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How to manage post approval workflows

Send posts for approval to a designated multi-step approval workflow.

Updated over a week ago

Agorapulse offers the ability to create multi-step approval workflows that can be applied to scheduled posts. These workflows allow for seamless collaboration between multiple stakeholders within or outside of your organization. Approval steps can include internal or external (Shared Calendar) users.

If you want more information on adding a single approval step, please take a look at this article. This is available for users on Tailored, Advanced and Professional plans.
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For more information on how to review and approve a post, please take a look at this article.


In this article we will outline:

Please Note: The ability to create post approval workflows is only available for users on a Tailored subscription plan. If you would like to change your plan to access this feature, feel free reach out to us here or find out more information here.

How to configure approval workflows

In order to apply an approval workflow to a scheduled post, you must first configure the workflow in the Approval Workflow settings.

Note: Only Owners and Managers have the ability to create and manage post approval workflows in the Approval Workflows settings.

To access these settings:

  1. Navigate to the Organization settings (or Workspace settings if enabled)

  2. Click on Approval Workflows

  3. Select + Create new workflow

  4. Enter the Workflow Name

  5. Select Social Profiles it will apply to in the drop down
    ​The workflow will only be available on the selected profiles

  6. Enter the name of your first approval step

  7. Add the reviewers (approvers) to the approval step from the drop-down
    ​Only internal users that have Editor or Admin rights to the selected profiles will appear in the dropdown. Owners and Managers will always appear. If Require approval from all is enabled, all reviewers must approve the post before it can move to the next step

  8. Click + Add an approval step to add consecutive approval steps
    ​You can add as many approval steps as required

  9. Repeat steps 4-7 for any additional approval steps

  10. Click Save workflow when complete

Note: There can only be one approval step which includes external users. If an external user is added to an approval step, only other external users (from the same Shared Calendar) may be added to that step.


How to edit approval workflows

  1. Navigate to the Organization settings

  2. Click on Approval Workflows

  3. Select your chosen approval workflow

  4. Make any required changes

  5. Click Save workflow

If you want to delete an approval workflow, simply click the Delete (trash) icon. Approval workflow are not recoverable and deleting a workflow will not affect any posts already under review.

Note: You can edit approval workflow at any time in the Approval Workflow settings. Editing an approval workflow will not affect any posts already under review (with a workflow in progress).


How to apply an approval workflow to a post

In order to apply an approval workflow to a post, you will first create a post using the Publishing Composer. Once a profile has been selected:

  1. Click the Select approval type option on the bottom right

  2. Click Select an approval workflow

  3. Select an existing approval workflow from the drop down
    ​You can select View Steps to confirm the workflow structure

  4. (Optional) Add a note for internal or external users in the Your message field
    ​Internal notes will not be visible for external users. This will appear in the comments section.

  5. Click Save
    ​Once the approval workflow has been applied, the name of the workflow will appear next to the scheduled date.

  6. Press Send for approval
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After the post is sent for approval, users included in the first approval step will receive a notification. The post will be added to the Calendar in To Approve status.

Please Note: If an approval workflow has been applied to a post, it is not possible to edit the post to include a profile that is not added to the workflow.


How to edit a post that is under review or approved (Post Approval Workflows)

To protect from accidental edits, all posts that have an approval workflow applied will automatically be placed in a read-only state. This applies to posts that have completed an approval workflow or have an approval workflow in progress.

Posts may still be edited in this state by users with the required permissions. Profile-level Admins and Editors can edit posts in an approval workflow. Moderators may only edit posts that they have created.

Users must follow the steps below to edit a post with an approval workflow applied:

  1. Open the post in the Publishing Composer

  2. Click on Edit this post

  3. Select I understand, edit this post in the pop-up
    ​The current state of the approval workflow is visible in the pop-up

  4. Make any required edits to the post

  5. Click Save edits when complete

After editing is complete, the post will return to a read-only state. If the approval workflow was completed, the post will remain in Approved status. If the approval workflow is still in progress, it will remain on the same step.

Note: Posts in a read-only state can still be duplicated, deleted and commented on.

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