Approvals

Manage asset's approval status

The Approvals feature lets you gather structured feedback and decisions from stakeholders through a voting process. It ensures alignment and reduces errors, particularly for campaigns and projects with multiple contributors.

Key usecases

• Reviewing designs for marketing campaigns.

• Approving edited images before publishing.

• Gaining consensus for social media posts or web assets.

• Streamlining multi-department approvals for promotional materials.

Any asset can be submitted for an approval. "Approval" can adopt whatever definition your project needs, e.g. "Approval for website use".

Pre-requisites

Approvals must first be enabled for your project, which can be done by any user having access to Settings > DAM > Automations > Workflows:

Approval statuses

An asset, requested for an approval, can have these statuses:

Pending	Waiting for votes
Approved	The asset has passed approval criteria and is fit for use*
Rejected	The asset has failed the approval criteria and is not fit for use*
Cancelled	When a Requester (or user with the necessary permission) has explicitly cancelled the request
Reset	When someone has edited the file and created a new version during an active approval request

*see Approval vote outcome section below

Approval vote outcome

An approval request is considered:

• Approved: When all approvers vote positively.

• Rejected: When at least one approver votes negatively or the request Due date expires.

If an asset is rejected, the requester can review comments, make adjustments, and submit a new approval request.

There can be only one active (pending) approval request per asset, however, once completed, another one may be requested.

Due date expiration

If an approval is not approved by the due date, the approval is automatically rejected.

Requesting an approval

An approval can be requested in several ways:

1. From the Context menu > More actions > Manage approval

   
2. From the Library sidebar - expand the Approval status section and click the Manage approval link

   
3. From the Asset details window - go to the Approvals tab and click Request approval.

Steps to request approval:

1. Click the Request approval button to open the Request approval modal.

2. Complete the following fields:

   • Selecting approvers: Choose one or more approvers. Users without asset access are muted and cannot be selected. At least one approver is required to enable the Send request button.

   • Adding an optional message: Provide additional context for the approvers (eg. "Please review this image for use in next month’s newsletter").

   • Setting a due date: Set a realistic deadline for the review process. The local time is auto-detected.

3. Once the Send request button is clicked, all approvers receive an alert.

Voting on approval request

Approvers will get a notification when they are asked to vote on a request. An approver can click on the link in the notification or navigate manually to the asset. Once in Asset details window > Approvals tab:

1. Click on the View and approve link

2. Then choose to either Approve or Reject the asset

3. You can leave comments when voting, in this way providing immediate feedback like: "Please adjust the font size in the banner."

Manage approval request

Active requests can be modified by the original requester or anyone with the necessary permissions (if not listed as an approver).

How to manage an approval request

• Open the Approvals tab in the Asset details window.

• Click Manage approval to view details.

• Make changes as needed:

  • Cancel: Notify approvers and stop the approval process.

  • Edit: Modify approvers, due dates, or messages.

At least one approver must remain, and the due date must be in the future.

Viewing approval details and history

Regular users:

Regular users can view approval details but cannot take action or leave comments.

Where to view approval statuses:

The approval status is displayed in the following locations: 1. Asset thumbnails - Approval status is displayed on the top-right corner (not clickable).

2. Library sidebar - a field in the General tab shows the approval status. Hovering over it displays a summary tile.

1. Approvals tab - Provides a detailed history of all approval requests.

Approval history

1. Open the Approvals tab in the Asset details window.

2. Click History to view previous approval requests.

3. Select the file version from the left panel and click View details for more information.

Best practises for using Approvals:

• Use clear messages to explain the purpose of the approval.

• Set realistic due dates to allow stakeholders enough time to vote.

• Regularly review approval history for process insights.