Reviews and Approvals

Reviews help you get a “yes” before content goes out. You move an item to Review, choose who should approve it, and send them a review request. They check it, leave comments, and change the status to Approved or send it back.

The pieces:

• Status shows where an item is, like Draft, Review or Approved.
• Approvers are the teammates who should sign off.
• Request Review emails every approver a link to the item.
• Default approvers are added to new content automatically.
• The Reviews widget on Home lists what’s waiting for each person.
• Review Alerts send a daily or weekly email of everything waiting for review.

Approvers must be members of the brand. To get a client’s approval, invite them first. See Inviting Your Team.

Quick start (5 minutes)

1. Open a design and go to its Info tab.
2. Under Approvers, click Assign someone to review and pick a teammate.
3. Set Status to Review.
4. Click Request Review.
5. You’ll see a message like Review request sent to 1 approver(s).

Your approver gets an email with a link to the design. It also shows in their Reviews widget on Home.

Content statuses

Designs, documents, blogs, transcripts and marketing emails use these statuses:

Ideas use the statuses of their idea group, which your team can change. Most groups include Review. See Working on an Idea.

Anyone in the brand can move an item between statuses like Draft, Edit and Review. Setting Approved is different: if the item has approvers, only those approvers or the brand’s Owner or Admins can approve it. If the item has no approvers, anyone in the brand can. For everyone else the Approved option is greyed out, and hovering it explains why. Approving doesn’t lock the item, and it doesn’t block scheduling or publishing. It’s how your team agrees something is ready.

Where to find status and approvers

This rule is the same for designs, AI Designs, documents, blogs, transcripts and marketing emails, and it also applies when you ask Orsa AI to change an item’s status.

An AI Design request has one approver. When the AI finishes the design, the request moves to Review on its own, and it shows up in the approver’s Reviews widget. See AI Design Requests.

Add approvers to an item

1. Open the item and find Approvers (see the table above).
2. Click Assign someone to review. If there’s already an approver, click Add.
3. Pick a teammate from the list.
4. Repeat to add more approvers.

To remove an approver, click the x on their picture.

If the list says Everyone is already added, every brand member is already an approver.

Example: a freelance social media manager adds the shop owner, Maria, as approver on every design for Harbor Books.

Set up default approvers

Default approvers are added to new content automatically, so nobody has to remember. Only the brand’s Owner and Admins can set them.

1. Open the brand’s Settings tab.
2. Under Members, click the arrow on a person’s row.
3. Under Default Approver Settings, turn on the content types they should approve:
   • Design: new designs.
   • Blog: new blogs.
   • Transcript: new transcripts.
   • Marketing Email: new marketing emails.

Default approvers are added when an item is created. Turning a toggle on doesn’t add the person to content that already exists. Add them to existing items by hand.

Ideas don’t get default approvers. Add approvers to each idea on its Info tab.

See Team Roles and Permissions.

Request a review

Request Review sends an email to every approver on the item. The button only works when:

• The item has at least one approver. Otherwise, hovering shows Assign at least one approver first.
• The status is Review. Otherwise, hovering shows Set status to Review first.

Then:

1. Click Request Review. It shows Sending… for a moment.
2. You’ll see Review request sent to 2 approver(s). (with your number of approvers).

You can click Request Review again later to send a reminder. Each click sends another email.

Designs, ideas, documents, transcripts and marketing emails have the button. Blogs and AI Designs don’t, but they still show in the approver’s Reviews widget and Review Alerts emails while they’re in Review.

What the approver receives

Each approver gets an email:

• Subject: “Orsa - Review requested:” and the item’s name.
• Message: who asked, and which item, like sarah requested your review on the design “Spring Sale Post”.
• Button: View Design (or View Document, and so on). It opens the item in Orsa. The approver needs to sign in.

The review request is an email only. It doesn’t add a notification to the bell.

Review and approve an item

If you’re an approver:

1. Open the item from the email, the Reviews widget on Home or a Review Alerts email.
2. Check it. Leave feedback in Comments, and @mention the person who made it. See Comments and Mentions.
3. Change Status:
   • Approved if it’s ready to go.
   • Edit if it needs changes.

On designs, documents, blogs, transcripts and marketing emails, the person who created the item gets a Status changed notification when you change the status, unless they’ve turned it off. See Notifications.

Example: Maria opens the Harbor Books summer reading post from her email. She pins a comment on the date: “It’s June 14, not June 15.” She sets the status to Edit. The designer fixes it, moves it back to Review and clicks Request Review again. Maria sets it to Approved.

The Reviews widget on Home

The Reviews widget on Home shows content waiting for review. It’s on Home by default.

• Review tab: items in Review where the person in the Home user filter is an approver. That’s you, unless you change the filter at the top of Home. Pick All users to see everything in Review.
• Edit tab: items in Edit status in your brands, whoever they’re assigned to.
• The brand filter at the top of Home limits both tabs to one brand.
• The colored chips, like Design 3 or Idea 1, filter by content type. Click one to show only that type. Click it again to show everything.
• Click an item to open it.

Each item shows its brand, and for designs and emails the date it’s scheduled for. When the list is empty, you’ll see All caught up.

See Your Home Page.

Review Alerts digest emails

Review Alerts are an email summary of everything waiting for someone’s review. Only Owners and Admins can turn them on, for each member.

1. Open the brand’s Settings tab.
2. Find Review Alerts (“Manage each member’s email digest of content waiting for their review”).
3. Turn on the toggle next to a member.
4. Under Frequency, pick Daily or Weekly.

Review Alerts are off for everyone until an Owner or Admin turns them on.

What the email includes:

• Items in Review where that person is an approver, grouped into Designs, AI Designs, Transcripts, Documents, Blogs, Marketing Emails and Content Ideas.
• Up to 10 items per group, with a link to each.
• Scheduled dates, where an item has one.

When it’s sent:

• Daily emails go out once a day, overnight (UTC).
• Weekly emails go out on Sundays (UTC).
• If nothing is waiting, no email is sent.
• Someone in several brands with Review Alerts on gets one email covering them all.

When someone is removed from a brand, their Review Alerts for that brand stop.

Quality checks when you move to Review

When you move a design, idea, transcript or marketing email to Review, Orsa runs your brand’s Quality Gate checks on it. The result shows as a badge next to Status. See Quality Gate.

Ideas for using reviews

Client sign-off for an agency. Make the client a default approver and turn on their daily Review Alerts.

Example: an agency invites tom@greenleafcafe.com as a Member. The account manager turns on Design and Marketing Email under his Default Approver Settings, and sets his Review Alerts to Daily. Every morning Tom gets one email with everything waiting for him.

Owner approves before anything goes out. In a two-person team, the owner approves the helper’s work.

Example: a florist’s assistant makes the week’s posts and moves each one to Review. The florist checks her Reviews widget on Home each afternoon and sets them to Approved or Edit.

A weekly check-in. Use Weekly Review Alerts for approvers who only look once a week, like a franchise owner.

Tips for the best results

• Set default approvers once. It saves picking approvers on every new design, document, transcript and email.
• Add approvers to ideas yourself. Ideas don’t get default approvers.
• Move to Review before you request. Request Review stays greyed out until the status is Review.
• Leave feedback as comments. Comments keep the “why” next to the content, so the maker knows what to change.
• Use Edit to send something back. It shows on the Edit tab of the Reviews widget, so it doesn’t get lost.
• Turn on Review Alerts for busy approvers. One email a day is easier than checking Orsa.
• Approval is a team agreement. It doesn’t stop anyone scheduling a design, so agree as a team to only schedule Approved content.

Common questions

Request Review is greyed out. Hover over it to see why. Assign at least one approver first means the item has no approvers. Set status to Review first means the status isn’t Review yet.

I see “This item has no approvers to notify.” The approvers were removed before you clicked. Add an approver and try again.

There’s no Request Review button on my blog or AI Design. Blogs and AI Designs don’t have one. Their approvers still see them in the Reviews widget and in Review Alerts emails while they’re in Review.

My approver didn’t get the email. Ask them to check their spam folder for “Orsa - Review requested”. The email goes to the address they sign in with.

An item isn’t in my Reviews widget. Check you’re an approver on it and its status is Review. Also check the Home filters: the user filter should show you (or All users), and the brand filter should include the item’s brand.

I turned on a default approver, but they weren’t added to an existing design. Default approvers only go on new content. Add them to existing items by hand.

I can’t find Review Alerts in Settings. Only Owners and Admins see the Settings tab and Review Alerts. Ask one of them to change your Review Alerts.

I didn’t get my Review Alerts email. It’s only sent when something is waiting for your review. Check an Owner or Admin has turned your toggle on.

Can only approvers approve? Yes, when the item has approvers: only they, or the brand’s Owner or Admins, can set it to Approved. If the item has no approvers, anyone in the brand can approve it.

The Approved option is greyed out for me. The item has approvers and you’re not one of them. Ask an approver, or an Owner or Admin, to approve it, or ask to be added as an approver.

Does an approved design get published automatically? No. Approving doesn’t schedule or publish anything. See Scheduling a Post.