.
2. Read the card: post title, account name, "requested (time ago)", the step badge Step 1: (step name), and on the right Publishes (day) (time), Publishes when approved (sent with Publish now, or its time has already passed) or Not scheduled. Below are the first image or video, the caption, hashtags, the author's note and "(n) media files" when there are several. The picture box says no media when the post has no file, and media unavailable when its file was deleted from the Media library or could not be loaded; open the post from Content to check it before you approve.
3. Click (platform) preview, for example Instagram preview, to see the post as the platform will show it. Hide preview closes it. If the post's account was disconnected (its access was revoked or expired), the card shows Needs reconnecting next to the account and "(account) needs reconnecting: approving this post will not publish it. Reconnect the account first." with Reconnect (account), which opens the Accounts page. Members who cannot manage the workspace's settings (by default everyone except Owners and Admins) see "Ask a workspace admin to reconnect (account)." in place of Reconnect (account). Reconnect it there before you approve, or the post will fail when it is due.
4. Click Open to see the whole post in Content if you need more detail.
5. Click Approve. A message confirms "Approved" and says what happened: "It now waits for "(next step)"." when another step follows, "It publishes (day) at (time).", "It is being published now." (sent with Publish now, or its time has passed) or "The author can now schedule it." (no time). If the decision cannot be recorded, a red message "Could not record your decision" says why; when the request was already decided or withdrawn, the queue reloads to show it.

Step by step: request changes

1. On the card, click Request changes. A text box labelled What should change opens: "What should change? This goes back to the author." Cancel (or Esc) closes it and clears the note; Approve never sends the note.
2. Type what must change. A note is required: if the box is empty you see "Say what should change".
3. Click Send back. You see "Sent back" and "The author has your note."

What happens next

• Approved, but more steps follow: the request for this step closes and a new request for the next step appears, and the people who may decide that step are notified (not the author, and not you). The author gets "Step approved: (step name)" with "Your post "(title)" cleared "(step)" and now waits for "(next step)"."
• Approved at the last step, with a time: the post is scheduled for that time automatically and the author gets "Post approved" with "Your post "(title)" is approved and will publish at its scheduled time." If the time has already passed while it waited, it publishes straight away instead, and the author is told "Your post "(title)" is approved and is being published now."
• Approved at the last step, sent with Publish now (Send for approval in Create): it publishes straight away, and the author is told "Your post "(title)" is approved and is being published now."
• Approved at the last step, without any time (only an account sent with Send for approval on the post's page in Content): the post becomes Approved and waits. It is not published on its own. Schedule it by dragging it from the tray on the Calendar, or use Publish now or Schedule on the post's page in Content.
• Sent back: the post returns to Draft and the request is marked Rejected with your note. The author gets "Changes requested" with "Changes were requested on your post "(title)": (your note) - it is back in Draft for edits.", and the account's row on the post's page in Content shows "Changes requested by (your name): (your note)" until the post is sent for approval again. The post's Activity lists the decision too.
• Published: when the post goes live, its author and whoever scheduled it or sent it for approval get "Post published" with ""(title)" is live on (platform): (link)", and so do the workspace's owners and admins. A post that fails to publish is told to the same people.
• Every one of these notifications opens the post itself (an author cannot open Approvals), and each person's switches under Notifications decide whether it comes in the bell, by email, or both. Nobody is told about their own action.

Fields and options

• Waiting / All — Waiting shows open requests only; All also shows decided ones with the badge Approved or Rejected.
• Step (n): (name) — which step of the chain this request is for.
• Publishes (day) (time) — the time the author chose; times are shown in your browser's time zone.
• Publishes when approved — the post goes out the moment the last step approves it.
• Load more — shows older requests. Screen readers hear each card's buttons with their post, for example "Approve "Summer sale" for Instagram (Najd Coffee)", so two cards with the same title stay apart.

Who may decide which step

• A step set to Reviewers and admins can be decided by an Owner, Admin or Reviewer. An Editor cannot decide it, even with the "approve content" permission.
• A step set to Admins only can be decided by an Owner or Admin.
• The person must also have the "approve content" permission (an admin can remove it from a Reviewer or Editor; Owners and Admins always keep it).
• You cannot approve your own request while someone else in the workspace could decide that step: on such a card Approve is replaced by "Your own request: someone else in the workspace decides it." (Request changes is replaced by Withdraw request, which takes it back: "Request withdrawn" - "The post is back in Draft. Edit it, or send it for approval again from its page."). If you are the only person who can decide it, you may approve it yourself, and the audit log records that.

If something goes wrong

• "You cannot approve your own request while someone else in the workspace could decide that step. Ask them to approve it." — you sent this post. Ask another approver.
• "The step "(name)" is decided by reviewers, admins and owners. Your role cannot decide it." — your role is not one of the step's deciders (for example an Editor). Ask a reviewer or an admin.
• "Someone decided this request first. The list now shows where it is." — someone else decided it first (or at the same moment), or the post was edited. The list reloads on its own and shows the request where it is now.
• "This post is already published, so it can no longer be rejected." — it went out already. To take it down press Retract on its row in Records.
• A request you were about to decide disappeared from Waiting — the author edited the post, or took it back with → Draft on its page in Content. Either way the request is withdrawn (it shows as Rejected with the note "Withdrawn: the content was edited after the request was filed." or "Withdrawn: the post was taken back out of review.") and the account goes back to Draft, so the text has to be approved again.

Good to know

• The approval covers exactly the text and media you saw. A Scheduled account cannot be edited; editing an Approved account (with no time, or after Unschedule) sends it back to Draft, so the new text is approved again (see Publishing statuses).
• With no approval chain there is nobody to review, so whoever may publish (an Editor too) clears a checked account themselves: on the post's page in Content the account reads "Checked: press Approve"; press Approve, then Publish now or pick a time and Schedule.
• Every approval is recorded: the Approved column in Records shows who approved each account.

Related

• Setting up the approval chain
• Calendar
• Publishing statuses and retries
• Roles and inviting your team