Approving and sending back pieces
How Studio's status workflow works: approve a piece, send it back with a reason and adapt the states to your process.
On this page
In Studio every piece has a status, and approving simply means moving it to the status that means "approved". There's no separate "Approve" or "Reject" button: everything goes through the status, and when a piece goes back from review, Studio asks you why.
The Standard workflow
Every new project uses the Standard workflow, with four states. Their names appear in Spanish:
- Borrador (draft): the idea or work in progress.
- En revisión (in review): ready for someone to look at.
- Aprobado (approved): reviewed and ready to go out.
- Programado/Publicado (scheduled/published): it already has its release.
You can replace these states with your own (see below).
Approve a piece
There are two ways:
- From the piece. In the header, open the Status selector and choose Aprobado, or use Previous and Next to move it one step.
- From the Board. Drag the card to the Aprobado column. The board has one column per state; we explain it in The board.
Changing the status never publishes anything. Even if you move the piece to Programado/Publicado, it doesn't go out to any network: publishing is always a separate action, with Publish now (see Publishing to social networks).
Send a piece back (request changes)
When a piece leaves a review or approved state for an earlier one, you're sending it back. For example, from En revisión to Borrador, or from Aprobado to En revisión. In that case Studio asks for the reason:
- Move the piece to the earlier state, from the Status selector or by dragging it on the Board.
- The question Why does it go back to "Borrador"? appears (with the name of the state it returns to).
- Write what needs to change and press Send back. With Cancel the piece stays where it was.
The reason is posted as a comment on the piece, with the text Sent back to "Borrador": …, so whoever picks it up knows what to do.
No reason is needed to move forward, to move between work states (for example, between two states in the In progress category) or to withdraw something already published.
Who can change the status
- Owner and Editor: yes.
- Commenter and Viewer: no. A Commenter can comment and resolve comments, but can't approve.
- Guests: only if their link has Edit permission. With View or Comment they can't change the status.
If a client has to give the go-ahead themselves, give them a link with Edit permission. If you'd rather they only give feedback, give them Comment and move the piece yourself. More in Links for clients.
Customise the workflow
Workflow settings are under the project's gear icon, in the Workflow section. You need to be an Editor.
Make your own version
The Standard workflow is shared between projects. To change it, press Duplicate to customise: this creates a copy for this project only. If you edit a workflow you already share with other projects, the changes reach all of them; the notice tells you so.
Add a state
- Press Add state.
- Fill in Name, Color and Category, plus a description for the team if you like.
- Press Add.
The Category is what Studio understands about the state: Idea, In progress, Review, Ready or Published. It decides when a reason is needed to send a piece back, so choose it carefully. A "Client changes" state that is pending work belongs in In progress, and a "Client sign-off" state in Ready.
Use Move left and Move right to change the order.
Delete a state
If the state has pieces, Studio asks Where should its pieces go?. Choose the destination state and press Move and delete.
Work without a workflow
If you choose No workflow, the project's pieces have no status or column. You can turn it back on at any time. When you switch from one workflow to another, each piece moves to the state with the same name; failing that, to the one in the same category, and otherwise to the first one.
Frequently asked questions
Does approving a piece publish it?
No. Changing the status never publishes. To publish, use Publish now from the piece's menu.
Where do I see why a piece was sent back?
In the piece's comments: the reason is left as a comment starting with "Sent back to…".
Can a client approve?
Yes, if their guest link has Edit permission. With Comment they can give feedback, but someone on the team changes the status.
Can I have a "Rejected" state?
You can create a state with that name, but you don't need to: sending a piece back with its reason already does the job and leaves a record in the comments.