Document approval workflow

Some documents need sign-off before anyone acts on them — a method statement, a material submittal, a revised specification. The approval workflow tracks that formally.

info

Document approval depends on your plan. If you don't see the approval actions, the feature isn't enabled for your organization.

The four statuses

Every document starts as Draft.

Draft ──submit──▶ Under Review ──approve──▶ Approved ──reopen──┐
                       │                                        │
                       └────reject────▶ Rejected ──reopen───────┘
                                                                │
                       ◀────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                    (back to Draft)

From	Action	To	Who
Draft	Submit for review	Under Review	Manager or Collaborator
Under Review	Change reviewer	Under Review	Manager
Under Review	Approve	Approved	Manager
Under Review	Reject	Rejected	Manager
Approved / Rejected	Reopen	Draft	Manager

note

Transitions are strict. You can't approve a document that was never submitted, and you can't submit one that's already under review — Builddar refuses the action and tells you why.

Submit a document for review

Required role: Manager or Collaborator.

Prerequisites: the document must be in Draft.

1. Open the document.
2. Choose Submit for review.
3. Pick the reviewer.
4. Confirm.

Result: the document moves to Under Review, records who submitted it and when, and the reviewer is notified.

caution

The reviewer must be a Manager on the project (or an Organization Admin). Collaborators and guests can't be assigned as reviewers.

Change the reviewer

Required role: Manager.

1. Open a document that's Under Review.
2. Choose to assign a different reviewer.

Result: the new reviewer takes over and is notified.

Approve or reject

Required role: Manager (or Organization Admin).

1. Open the document under review.
2. Choose Approve or Reject.
3. Add a comment — optional when approving, required when rejecting so the author knows what to fix.
4. Confirm.

Result: the document moves to Approved or Rejected, records who reviewed it and when, and keeps your comment. The submitter is notified.

Reopen a document

Required role: Manager.

Reopening sends a document that was already decided back to the start — for example after a revised version is uploaded.

1. Open the Approved or Rejected document.
2. Choose Reopen.

Result: the document goes back to Draft, and the reviewer, review date, and review comment are cleared. Submit it again when the new revision is ready.

Follow what happened

Each document keeps an activity feed of every status change, upload, and share — who did what, and when. Open the document's activity to audit its history.

Next steps

• Work with versions
• Share documents