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Create & Manage File Approval Requests and Review Files

Tobias Patek
  • Updated

Overview

Send documents to team members for review and approval. Reviewers can work on an approval simultaneously, and it is possible to define multiple steps that require full approval before the next step begins.

Learn how file versioning and approvals play together: Document Versioning & Approvals. Read more about how to create a new file version in Create & Manage File Versions.

Access & permissions

See Document Versioning & Approvals > Access & Permissions.

How to access Document Management

  1. Click Documents
  2. Select a project
  3. Click All files

  1. Tap Documents in the main menu

Request Approval for a Single File

There are three ways to request approval for a single file.

For the Current Version in the File List

  1. Click More
  2. Click Request approval

mceclip1.png

  1. Tap More
  2. Tap Request Approval

Continue below on how to fill and send the approval request.

For the Current Version in File Details

  1. Click More
  2. Click File details
  3. Click Request approval

mceclip2.png

  1. Tap More
  2. Tap Details
  3. Scroll down and tap Request approval

Continue below on how to fill and send the approval request.

For a Previous Version

This can become necessary if a newer draft version has already been uploaded.

  1. Click More
  2. Click File details
  3. Click Versions
  4. Click More for a specific version
  5. Click Request approval

  1. Tap More
  2. Tap Details
  3. Tap Versions
  4. Tap More
  5. Tap Request Approval

Continue below on how to fill and send the approval request.

Request Approval for Multiple Files

You can select multiple files and request approval in one go.

Folders cannot be approved. But it is possible to select all files within a folder and request approval as a bulk action.

  1. Select the checkboxes for each file
  2. Click Bulk actions
  3. Click Request approval

mceclip10.png

  1. Tap More
  2. Tap Select Items
  3. Select the files
  4. Tap Actions
  5. Tap Request Approval

Fill and Send an Approval Request

After selecting one or more files to request an approval, you need to fill some mandatory fields:

  • At least one reviewer
  • Subject
  • Duration / Due date

Subject and duration / due date will be prefilled with a meaningful suggestion to speed up your workflow.

    1. Click Add reviewers
    2. Click on the user(s) to add them as a reviewer.
      Once added, a ✔ is display. Click again to remove them.
    3. Enter the Duration in working days. The due date will be updated automatically.
    4. Alternatively: Set a Due date. The duration in working days will be updated automatically.
      Also see Configure Working Days (in project details).
    5. Optional: Edit the Subject
    6. Optional: Enter a Message
    7. Click Send request
  1. Tap Add reviewers
  2. Select one or multiple reviewers and confirm with Done
  3. Enter the Duration in working days. The due date will be updated automatically.
  4. Alternatively: Set a Due date. The duration in working days will be updated automatically.
    Also see Configure Working Days (in project details).
  5. Optional: Edit the Subject
  6. Optional: Enter a Message
  7. Tap Send request
  8. Tap Ok
  9. Tap Ok

Multi-Step Approval Requests

It is possible to add multiple steps for approval requests with one or multiple reviewers. During the review process, the next step will not start until all items have been reviewed in the active step.

For each step you set a duration or due date. If a step is overdue, all subsequent steps will automatically update their due dates to ensure the same review duration as defined per step.

Each approval request can have up to 20 steps and an unlimited number of reviewers.

Plan approvals currently don't support multi-step approvals.

Add Steps to an Approval Request

When you Fill and Send an Approval Request you can add more steps.
Adding a step is only possible if the previous step has at least one reviewer.

To add steps:

  1. Click Add step

  1. Tap Add step

Add one or more reviewers to each step and set the duration or due date for each step, as described above in Fill and Send an Approval Request and repeat to add more steps.

To delete steps:

  1. Click the delete icon
  2. Click Delete to confirm
  1. Tap the delete icon
  2. Tap Delete to confirm

The last remaining step cannot be deleted.

Add Steps to a Completed Approval Request

If you need to add a reviewer later, you can add additional steps when editing a completed approval request. You cannot delete previous steps or reviewers. You cannot edit pending approval requests.

To edit a completed approval request:

  1. Click Approval requests
  2. Click on the completed approval request
  3. Click Edit
  1. Tap Approvals
  2. Tap Completed
  3. Tap on the approval request
  4. Scroll down and tap Edit details

If a step is added after an approval request has been completed, approved files will remain approved, but rejected files will need to be reviewed again. Affected users will be notified.

Approval Workflows

Approval workflows allow you to quickly create new approval requests with a predefined set of reviewers and steps. Create them in the Webapp and apply them on all platforms.

You need the Document Management Admin role permission to create, edit or delete workflows. Also see Permissions.
Approval workflows can be applied by anyone who creates an approval request.

Apply an Approval Workflow

When you Request Approval for a Single File (or for multiple files - as described above) you don't need to repeatedly fill in the same reviewers and steps as described above in Fill and Send an Approval Request.

Instead you can apply an approval workflow:

  1. Select an approval workflow in the drop-down
  2. The reviewers, steps, and durations are filled in as defined in the selected approval workflow:
  3. The subject and message are also filled in if defined in the approval workflow:
  4. You can only change the steps, reviewers, and durations of this approval request if the person who created the workflow has allowed you to do so. The subject and message can always be edited.
  1. Tap Select an approval workflow
  2. Select a workflow e.g. Two-Step Approval
  3. The reviewers, steps and durations are filled in as defined in the selected approval workflow:
  4. The subject and Message are also filled in if defined in the approval workflow:
  5. You can only change the steps, reviewers and durations of this approval request if the person who created the workflow has allowed you to do so. The subject and message can always be edited.

Create an Approval Workflow

To create an approval workflow:

  1. Click Settings
  2. Click + Add new workflow
  3. Enter a Name for the approval workflow (by which it will be selected later) e.g. Two-Step Approval
  4. Optionally: Enter a Description
  5. Add at least one or multiple reviewers and steps - the same way as in creating an approval request as described above in Fill and Send an Approval Request.
  6. Optionally: Enter a Subject and Message. 
  7. Select/clear the Allow changes to reviewers, steps, and due dates when applying this workflow checkbox.
  8. Click Create

Edit an Approval Workflow

To edit an approval workflow:

  1. Click Settings
  2. Open the more menu of the approval workflow that you want to edit
  3. Click Edit
  4. Make your changes
  5. Click Save

Delete an Approval Workflow

To delete an approval workflow:

  1. Click Settings
  2. Open the more menu of the approval workflow that you want to edit
  3. Click Delete
  4. Click Confirm

Review and Approve Documents

As a reviewer you can review and approve or reject items in an approval request.

In-house users can review files either from the 'Approval Requests' section or from the 'All files' section, and for each file individually from their file details.

Subcontractors can only review and approve files from the 'Approval Requests' section as they do not have access to 'All files'.

In the case of Multi-Step Approval Requests, the current step must be approved by all reviewers, before the next step can be approved or rejected.

Approve or Reject Individual Items

From 'Approval requests' section

    1. Click Approval requests
    2. Click on an approval request requiring your action (indicated with a red clock icon)
    3. Click on items to review (to preview or download them)
    4. Click Approve
    5. OR click Reject
    6. (optional) Click View details to see status of the approval requests and steps.
  1. Tap Approvals
  2. Tap on the pending approval request
  3. Tap More
  4. Tap Approve or Reject
  5. Optional: Enter a comment
  6. Tap Approve item
  7. See green ✔ for approved items.
  8. See Status Completed when all are approved.

From 'All files' section and file details

    1. Click All files
    2. Navigate to a file pending your approval
    3. Click More
    4. Click File details
    5. Scroll down to Approval requests
    6. Click Approve or Reject
    7. Optional: Enter a comment
    8. Click Approve Item
  1. See the yellow icon indicating a pending approval.
  2. Tap More
  3. Tap Details
  4. Tap Details
  5. Scroll down and tap View request
  6. Continue as described before and approve/reject.

Approve or Reject All Remaining Items

    1. Click Approval requests
    2. Click on an approval request requiring your action (indicated with a red clock icon)
    3. Click on items to review (to preview or download them)
    4. Click Approve all
    5. OR click Reject all
    6. Optional: Enter a comment
    7. Click Approve all to confirm
  1. Tap Approvals
  2. Tap on the pending approval request
  3. Scroll down and tap Approve pending items
  4. Or tap Reject pending items

Cancel an Approval Request

If an approval request becomes obsolete after sending, it is possible to cancel it. It will still show up with status "Cancelled".

      1. Click Approval requests
      2. Click on the approval request in the list to open it
      3. Click Cancel request
      4. Type "Cancel" to confirm
      5. Click Cancel request
        mceclip5.png
  1. Tap Approvals
  2. Tap on the pending approval request
  3. Scroll down and tap Cancel request
  4. Tap Yes
  5. See status changed to Canceled

Delete an Approval Request

Delete an approval request to permanently remove it from the list of approval requests.

Pending approvals cannot be deleted, but must be canceled first.

      1. Click Approval requests
      2. Click More
      3. Click Delete
      4. Type "Delete" to confirm
      5. Click Delete request
        mceclip9.png
  1. Tap Approvals
  2. Tap Completed or Canceled
  3. Tap More
  4. Tap Delete

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