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Approvals

Approval is the optional second gate. When a channel is set to review every post, nothing on that channel is handed over, by email, webhook or platform connector, until a person clears it. Nor is a change to a post that already went out: an update waits for a person too (see Updates wait as well).

With approval off a rendered post is scheduled and goes out; with it on it waits for a person to approve or reject it, and on Enterprise two approvers can be asked for

Approval comes with Small business and Enterprise. On Free and Individual a channel's Settings say so where the choice would be, and its posts go out as soon as they are rendered. A workspace that moves down from Small business keeps each channel's setting as it was, unread, and finds it again on moving back up; anything already waiting when it moved can still be approved or rejected.

Turning it on​

Approval is a property of a channel, not a screen of its own. Open Channels, press Settings on the channel, and set Approval to "Every post, by hand". The other option, "Publish as soon as it renders", is the default.

Set it on the accounts where it is worth the delay. A regulated account is reviewed; a test account is not. For a regulated account, the Compliance guide says what else to set: the lines its templates require, the feeds to choose and the record that proves it all afterwards.

Anybody who edits channels can switch approval on. Switching it off needs the Approvals permission (the owner holds it), because otherwise whoever makes the posts could remove the review on them. Somebody who operates without Approvals sees "Every post, by hand" stated in the channel's Settings, with no choice beside it, and a warning under it saying that only somebody with the Approvals permission can switch it off.

Where approving happens​

On Posts. An approver's queue is the Awaiting approval part of that list, so set the Approval filter to "Awaiting approval" and work down it. There is no approvals screen of its own. There was one, and following a single post meant moving between it and three others, so the four became this one list.

Approve and Reject sit on the row itself, under its status, and both ask once more before acting (Approve post or Reject post), because neither can be undone:

  • Approve sends the post on to be handed over on that channel, on its own, the ways the channel says.
  • Reject means it is never handed over on that channel. It stays in the list as Rejected.

Once somebody has decided, the row says Approved or Rejected with their address under it, so the record says who. On a channel that publishes without review the row says nothing about it. While a post on a channel that asks for approval is still rendering, it says "Approval after rendering": the request is made the moment its clip is ready, and the row then reads "Awaiting approval".

Asking for changes​

A post that is nearly right needs neither answer. Comment or ask for changes, a small link under Approve and Reject, opens Comments, everything people have said about the post. Once somebody has said something, the link reads Comments with their number. Post kit beside it shows the video and every text.

Press Ask for changes at the top of that dialogue, or beside Reject post when you press Reject, and write what should change:

  • The post is sent back. It is not handed over, and it can no longer be approved. Its status reads CHANGES REQUESTED, with who asked under it, and the Approval filter's "Changes requested" lists every post sent back.
  • Everybody who works on posts or approves them gets an email with the comment.
  • Rework post, a link under Comments on the row and under More, opens the post with what was asked for at the top, and its title, text, brand description, hashtags, link and video to change. Nothing has gone out, so there are no ways to choose, and you may leave a comment for the approver.
  • Send back for approval makes what you wrote the post, and it waits for approval again: Approve and Reject are back on its row, and whoever may approve it gets the usual email.

To change what the video itself says, press Render a new video in Clip studio under Video. Create clip opens over the dialogue, filled with what the post was made from: its template, brand, shape, language and content. Change what needs changing and render it, which takes one video of this month's. Use this video puts the finished video on the post, with a copy in the media library, and you are back in Rework post with everything you wrote. Closing Create clip instead leaves the post's video as it was.

Writing a comment and pressing Send or Enter says something without sending the post back, and either side can answer: it asks nothing of anybody, and at most one email an hour goes out per post. Edit and Remove on a comment are for whoever wrote it. What somebody asked for and a rework stay in the list, since they say what happened to the post. Rework post is there while a post waits too, for a mistake found before anybody asked. An approver with the old version still open is then told to read it again rather than approving what they did not read.

Reject stays the final answer. A rejected post can still be commented on, but not reworked: Reuse starts a new post from it.

Updates wait as well​

On a channel that asks for approval, Send update request on a post that was already handed over does not send the change. It keeps it, and the row reads Update awaiting approval. Approving it there (Approve update) hands the change over, the ways that were chosen when it was asked for, exactly as if it had gone out then; the double check shows the text and video it would put out, so the reviewer approves the words rather than a description of them. Reject update leaves the post as it went out. Either way the row then reads Update approved or Update rejected, with who decided.

One change at a time waits per post: asking for another while one waits is refused until that one is decided. If the post changed in the meantime so that the change can no longer be made, approving it says why and leaves it waiting.

An approver can ask for changes on an update too, in Comments. The row then reads Update: changes requested, the post stays as it went out, and Rework update, a link under Comments on the row, opens what was asked for, to change and send back for approval.

A delete request is never held. Taking a post down publishes nothing, and a takedown that waits for a reviewer would be the wrong way round.

Two approvers, and the author (Enterprise)​

Whoever reworked a post counts as its author here, beside whoever wrote it. A rework is a new request, so a first of two approvals given before it does not count for what the post says now.

On Enterprise two more rules apply, set out on the Compliance screen's Approval rules card:

  • Nobody approves their own post, unless the channel allows it. Whoever wrote a post, or asked for a change to one, cannot approve it, so somebody else has to. They can still reject it. The author may approve on those rules, off until you turn it on for a channel, lets them be one of its approvers.
  • A channel can ask for two approvers. Two different people holding Approvals then each approve a post, or a change. After the first, the row reads Awaiting second approval with the first approver's address under it, and the post waits for somebody else.

Every decision, and every change to a channel's approval, is an entry of the workspace's sealed compliance record.

Being told​

Nobody has to keep the screen open. When a post starts waiting, everybody who holds Approvals, and the owner, gets an email naming it by its channel and its title, with a button to Posts. An update waiting is named as the update of a post that went out. The channels of one post arrive in one email, and a workspace gets at most one such email an hour: whatever starts waiting after it is in the next hour's email, so a busy channel sends one email an hour rather than one per post. Nothing waiting, no email.

The email naming the posts waiting for approval, at most one an hour, and the Posts screen where each is approved or rejected

Nobody else is told. Somebody who operates but does not hold Approvals cannot approve, so the email is not theirs. See who gets which email.

Who can approve​

Approving needs the Approvals permission, granted on Team. It grants no editing at all, which is what a compliance reviewer needs: somebody with Approvals and nothing else sees the Posts screen with Approve and Reject on it and cannot change a channel, a brand or a source.

Somebody who can operate but does not hold Approvals sees the posts waiting and no buttons. The owner holds every permission, so the owner can approve, except, on Enterprise, a post or a change the owner wrote themselves.

What people get wrong​

Approval is per channel, so one event can be cleared on one account and waiting on another. Each row is its own decision. If a post is out on three channels and stuck on the fourth, look at the fourth channel's approval setting rather than at the post.

A rejected post is not retried. Nothing comes back to be re-approved. If you rejected it by mistake, the content has to arrive again, or be written again in a post list: Reuse under More on the rejected row, then As a new post, opens one already filled with it (see Posts).