Client approvals without the email chain

Most client approvals still happen in an email thread. The file is attached to message four, the feedback arrives in message nine, and the "yes, go ahead" is a one-line reply that nobody can find when the printer asks which version was signed off.

That isn't a people problem. It's what happens when the work, the decision and the record live in three different places. This article sets out a client approval process that keeps them together: one place for the work, named approvers, a clear decision, a note whenever something has to change, and a record you can point to later.

Why approvals get lost in email#

Email is good at conversation and bad at decisions. The same few things go wrong on almost every project:

• The file and the decision drift apart. Someone replies "approved" to a thread with three attachments, and you have to guess which one they meant.
• Versions multiply. logo-final.pdf, logo-final-v2.pdf and logo-final-v2-edits.pdf all exist, and each one is in somebody's downloads folder.
• "Looks good" isn't a decision. It might mean approved. It might mean "I haven't opened it yet, but I'm being polite".
• Nobody knows whose call it is. The account lead, the client's marketing manager and their managing director all reply, and they don't agree.
• The record lives in one person's inbox. When that person is on holiday, so is your proof.

What a good client approval process needs#

Before you pick a tool, agree the shape. A design approval workflow that holds up under pressure has five parts:

1. One home for the work. The thing being approved lives in one place, next to the conversation about it.
2. Named deciders. Everyone knows whose yes counts before the work goes out, and whether one yes is enough.
3. A clear decision. Approved, approved with changes, or changes needed. Not "thoughts?".
4. A note whenever something must change, so the next version fixes the right thing.
5. Every version on the record. A new version asks everyone again, and the earlier one keeps its decisions.

Skybase is built around that shape, so the steps below use it. The principles hold whatever you use.

Set up approvals on the job, step by step#

In Skybase, files and approval requests belong to a job: the card on the board that also holds the brief, the comments and the checklist of tasks. That job is the work's one home.

1. Bring the client onto the project#

Invite the client as a guest. A single-project guest is free, and approvals come with every plan and aren't metered. Then add them to the job itself through Collaborators, or invite them from there with Invite someone new. The guide to inviting your team and clients covers every route.

Anyone on the project can be named as an approver, so being on the job isn't required. Adding the client to the job lets them change it, and its due reminders reach them.

2. Ask for approval, with a brief#

There are two ways to ask. On the job's Files tab, choose Select, tick the files and choose Ask for approval. Or tick Ask for approval… as you post files in a comment, and the same dialog opens.

The dialog asks for four things:

• What needs approval: a short title, such as "Homepage hero".
• Who must approve: anyone on the project except you, staff or client guests.
• Decided when: Everyone must approve, the default, or Any one approver.
• An optional due date and brief. Under What should they look at?, say what to decide, what's settled and when you need the answer.

Give it a due date. Skybase reminds the approvers still to decide the day before, on the day, and one and three days after it's overdue, at 09:00 in each person's own time zone.

3. Let approvers review from the email#

Each approver gets an email with a "Review and approve" button and two quieter links, Approve and Request changes, which open the review with that choice picked. Each person's link is their own: it opens that one request on any device without signing in, or in Skybase if they're already signed in.

Links expire, and a newer email replaces an older one. They also stop working once the request is decided or cancelled, the person is taken off it or leaves the project, or the project is archived. A forwarded link acts as the person it was sent to, as the email says. You can turn off a person's link, and under Approval links an administrator can require a one-time code that Skybase emails to the approver when they open it.

4. Get a decision, with a note whenever something must change#

There are three decisions: Approve, Approve with changes and Request changes. The last two won't go through without a note saying what to change, so every request for changes arrives with the next step attached. Each approver decides once per version.

5. Send the next version into the same request#

When changes are asked for, choose New version on the request, upload the new files and say What changed. Everyone on the request is asked again. Earlier versions and their decisions stay on the record, and the version number, not the file name, tells you which is current.

6. Hand off only what was approved#

When the work is signed off, send the files from the approved version, not whatever is newest on the Files tab. If files are most of what you make, creative project management for studios walks through the whole round, from first draft to final file, and there's more on design approval and artwork approval for those kinds of work.

Comment on the spot, not in a reply#

Feedback is easier to act on when it points at something. In the review, click a point on an image or a PDF page to pin a comment there, or switch to comment mode and tap on a touch screen. Replies stay in a thread on the pin. Resolving a pin clears it, and resolved comments come back when you choose to show them. Any file can take a general comment, and a video plays in the review with comments on the whole file.

Staff can mark a comment internal. Guests never see internal comments: not in the app, an email, a link or Slack, and not in search. In the app, @mention a colleague to bring them into a thread.

Decide whose yes counts before you ask#

Agree two choices as a team.

The rule. Everyone must approve suits a client where two people must both agree, say a marketing manager and a managing director. Any one approver suits a group where anyone can speak for the client.

The order. If you want an internal check first, make it its own request: ask your studio lead, then ask the client to approve the version your lead approved. Only named approvers can decide, so a colleague can't close the client's request by approving it "to help".

Guests can see every job in their project, and its approval requests too. If a whole internal round is something the client shouldn't see, keep it in an internal project. Sharing work with clients covers where to draw that line.

Keep track without chasing anyone#

• In the Inbox, the Approvals filter has three lists: Waiting on me, Waiting on others and Recently decided.
• A job's card on the board shows Awaiting approval with the due date, red once it's overdue. Awaiting my approval filters the board to jobs waiting on you.
• On a request you made, Nudge reminds the people still to decide, once a day at most.
• Automations have two approval triggers: a request is approved, or changes are requested. Either can be limited to requests whose title contains some words.
• A project connected to Slack posts requests and decisions to its channel.

A worked example: Harbour Studio and Northwind#

Take a small studio, say Harbour Studio, rebranding a client called Northwind. Harbour and its people are made up: they're the example in Skybase's sample workspace. Two approvals are in flight on the Northwind Rebrand board.

The first is internal. Priya, a designer, has finished hero-direction-b.png for the homepage hero. She asks for approval from the Files tab, naming Maya Chen, the studio lead, with the brief "Direction B, with the shorter headline." Maya finds it under Waiting on me, pins an internal comment about the type size and approves. Priya can take it to the client round.

The second is the client's. Leo has "Brand guidelines v3" in the Client review column. He asks for approval on brand-guidelines-v3.pdf, names Tom Becker, Northwind's contact, sets a due date and writes the brief: "The colour ratios and the logo misuse page. The typefaces are settled." As a single-project guest, Tom costs the studio nothing.

Tom opens the review from the email and reads it with Northwind's marketing team. The request goes overdue meanwhile, and the reminders keep it in front of Tom without Leo writing a chaser. The team wants a darker navy for print, so Tom pins a comment on the palette page and chooses Request changes: "Darker navy for print, please."

Leo adds Deep Harbour (#0B2545) to the secondary palette, updates the print specs and resolves Tom's pin. He uploads a new version with a note on what changed. Tom is asked again and approves: "Looks right to us."

When the printer asks what was signed off, nobody searches an inbox. Leo opens the request.

The record you end up with#

After sign-off, the job holds the whole story:

• every version, with its files and a note on what changed
• each approver's decision on each version: who, when, any note, and whether it came from the app or an email link
• an entry for each request, decision and new version, which you can see by filtering the comments to Activity

File download links are signed and expire after 8 hours. Anyone who needs a file again opens the job, where their access is checked.

A checklist for your next approval#

• The client is a single-project guest, added to the job.
• The request names its approvers, and whether everyone must approve or any one will do.
• The brief says what to decide, what's settled and by when.
• The request has a due date, so reminders do the chasing.
• Feedback is pinned to the spot, and staff-only remarks are marked internal.
• The next version goes into the same request.
• The hand-off uses the files from the approved version.

Approvals are one part of running client work in the open. See how approvals work in Skybase, or how project management for agencies puts the pieces together.