Understanding Approval Workflows
Use approval workflows to send posts through one or more review steps before they publish. You set up workflows in Settings, pick one in Compose, and approvers review posts in Needs Approval.
Statusbrew's Approval Workflows help teams collaborate by creating customizable multi-step and multi-user workflows that facilitate submitting, reviewing, approving, or rejecting outgoing social posts.
Use Approval Workflows to:
Mitigate errors: Catch mistakes before a post goes live.
Avoid grammatical mistakes: Get a second pair of eyes on every caption.
Ensure compliance: Make sure posts meet your brand and legal rules.
Bolster agency collaboration: Bring clients into the review without giving them full access.
Who Can Do This?
Plan: Approval workflows are available on Premium and above plans.
Admins: Create, edit, activate, pause and delete workflows in Settings → Approval workflows.
Create Post (Needs Approval): Users can create posts but can't schedule or publish them directly. They save a draft or send the post for approval.
Full Publishing: Users can create, schedule and publish without approval. They can still send a post through a workflow if they want it reviewed, and can skip steps when the workflow allows it.
Approvers: The team members or external approvers added to a workflow step. They review the post when it reaches their step. They don't need access to the social profile the post is for.
External approvers: People outside your team added to a step by email address. They review posts on the external approvals page (external.statusbrew.com).
How To Set Approval Permissions For Team Members?
Define who has specific publishing permissions for each profile/profile group.
You can assign team members who can approve posts before they are published, or set permissions for users (like interns) who can send posts for approval (and can't publish or schedule posts directly).
You can manage these permissions while inviting a new user or later by editing the user settings.
Go to Settings → Profiles.
Click More (three dots) beside the profile you want to set permissions for and select Edit.
Click Add permissions and select the permission you want to set:
Full Publishing: Users can create, schedule, and publish posts without needing approval. They can approve or reject a post only when they're an approver on the workflow's current step.
Create Post (Needs Approval): Users can create posts, but cannot schedule or publish posts directly. Once a post is created, they can either save it as a draft or submit it for approval.
In the field next to the permission, enter the users and user groups you want to grant access to. You can pick from frequently used options or search.
Click Update.
How To Configure Approval Workflows?
You have flexibility when setting up your workflows. You can create simple workflows with just one step and one approver, or build complex workflows with multiple steps and several users assigned to approve at each level.
Go to Settings → Approval workflows and click Create Workflow.
Enter a Workflow name (up to 64 characters).
Enter a name for Step 1 (up to 64 characters).
Under Approvers, choose existing team members, or enter an email address to add an external approver.
Tick Require approval from all if every approver in this step must approve before the post moves on.
Turn on AI Review Instructions if you want to guide AI checks specifically for this step.
Click + Add another step to add the next step, and repeat for as many steps as you need.
To remove a step, click Remove step. To remove an approver, click the close icon next to their name.
Under workflow settings, tick Allow users with full publishing permission to skip steps on this workflow if you want those users to bypass steps.
Click Submit.
How Steps Work
One step at a time: A post only reaches a step's approvers once every earlier step is complete. Approvers in Step 2 don't see the post while Step 1 is still pending.
Without Require approval from all: One approver's action completes the step. The other approvers in that step no longer see Approve or Reject.
With Require approval from all: Every approver in the step must approve before the post moves to the next step.
Tracking who approved: Open the post to see each step's status and who acted on it in the post's activity.
How To Manage Approval Workflows?
Go to Settings → Approval workflows to see every workflow your team has created. The list shows each workflow's Workflow name, Steps, Last edited time and Status. Use the search bar to find a specific workflow.
To edit a workflow, click More (three dots) beside it, select Edit, make your changes and click Submit.
To pause a workflow, open it with Edit and clear the Activate workflow checkbox. Tick it again to resume the workflow.
To delete a workflow, click More (three dots) beside it and select Delete.
If you delete an approval workflow with active posts awaiting approval, the posts will be automatically rejected.
How To Send A Post For Approval?
A post for two or more profiles is saved as a Post Group, with one post per profile, unless you pick Separate posts. A post for a single profile is saved as a normal post, not a Group. When you send a Group for approval, the whole Group goes through the workflow together. With Separate posts, each post goes through approval on its own.
Create your post in Compose and select your profiles.
If you picked two or more profiles, choose Post Group (one Group, approved together) or Separate posts (each post approved on its own) in the Post Group dropdown at the top of Compose.
Under the schedule options, choose Custom time and set the date and time. The time must be at least 15 minutes from now.
Click the Approval button in the bottom bar.
Select Use Workflow ("Run workflow") and pick your workflow from the Workflow name dropdown.
Turn on Suppress approval notifications for this post if you don't want approvers notified about this post.
Click Save, then click Send for approval.
Select No Review ("Post immediately") instead if the post doesn't need approval. Only users with Full Publishing permission can publish without review.
To save your work without sending it for approval, turn on the Mark as draft switch at the top of Compose and click Save as draft. A draft has to be sent for approval before anyone can approve it. To send it later, open the draft, turn the Mark as draft switch off, pick your workflow and click Send for approval.
Users in the selected approval workflow will receive email, mobile, or desktop notifications when a post is submitted for their review. If you use Slack, you can also receive approval notifications directly in Slack.
AI Pre-Review
If a step in the workflow has AI Review Instructions turned on, clicking Send for approval first opens an AI pre-review window. It lists each step with its result, for example No AI review or Needs Review, and notes any concerns the AI found in the post.
If a step flagged something, you see "Some steps flagged concerns. Review before submitting." Click Cancel to go back and edit the post, or Submit Anyway to send it for approval as it is.
Can I Still Choose Individual Approvers?
No. You can no longer pick individual users as approvers on new posts, CSV uploads or rule actions. Send posts through a workflow instead. If you want one person to approve, ask your Admin to create a one-step workflow with only that person in it.
Older posts that already had individual reviewers keep them when you edit them. In Needs Approval, these posts show Approvers: followed by the reviewers' names.
Approving A Post
Team approvers (internal approval) find posts waiting on them in Publish → Needs Approval. External approvers review on the external approvals page (external.statusbrew.com) instead. Posts awaiting approval also appear in your Publish calendar views.
When you open a post that's waiting, a banner says This post is awaiting approval and shows the workflow name, the current step (for example, 2 of 3), the step name and See more.
Needs Approval
The Needs Approval section contains all of the posts waiting on review. Use the filter dropdown to switch between:
All of my team's approvals: Every post currently awaiting approval from your entire team.
Posts I can approve: Only the posts you can review and approve right now.
Use the Sorting dropdown to order posts:
Scheduled time soonest: Posts due to publish first appear at the top.
Scheduled time furthest: Posts scheduled furthest in the future appear first.
Last modified oldest: Posts that haven't changed in the longest time appear first, which helps you spot stuck posts.
Last modified newest: The most recently edited posts appear first.
Classic View And Table View
Use the Classic view / Table view toggle at the top right. Your browser remembers your choice.
Classic view: One row per post. Hover over a post to open its details, where you can approve, reject, edit, delete, duplicate, preview or recall it, and add comments.
Table view: Shows the number of reviews waiting. Each row has Edit (pencil icon), Open in side peek (icon), Reject and Approve. Groups show Reject group and Approve group. Click a row to open a preview panel with the same options.
Bulk approval: In Table view, Admins can tick several posts and click Approve N posts or Review selected. Expired posts and posts in a Group can't be ticked.
External approvers and guest users get the same Classic view and Table view options on the external approvals page (external.statusbrew.com). See how external approvers and guest users review posts.
Project approval sections have the same Classic view / Table view toggle and Start review button, so you can review a project's posts without leaving the project.
Review Posts One By One
Click Start review to go through waiting posts one at a time. You see "Review 1 of N" with Previous, Skip and Next, plus Edit, Open, Approve and Reject. Click Back to list to leave.
Keyboard shortcuts are on by default:
A: Approve
R: Reject
J: Next post
K: Previous post
Approving A Post Group
A Post Group is approved or rejected as a whole. In Table view it shows as one row ("Group · N posts") with Approve group and Reject group. You can't approve one post inside a Group on its own. Learn more about how Post Groups work.
Posts saved as Separate posts aren't a Group. Each one is approved or rejected on its own, like a normal post.
If you approve a post and it has a multi-step approval workflow, it moves to the next step after approval.
Rejecting A Post
When you reject a post, you must choose a Rejection reason. Reject stays disabled until you pick one. You can add an Additional comment and customize the reasons with Manage rejection reasons in the same dialog. For a Group, the dialog is titled Reject Group and says "This rejects the whole group. The reason applies to all of its posts."
When a post is rejected, the author will find it in their Rejected section. They can click on any rejected post to see the approver's rejection reason and notes in the All activity section of the Post Detail. The author can then edit the post and resend it for approval, or choose to delete it if it's no longer needed.
The All activity section of the Post Detail also displays when changes are made to the post, who made the changes, and any internal comments added by other team members.
Exporting Posts
You can download the posts in Needs Approval as a CSV file.
Go to Publish → Needs Approval.
At the top right, next to the search icon and left of Create post, click the Export CSV icon.
The CSV downloads straight away.
The CSV includes these columns:
Channel: The profile name the post is for.
Network: The social network, such as Facebook or LinkedIn.
Internal Title: The post's internal title.
Content: The full post caption.
Media Url: A link to the attached image or video.
Created At: When the post was created. The column header shows the time zone used.
Post Type: For example, photo.
Tags: Tags added to the post.
Clicks, Comments, Likes, Shares, Impressions, Reach, Video Views, Engagements: Performance columns. They stay empty because posts awaiting approval aren't published yet.
Permalink: The link to the live post, empty until it's published.
Editing A Submitted Post
As the original author, you can edit the post content, recall it, duplicate it, delete it, select a different approval workflow, or update the schedule dates and times.
Use Edit group to change every post in the Group together, including adding more profiles while the Group waits for approval.
Posts saved as Separate posts, and any single-profile post, can't have profiles added later. To send the same content to more profiles, create a new post.
If you want to change one post individually, edit that post on its own. Changes to its caption, media or network-specific options stay in the Group, so it's still approved with the rest.
Changing one post's time is different. It shows Remove from "Group name"? first. Click Save changes to move the post out of the Group, or Cancel to keep it in. Once a post leaves the Group, it can't rejoin.
Expired Posts
If a post isn't approved or rejected before its scheduled time, its status changes to Expired. The post detail shows "The scheduled time for this post has passed." and it stays in Needs Approval.
Expired posts can still be rejected to give the creator feedback, but they can't be approved. In Table view, the row shows Expired and the preview says "Expired, reschedule before approving."
If the row shows Reschedule Post, click it. In the Select schedule type dialog, pick Immediately, Custom Time or By Category, set the time and click Apply.
If there's no Reschedule Post button, open the post in Compose and give it a new time:
In Needs Approval, click the expired post, then click Edit (pencil icon).
Compose shows "Choose a delivery schedule for this post before submitting." Click Schedule in the bottom bar and pick a new time at least 15 minutes from now.
Click Send for approval.
If you edit a whole Group with Edit group and some posts have times that have passed, saving shows "N posts need a new time". Click Go back, then pick new times for those posts before you save the Group.
External Approvers
Add someone outside your team as an approver by entering their email address in a workflow step's Approvers field. They sign in at external.statusbrew.com, and the magic link in their approval emails logs them straight in.
What they can do: Approve, reject (with an optional comment), suggest edits and comment.
Post Groups: They approve or reject a whole Group at once, and can use Approve all when several Groups are waiting.
Suggest edits: They can suggest edits on a single post inside a Group. If you accept the suggestion, that post leaves its Group.
What they can't do: Open the post in Compose, edit it, reschedule it or bulk approve.
Approval Notifications
Statusbrew notifies post approvers and authors of updates requiring attention. You can choose to receive these notifications by email, desktop, or mobile.
Approval Requested: Get notified when you are added as an approver for a post.
Post Published: Get notified when a post that you created or are watching has been successfully published.
Post Approved: Get notified when a post that you created or are watching has been approved and is ready to be published.
Post Failed: Get notified if a post that you created or are watching fails to publish.
Post Rejected: Get notified when a post that you created or are watching is rejected, along with the rejection reason and comments.
Hourly Approval Reminders: Receive hourly reminders for any posts that are waiting for your approval.
Expired Approval Reminders: Get notified when the time window to approve a piece of content has passed.
To turn these on or off, click your profile picture in the bottom left and go to Your account → Notification settings.
Suppress Approval Notifications
By default, every time you send or update a post that requires approval, all assigned approvers receive an immediate "Needs your approval" notification.
When you turn on Suppress approval notifications for this post, Statusbrew will:
Silence the initial approval request: Approvers will not get the initial notification when the post is created or updated.
Silence any subsequent pings: Edits, resubmissions, or moving the post through workflow steps will not trigger new notifications.
Still honor reminders: Any configured hourly or daily reminders for pending approvals will still be sent, so time-sensitive posts don't get missed.
To turn it on:
Create your post or open a post to edit in Compose.
Click the Approval button in the bottom bar and select Use Workflow.
Turn on Suppress approval notifications for this post.
Click Save, then send the post for approval.
FAQs
Why Can't I Choose An Approver In Compose Anymore?
Choosing individual approvers was removed. In the Approval dialog you now pick No Review or Use Workflow. To send posts to one person, ask your Admin to create a workflow with a single step and that person as the only approver.
Can I Create An Approval Workflow Without Admin Access?
No. Only Admins can create, edit or delete workflows in Settings → Approval workflows. Ask an Admin to set one up for you.
Can I Approve One Post In A Post Group And Reject Another?
No. Approval for a Group is all or nothing: one Approve group and one Reject group for every post in it. If one post needs changes, reject the Group with a reason, or edit that post on its own. It stays in the Group. If you want each profile's post approved on its own, pick Separate posts when you create the post.
Can I Approve Several Posts At Once?
Yes, if you're an Admin. In Needs Approval, switch to Table view, tick the posts and click Approve N posts. Expired posts and Group posts can't be bulk selected. Everyone else can use Start review and the A shortcut to move through posts quickly.
How Do I Reschedule An Expired Post That Needs Approval?
In Needs Approval, switch to Table view. If the expired row shows Reschedule Post, click it, set a new time in Select schedule type and click Apply. If it doesn't, open the post with Edit, click Schedule in the bottom bar, pick a time at least 15 minutes from now and click Send for approval.
Can I Approve Posts From A Project Without Opening Each One?
Yes. Open the project's approval section and switch to Table view. Each row has Approve and Reject. Or click Start review to go through the posts one at a time with the A, R, J and K shortcuts.
Why Can't I See A Post That Was Sent To Me For Approval?
Earlier steps aren't done: In a multi-step workflow, a post only reaches you once every earlier step is complete.
Wrong filter: In Needs Approval, check whether you're on Posts I can approve or All of my team's approvals.
You're not in the step: Ask your Admin to confirm you're an approver in the right step of the workflow.
Someone else already acted: If the step doesn't use Require approval from all, another approver may have completed it.
Does An Approver Need Access To The Social Profile?
No. When a post is sent through an approval workflow, the approvers in that step can review, approve or reject it even if they don't have access to the profile in Statusbrew. Being added to the workflow step is what gives them the request.
Why Can't I See The Approve Or Reject Option On A Post?
This often happens when you share a project link with a client or a teammate, they open a post, and there's no Approve button. It's usually one of these:
They aren't an approver on the current step: Only the approvers on the workflow's current step can approve or reject the post. Everyone else, even Admins, sees Approve and Reject greyed out. In Compose, click Approval → Use Workflow and pick a workflow that includes them, or ask an Admin to add them to the right step in Settings → Approval workflows.
They weren't added as a recipient on the shared link: If you copied the project's shared link and sent it without adding them as a Recipient, they can only view the project. This applies to internal and external users alike. Open Edit shared link → Add recipients and invite their email.
Someone else in the step already acted: If a step has several approvers and Require approval from all is off, the step completes as soon as one approver acts, and the others no longer see Approve or Reject. Turn on Require approval from all if every approver should act.
For external approvers, the easiest option is to skip the project link and send them to the external approvals page (external.statusbrew.com). They sign in with the email you added to the workflow and see every post waiting for their approval in one place.
Why Am I Not Getting An Approval Email When I Add Myself As The Approver?
If you do not have Full Publishing access and your publishing access requires approval, you cannot approve your own post. Send the post through a workflow with another approver in the step. If you're in the workflow yourself, you will not receive an approval email, and the post will still need approval from an eligible user.
What Does "Approvers:" With Names Mean On Some Posts?
Those are older posts that were sent to individual reviewers before workflows became the only option. They keep those reviewers when edited, and the named people approve them as before.
Why Are No Posts Showing In The Approvals Section Of My Project?
The Approvals section shows posts awaiting your review. If it's empty, here's what to check:
Date range: The board's date range may not cover the period when the posts are scheduled. Check the date range in the top right corner and adjust it.
No posts are pending approval: If no posts have been submitted for approval yet, the section will be empty.
Check filters: Make sure no extra filters hide posts that need approval.
The post hasn't reached your step yet: In a multi-step workflow, posts only appear once all previous steps have been approved.
Shared link access: If you're using a project's shared link, you need to be added as a Recipient and be an approver in the post's workflow, and the post must have reached your step. External approvers can also see every post waiting for them on the external approvals page (external.statusbrew.com).
How Can I Track Where A Post Is In A Multi-Step Approval Workflow?
Open the post. The banner at the top shows the workflow, the current step (for example, 2 of 3) and the step name. Click See more to see each step: completed steps show a checkmark, and the active step shows who still needs to approve.
How Can I Track Approval Progress Across Posts?
Statusbrew does not have a direct approval-stage tracker that shows which post has reached which approval step across the whole calendar. For each post, you can open the approval tracker to see who has approved it and who still needs to.
To track progress across many posts, create project sections in List view filtered by approver, for example a section named "Pending with [approver name]" with the filter Approvers is [approver name]. If a step has several approvers, select all of them in the Approvers filter for that step's section.
Can I Prevent Approved Posts From Auto-Publishing So My Team Can Post Manually From Native Apps?
For Instagram and TikTok, yes. When composing your post, select Publish via mobile reminders under Publishing Type. Statusbrew sends a push notification to your selected users via the Statusbrew mobile app at the scheduled time instead of publishing. Profiles that publish via mobile reminders are saved as separate posts, not in the Post Group, so each one goes through approval on its own.
For all other networks, this isn't currently possible. Once a post is approved, it publishes automatically at the scheduled time.
Why Is My Client Receiving An Email For Every Post Approval?
Clients or guest users may receive approval emails for each post when they are added to an approval workflow. To stop this, turn on Suppress approval notifications for this post in the Approval dialog when you send the post. For posts already sent for approval, open each post and turn it on manually.
Will Suppressing Notifications Stop All Reminders?
No, your hourly or daily reminders for overdue approvals will still be sent, so you don't miss important deadlines.
Can I Re-Enable Notifications Later?
Yes. Open the post in Compose, click Approval, turn off Suppress approval notifications for this post and save. Future approval actions send notifications again.
Does This Affect Other Users' Settings?
No. This setting only applies to the specific post, not to individual user preferences. Anyone with permission to edit the post can turn suppression on or off.