Approval routing stages let you automate and streamline the decision-making process for your creative assets - ensuring the right people review the right work at the right time.
To create an approval routing stage:
1. Click on any creative asset thumbnail to open it in the Media Viewer.
2. Select the approval routing icon in the top right corner of the Media Viewer.
3. The approval routing builder will pop-up and a new stage will appear. The stage is named "Name approval routing stage." Rename to the first stage you would like to route assets to (ex. Internal Review, Legal Review, Copy Review, etc).
4. Set a due date and time for all decisions in the stage to be submitted.
5. Next, add reviewers (i.e. stakeholders) by typing their username or email. If this were the Marketing review stage, you would most likely add members of the marketing team. Reviewers can be internal or external - StreamWork lets you send unlimited review links at no cost, and there's no account or login required to view, comment or leave a decision on creative assets.
7. Choose reviewer permissions.
To learn more about the permissions available for reviewers, check out this Help Center article.
8. Next, determine which reviewers need to weigh-in with a decision in order for the stage to be considered final. You have a number of decision options to choose from:
- All decisions: This means every reviewer added to the approval stage must provide a decision in order for the stage to be considered complete and approval routing to proceed.
- One decision submitted: This means only on reviewer must provide a decision in order for the stage to be considered complete and approval routing to proceed.
- Select decisions: This means select reviewer(s) need to provide a decision in order for the approval stage to be considered final. When you select individual reviewer name(s), the stage won't be completed until that reviewer has provided a decision. Once they've provided a decision, approval routing will proceed regardless of whether the other reviewers have also left a decision on the creative asset(s).
Note: Decisions per stage are calculated on the decision parameters you set in the "Stage is completed when" field. If you select "All decisions" then all reviewers in the stage must submit a decision before the final stage decision is determined. If you select just one or two individual reviewers from the list, then the final stage decision will be determined at the point when those reviewers provide a decision (regardless of how many other reviewers are included in the stage).
Important: If all required decisions are submitted by the due date, a final decision will automatically be calculated based on the criteria outlined in the “Decision logic.” If all or a few required decisions are not submitted by the due date, a final decision will not be calculated. Reviewers would then be reminded to submit their feedback.
9. If you would like to take advantage of advance approval routing settings, select the "Approval settings" tab. In here, you have the option to select from a number of advanced approval routing settings.
- Add password to review link: This allows you to add a custom password to a review link for extra security. Reviewers will need the password to unlock the link.
- Add custom invitation message: This allows you to add a custom message to the approval routing emails that are automatically sent to reviewers. Often, custom messages are helpful if you need to provide additional context to the files that are in need of review.
- Lock decisions: If enabled, reviewers cannot change their decision or add new comments after a decision is submitted.
- Allow download only for approved media: If enabled, download option is disabled for all media in approval routing that has not yet been approved.
Note: If you create a password, make sure to share it with any reviewers you invite to review the asset to ensure they can access the link. If you add a custom invite message, keep in mind this message will be sent to all reviewers added to a stage.
10. Last, you can select upload settings. This is a more advanced feature that enables you to control what happens if someone uploads a new version of an asset while approval routing of an earlier version is already in progress. Options are:
- Pause approval routing: Pause until a designated approval routing manager reviews and approves the new version.
- Restart approval routing: Restart approval routing from the beginning.
- Restart current stage: Restart current approval routing stage from the beginning.
Learn how to take advantage of Approval routing upload settings in this Help Center article.
11. Once your stage is complete, choose if you'd like to add additional stages. If yes, select the button "+ Add new stage" in the lower left corner of the approval routing builder.
12. To open or collapse stages, simply click the grey row the stage name lives in. This provides you with a bird's eye view of all the stages.
13. When all stages are set up, select "route" to kick-off approval routing. When you select route, review links will automatically be sent to all reviewer in stage one first by StreamWork. Once the final decision for stage one is calculated, links will be sent to stage two reviewers and so on in sequence. You can pause or edit approval routing at anytime from the "Approvals" tab within the project.
