How to Create a Document Approval Workflow

Introduction to the steps in a Document Approval workflow and how to activate

System Administrators have the option of setting specific documents on an approval loop prior to making the final document available for use. This means that the document approver can review photo options, text selections, and any custom content an End User might have added. This is an optional workflow that customers can implement in CampaignDrive on a per-campaign item basis and is called an Approval Loop. The phrase approval loop refers to the ability to submit > reject > resubmit the same document as many times as needed until the document is approved. Document approvers must be set up in the system to manage this workflow. Once this is done, it is a simple flip of a switch to assign this workflow to any template on the platform.

Steps in the Document Approval Workflow 

1. An end user submits a document for approval.
2. The user and approver will both receive emails indicating that the document is pending approval (for the user) and a document is ready for review (approver).
3. The document is added to the document approval queue. The document is reviewed by the brand’s designated document approver.
4. The review process can result in three states: The document is approved for use and automatically becomes available for use; the document approver makes edits to the document and approves it for use; OR the document is sent back to the end user with a request to make revisions and resubmits for approval (step 1 above.)

Note that the phrase Approval Loop can also refer to the process an order or a user request for an account goes through in order to become approved.

How to Create a Document Approval Workflow

To create a document approval workflow, you need to do the following:

1. Create or edit a role to have the permission Can approve/reject print documents and/or Can approve/reject HTML documents.
2. Assign the users you want to be document approvers to this role.
3. Turn on Require Approval for the template that requires the approval workflow.

Once the print document approval workflow is set, any document created from the template will have a "Pending" watermark across it, making it unusable for printing until the document is approved. HTML documents will not be available for download.

Approved Document vs. Pending Document

An Approved Document is a document that can be used by End Users.  When there is no approval loop set up for a template, a document created from a template is considered approved from the moment the End User clicks "Finish". 

When Required Approval is set to on for a particular campaign item, a document created from the template must be approved for use by a document approver (a user responsible for authorizing its use).  Documents that have been submitted for approval but not yet approved are called Pending Documents. 

Pending documents are low-resolution versions of the document an End User has created and can be viewed, downloaded, and emailed. However, pending documents have a PENDING watermark on the document, which obscures the copy and images and makes the document not suitable for printing or posting online.  The PENDING watermark is removed automatically once the pending document has been approved for use by the designated document approver.

How to Set a Print Template to Require Approval

Each template requiring approval needs to have the Require Approval? toggle set to On/green in the Campaign Item Management area. Click on the Campaign Management link in the Admin area and navigate to the respective campaign. Click the Manage button for that campaign to access the Campaign Item Management area. 

Click on the template name from the list on the left and change the settings for Require Approval? on the right then click the Save button. All documents created from this template will now require approval to remove the PENDING watermark.