What is the approval workflow builder?

The Approval Workflow Builder is where you design how feedback and approvals flow through your team—automating what used to be a manual, messy process and making it trackable, transparent, and efficient.

What is the approval workflow builder?

The Approval Workflow Builder in StreamWork is the tool that lets you design and manage the entire approval process for your creative assets. Think of it as the “control center” where you map out who needs to review your files, in what order, and with what permissions.

Here's what it does:

1. Set Up Multi-Stage Workflows

You can create one or multiple stages of approval (for example: Copy Review → Design Review → Legal Sign-Off). Each stage can have its own reviewers, deadlines, and rules for completion (e.g. all reviewers must approve vs. just one approval needed).

2. Add Reviewers and Permissions

Within each stage, you assign internal or external stakeholders as reviewers. You also choose what each reviewer can do—comment only, leave a decision (approve/changes required), view only, or manage review.

There are also permissions available for enabling downloads and flagging a reviewer as priority (means a fire emoji will appear next to their comments on media files - this is visible to the internal team only).

3. Manage Assets

You decide which asset versions get routed for approval. You can send a single file or use bulk approvals to route entire sets of files (like videos, PDFs, and images) together in one workflow. Files in a bulk approval will move together through approval stages simultaneously. If a file (or multiple files) need to be removed from a bulk approval there is an option to split approvals. 

4. Deadlines and Automation

Each stage can have its own deadline, and the builder ensures reviewers are automatically notified. Once a stage is complete, the workflow automatically moves to the next stage.

5. Preview Before Launch

The builder includes an overview screen where you review all assets, stages, reviewers, and deadlines before hitting “Route,” ensuring accuracy and alignment.

How to access the Approval Workflow Builder. 

1. There are two ways to access the approval workflow builder: From the main projects page or from within the Media Viewer.

If you're on the main projects page, select the 3 dot menu to the lower right of an asset and choose "Create approval routing." 

If you would like to select multiple assets, click on the checkbox in the top left corner of the media thumbnails you'd like to select, and then choose "Create approval routing" in the bulk selection menu.

If you're viewing an asset inside the media viewer, select the approval routing icon in the top right and the approval workflow builder will appear.

2. The approval workflow builder will pop-up and you can start to build your approval.