All articles

File Approvals

All user types (including Collaborators) can assign files for review, and all user types can be assigned to review files. Wrike Proof is available on Wrike for Marketers and Wrike for Marketers Enterprise accounts. Professional, Business, and Enterprise accounts can purchase Wrike Proof as an add-on.

⏱ 4 min read

Overview

Use Approvals when you have files that need to be reviewed and approved by teammates. Approvals help organize and bring transparency to the review process by allowing your team to keep track of

  • What files need to be reviewed and approved
  • Who is responsible for approving a file
  • What each file’s review status is 

You can filter files according their approval and Guest Review status, user(s) assigned as approvers, or on their start or due dates and more.
For information on Proofing, visit our Proofing Help Center page.

File_Approvals_-_Example.png

 Compatible File Types

Approvals works with:

  • All files uploaded from local storage.
  • Public or unlisted YouTube videos.

Files saved in cloud storage services (except YouTube videos) cannot be used with the Approval process.

Add Files to Approvals

  1. Open a task, folder, or project with attachments. If you don't see the file you want to add to review click "Show all files".
  2. Check the box next to all files you want to add to approval.
  3. Click “Select for approval”. 1
  4. Select the users who are responsible for reviewing and approving the attachments by clicking the “+Select approvers” 2 button on the panel that appears.
  5. Click "Set Due Date" 3 to specify what date the files should be reviewed and approved by. Please note, this date will not appear on the Gantt Chart and the task will not be marked "Overdue" if the reviews aren't completed by the specified date.
  6. Check the “Approve only files” 4 box if you don’t want to start a task/folder/project approval.
  7. Click the “Advanced settings” button if you need to:
    • Finish this file approval automatically when all approvers give their decision. If you deselect this option, you’ll have to finish the approval that you created manually.
    • Set up a status change upon the file approval finish.
  8. Click “Start Approval.” 5
  9. All attachments continue to appear under the task’s description field, but now attachments are divided into:
    1) “Files for approval” section
    2) “Not for approval” section (for attachments that aren’t in review).

Alternatively, you can add files while creating a task, folder or project approval.

File_Approvals_-_Add_files_to_approval.png

Approve Files

You can access attachments for review directly from a task, folder, or project.

  1. Open a task, folder, or project with attachments.
  2. Click a file attachment (from the “Files for approval” section under the description field).
  3. Select “Approve” 1 or “Changes required” 2. 

Click "Undo decision" if you want to reset your decision and give a new one.
Next, you will be prompted to give a decision on the task, project or folder (if needed). Note that you can’t approve a task, folder or a project with pending file approvals in it.

File_Approvals_-_Approve_a_file__1_.png

If multiple people are assigned to review the same file and

  • Everyone has reviewed the file and all assigned users have approved the file: the overall status for that file is Approved. 1
  • Everyone has reviewed the file and at least one person has indicated that changes are required: the overall status for that file is Changes Required. 2
  • Someone hasn't provided their decision yet: the status is Pending Approval. 3
  • Hover over the review status to see everyone's decision.

The approval status is also displayed under the file name in the upper left-hand corner of the workspace when you open the file in Proofing. Hover over the status to see the list of team members assigned as approvers, together with their decisions.

File_Approvals_-_Approva_Files.png

If a new version of an attachment is added

  • If you put an attachment in review, and then add a new version of the attachment, assigned users automatically see the newest version of the attachment when they review the file.
  • When a new version of a file is added, the review process resets: all assigned users need to approve the new version (even if they already approved a previous version of the file).

Remove a File From the Approval Process

  1. Open the task, folder, or project with the attachment you would like to remove from the review process.
  2. Click the appropriate file For the approval section (under the task’s description field).
  3. Select “Remove from approval.”1

File_Approvals_-_Remove_from_Approval_.png

Top