Approval Workflows in Workzone: Build Multi-Stage Document Approvals Once, Reuse Them Everywhere

Approval Workflows is a Workzone Enterprise feature that lets you build a reusable, multi-stage document approval route and apply it to any file. Each stage carries its own approvers, duration, and completion rule, and Workzone triggers the next stage automatically when the one before it finishes. You’ll find it in Settings, under Global, on the Approval workflows page.

That’s the short version. The detail is below, and the walkthrough video covers it end to end in a few minutes.

Quick answers: what does Approval Workflows do?

Approval Workflows lets project teams:

• Build an approval route one time and reuse it on any file
• Run as many stages as the process actually has, in order
• Include internal users and external parties as approvers in any stage
• Require every approver in a stage to sign off, or advance as soon as one does
• Set a single final due date and let Workzone calculate every stage deadline backwards from it
• Notify the next set of approvers automatically the moment a stage completes
• Track the active stage, its approvers, and their individual statuses from the file tray or the Approval Dashboard report

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Why do teams need approval workflows?

Every team has an approval process. Most of them are consistent, repeatable, and written down nowhere.

Ask five people how a document gets approved and you’ll get five versions. Everyone knows their own part. Nobody has the whole sequence. So the order lives in the head of whoever has been there longest, the person who remembers that Compliance reviews before the CFO, that the regional director needs three days, that the outside vendor sees it last. Then that person takes PTO and a document sits with someone who does not know it is their turn.

The reviewing was never the slow part. McKinsey surveyed 1,259 managers and 61 percent said most of their decision-making time is used ineffectively. The dead air between reviewers is where the days go, and it’s the same gap that lets work slip through the cracks on any project with more than two handoffs.

An approval workflow puts the sequence in the system, so every stage knows when it is up.

What can each stage of a workflow include?

A workflow is made of stages. Each stage is effectively its own approval, and a workflow can have as many stages as your process requires. Every stage is configured with:

• Stage name. Informative names make a workflow easy to navigate later when it needs editing.
• Duration. The number of days the stage should run, set as business days (weekends excluded) or calendar days. This is what Workzone uses to calculate the stage’s due date.
• Approvers. Any existing user, an existing external party, or a new external party you create while building the workflow.
• All must approve or Anyone approves. “All must approve” holds the stage open until every approver signs off. “Anyone approves” advances the workflow the moment one of them does.
• Instructions. Anything approvers should know before they review the file.

How do you create an approval workflow in Workzone?

Go to Settings in All Workspaces, then Global, then Approval workflows. Click Add Workflow to open the editor and name the workflow. Fill in the details for the first stage, click Add stage, and repeat until the route matches your process. Click Save workflow when it’s complete. Step-by-step instructions live in the Approval Workflows help doc.

Saved workflows appear in the table on the Approval workflows settings page, which shows how many stages each one has, its total number of approvers, its total duration, who created it and when, and who last used it on a document approval. Click any row to open a tray with the stage-by-stage detail. The edit pencil at the top of the tray opens the workflow for editing, and the more menu on each row offers edit and delete.

Editing or deleting a workflow does not affect approvals already in progress. Changes apply to approvals created after the change.

How do you send a document through an approval workflow?

Click the more menu to the right of any file and choose Request Approval. On the create approval page, the Approval method dropdown offers a single-stage approval built from scratch, which is the standard document approval process, or any of your saved approval workflows.

Select a workflow and Workzone displays every stage in it: the stage name, its approval criteria, its duration, and its approvers. Those details are locked at this point, since the workflow is preset. Click Request approval and Workzone triggers the first stage and emails its approvers. As each stage’s criteria are met, the next stage starts and its approvers are notified automatically.

How Workzone sets each stage’s due date

You set one date: the due date for the final stage. Workzone uses the durations built into the workflow to calculate every earlier stage’s due date backwards from it.

If the date you choose is too soon to accommodate the full duration of the workflow, Workzone displays a warning before the approval goes out.

What Workzone checks before it sends

Workzone also checks whether every approver in the workflow can actually access the file, and warns you if one cannot.

If that person sits in an “Anyone approves” stage, their approval is optional, so the workflow can still be used. If they sit in an “All must approve” stage, their approval is required, and the workflow cannot run on that file until the file is moved somewhere they can reach it.

How do you track an approval in progress?

Once a workflow is applied to a document, its progress shows up in two places.

Approval details in the file tray

Click the “Out for approval” indicator on any file and the workflow opens in the tray. It shows every stage with progress indicators marking which stages are complete, which stage is in progress, and which are still ahead. Within the active stage, each assigned approver’s status is listed individually, so it’s clear who has approved and whose approval is still pending.

The Approval Dashboard report

The Approval Dashboard report, available in both the Documents and Reports modules, shows the active stage for every approval workflow in flight. For each one it displays the due date and approvers alongside the stage detail: which stage of the workflow is currently active (2 of 3, or 3 of 5), the stage duration, and the completion criteria, either All must approve or Anyone approves.

It answers “where is that approval” without a single message being sent, the same way a shared view removes every other status update teams currently chase down.

Who can create and manage approval workflows?

Approval workflows are built and edited in global settings, so creating, editing, and deleting them is an administrative action. Applying a saved workflow to a file is available to anyone who can request an approval on that file, and anyone with access to the file can view the approval’s progress in the tray or the Approval Dashboard report.

Who should use Approval Workflows?

Approval Workflows fits any team whose sign-off has more than one step and more than one audience. Agencies routing creative through internal review and then client approval. Marketing teams moving a campaign asset through brand, legal, and an executive sponsor. Higher ed teams collecting sign-off across departments that keep different calendars. Healthcare and financial services teams where a named group has to review before anything publishes, and where knowing who has approved and who has not is part of the job.

If your approval process is currently a chain of forwarded emails held together by one person’s memory, this is the feature that replaces it.

Approval Workflows is a Workzone Enterprise feature. Enterprise also includes unlimited free guests and reviewers, so adding a client, a vendor, or outside counsel as an approver does not consume a paid seat. To learn about upgrading, see Workzone Enterprise or contact the Workzone team.

Every plan that includes document approvals also gets the redesigned Request Approval experience, including the single-stage approval you’re already using. Document approvals are available on Team and Enterprise.

Frequently asked questions

What is an approval workflow in Workzone? An approval workflow is a saved, multi-stage document approval route. Each stage has its own approvers, duration, and completion criteria, and each stage triggers automatically when the previous one is complete. It’s a Workzone Enterprise feature, configured in Settings under Global.

How many stages can an approval workflow have? As many as the process requires. There’s no limit. Each stage gets its own name, duration, approvers, completion criteria, and instructions.

Can people outside my organization be approvers? Yes. Any stage can include external parties alongside internal users, and a new external party can be created while you’re building the workflow.

How are stage due dates calculated? You select one date, the due date for the final stage. Workzone calculates each earlier stage’s due date backwards from it using the stage durations in the workflow. If the date is too soon for the full workflow, Workzone warns you.

What is the difference between “All must approve” and “Anyone approves”? “All must approve” requires every approver in that stage to mark the file approved before the next stage begins. “Anyone approves” moves the workflow forward as soon as any one approver does. It’s set per stage.

What happens if an approver cannot access the file? Workzone warns you when you select the workflow. If that approver is in an “Anyone approves” stage, the workflow can still be used. If they’re in an “All must approve” stage, the file has to be relocated somewhere they can access before the workflow will run.

Does editing a workflow affect approvals already in progress? No. Edits and deletions apply only to approvals created after the change. Anything already out for approval completes on the version it started with.

Where do I see the status of an approval in progress? Click “Out for approval” on the file to see the full stage-by-stage view with individual approver statuses, or open the Approval Dashboard report in the Documents or Reports module to see every approval currently in flight.

Where do I find Approval Workflows in Workzone? Settings in All Workspaces, then Global, then Approval workflows. It’s an Enterprise-level feature.

Build the route once. Let it run.

Your approval process already exists. It has for years. It has just never existed anywhere you could point to, which is why the same document takes a week longer than it should and nobody can say exactly where it sat.

Approval Workflows puts the sequence on the record. Every stage knows when it’s up, every deadline is calculated for you, and anyone can see what’s holding.

Watch the full walkthrough, read the step-by-step setup guide, or book a walkthrough with us and we’ll build your first workflow together.

Learn more:

• Approval Workflows help doc
• Workzone Enterprise
• Workzone Project Management Software
• How Agencies Manage Client Approvals