Overview
Approval workflows ensure that important content—like policies, risk assessments, or form submissions—gets reviewed and signed off by the right people before it's published or goes live. This helps maintain quality, ensures compliance, and creates an audit trail of who approved what and when.
Why Use Approval Workflows?
Without approvals, anyone with editing permissions could publish changes immediately. While that's fine for some content, critical documents like health and safety policies or risk assessments often need oversight.
Approval workflows give you control over:
Quality: Multiple reviewers catch errors or gaps before publication
Compliance: Regulatory requirements often mandate review and sign-off
Accountability: Clear records of who approved what and when
Consistency: Standard review processes across your organization
How Approval Workflows Work
Approval workflows use approval policies (also called templates) that define the review process. Here's the basic flow:
1. Create an Approval Policy
First, you set up an approval policy that defines:
Who needs to approve: Individual approvers or groups
How many stages: Simple one-step approval or multi-stage review
How many approvals per stage: One approval or consensus from multiple people
For example, you might create a policy called "Policy Review" with two stages:
Department manager review
Health and safety officer sign-off
2. Apply the Policy to Content
When creating or editing content (like a document or risk assessment), you assign an approval policy to it. This triggers the workflow when you submit for approval.
3. Approvers Review in Sequence
The workflow progresses through stages in order:
Stage 1 activates: First-stage approvers receive notifications and inbox tasks
They review and approve: Once the required number of approvals is met, the stage completes
Stage 2 activates: Next-stage approvers are notified
Process repeats: Until all stages are complete
4. Approval or Rejection
If all stages approve: The content is approved and can be published
If anyone rejects: The workflow stops immediately and the content goes back to draft
Key Concepts
Stages
Stages define the sequence of review steps. Each stage represents a checkpoint in your approval process.
Example stages:
Stage 1: "Department Review" (department managers)
Stage 2: "Safety Officer Review" (health and safety team)
Stage 3: "Final Sign-Off" (senior management)
Stages always proceed in order—you can't skip to stage 3 without completing stages 1 and 2.
Approvers
Each stage can have approvers from two sources:
Direct approvers: Specific individuals you name
Example: "Sarah Jones" (Facilities Manager)
Group approvers: All members of a team or group
Example: "Health & Safety Team" group (includes all team members)
Useful when any qualified team member can review
You can mix both types in a single stage. For instance, the Facilities Manager plus anyone from the Maintenance group.
Required Approvals
Each stage has a "required approvals count" that determines how many approvals are needed to complete the stage.
Examples:
1 required approval: Any single approver can advance the stage (common for groups)
All required: Everyone must approve (for strict oversight)
2 required approvals: Any two approvers can advance (for consensus)
If a stage has 5 possible approvers but only 2 required approvals, the first 2 people to approve will complete the stage.
Sequential Processing
Approval workflows are sequential, not parallel:
Only one stage is "active" at a time
Later stages must wait for earlier stages to complete
You can't skip stages
If any stage rejects, the entire workflow stops
This ensures proper review order. For example, there's no point in senior management reviewing something if the department manager hasn't approved it first.
When to Use Approval Workflows
Good use cases:
Publishing health and safety policies
Finalizing risk assessments
Releasing procedures or work instructions
Approving incident investigation reports
Sign-off on compliance documentation
When not to use approvals:
Internal working drafts (slows down collaboration)
Low-risk content like general notices
Time-sensitive updates (approvals take time)
What Happens During Approval
For Content Authors
Submit for approval: You finish editing and submit the content
Wait for review: The approval workflow kicks off automatically
Track progress: You can see which stage is active and who's reviewing
Notification: You're notified when approved or if rejected
Make changes if rejected: Edit and resubmit if needed
For Approvers
Notification: You receive an email and inbox notification when it's your turn
Review content: You can view the content and any related information
Approve or reject: You make a decision with optional comments
Move on: The workflow automatically progresses to the next stage
For Administrators
Track all approvals: See pending and completed workflows across your site
Update policies: Modify approval policies as your needs change
Audit trail: View complete approval history for compliance
Approval Policies vs. Review Policies
Don't confuse approval policies with review policies:
Approval Policies (this guide):
One-time approval before publication
Triggered when you submit content for approval
Multi-stage sequential review
Approves or rejects content
Review Policies:
Recurring scheduled reviews (e.g., every 6 months)
Automatic reminders when reviews are due
Ensures content stays current
Reviews existing published content
You'll often use both together. For example, a safety policy might need approval before initial publication (approval policy), then regular reviews to keep it current (review policy).
Common Questions
Can I change an approval policy after creating it?
Yes, you can edit approval policies at any time. However, changes don't affect workflows that are already in progress—they'll continue using the original policy. New submissions will use the updated policy.
What if an approver is on holiday?
Assign multiple approvers or use groups so there's always someone available to review. You can also set required approvals to less than the total number of approvers (e.g., 1 required approval from a 3-person group).
Can I have different approval policies for different types of content?
Absolutely. You might have a simple one-stage policy for procedures and a complex three-stage policy for health and safety policies. Create as many policies as you need.
What happens if I delete an approval policy?
You can't delete a policy if it's currently assigned to active content or in-progress workflows. You'll need to reassign or complete those first.
Can approvers see who else has approved?
Yes, approvers can see the approval history, including who has already approved or rejected in previous stages.
Next Steps
Ready to create your first approval policy? Read our guide on Creating Approval Policies to get started.
For information about ongoing reviews of published content, see Understanding Review Policies.