Forwarding for Approval or Feedback

Forwarding for Approval or Feedback

Sometimes it makes sense to forward an approval off to someone else for feedback. This person may or may not be included in the original Approval Request, but you might like to use their feedback to inform your own decision-making.  

Once someone has sent work to you to review, click the blue Forward button. From this screen, you may have the option to either Forward for Approval or Forward for Feedback: 

What's the difference between Approval and Feedback?

Some organisations give you the choice on whether you can forward for approval or feedback. Others do not. If you have the choice, it may be helpful to be aware of the difference between the two options. 

Essentially, both options provide users with an approval screen, with the ability to add comments and mark up to work. However, there are slight differences with how this feedback is 'approved' and sent back to you. 

• Forward for Approval provides users with with the option to add mark-ups, approve or request changes, just as you can on your current screen. You might forward for approval to another colleague or boss.

  

• Forward for Feedback provides users with access to a similar approval screen where they may add mark-ups, or provide feedback on the item before sending it back to you. The only difference between screens is that feedback may be marked as positive, neutral or negative. Usually feedback is used to inform your own approval. You might forward for feedback to another colleague, or even a legal team.

 

Simple vs Advanced Screens

Once you click either Forward for Approval or Forward for Feedback, you’ll be redirected to a new screen where you’ll be able to choose who to forward the item to. From here, you'll have the option to use either the Advanced or Simple screen to send your work off.

The simple screen looks like this:

The advanced screen looks like this:

This guide will walk you through both options. You can toggle between the Simple and Advanced screens in the top right hand corner of your screen as you need to. 

If you decide to change your view halfway through filling out your fields, admation will carry across any of your current inputs so that you won't lose your work! Admation will also remember your preferred screen for next time.

Fill in the fields as follows. This part can be a bit tricky for a first time user, so we'll walk you through the fields now.

Adding Your Approvers

The approvers section on the simple screen allows you to add the individual or group of people that you would like to review and give feedback on your artwork. Type in someone's name to add them to the forwards recipient list. 

From the advanced screen, you will need to click either the pen tool or the edit approvers button  to edit or add your approvers.

From the advanced view, you have the added luxury of choosing from a list of admation users, using the Project Team, Users and System Groups tabs at the top of your screen. Click the green arrows  on the resulting screen to add to your forwards recipient list, or click the red cross  next to a person's name if you make a mistake.

You can also forward to external users by clicking the External Users tab at the top of the screen. This function is only available from the Advanced Screen. If you would like additional help forwarding work to someone outside the admation system, visit this guide. 

You can also view our alternative guide for using our continuous, any and all approval features or our guide on using approval levels if you’d like to add some complexity to the approval workflow here. Otherwise, simply add the names of the individuals or groups in this section. Every user on Approval Level 1 will see the artwork first.

Applying a Deadline for Forwarding Recipients

From either screen, click Set Deadlines . 

From the advanced screen, you can also click the pen icon next to the appropriate heading.

Then specify the deadline of the forwarded approval request. This specifies how long your recipients have to respond to you. You can also schedule up to three automatic reminders, which will notify the approver(s) of the pending approval request as the deadline approaches. Click Done.

 

Adding Messages to your Forward Request

Each recipient is sent an email notification and in-system message with a link to the approval artwork by default. You can also add an optional personalised message to go along with this notification. Type out your quick message using the allocated text box on your screen.

Adding Attachments to your Forward Request

Any supporting documentation you’d like to include with your work can be added under the attachments section. It might help to further inform your approvers about why you’ve made the design or marketing decisions you have made in your submission. These attachments will also be sent in the email notification.

You can either Browse and upload files from your computer, or you can Select Project Documents which will bring up a list of any documents that were uploaded to your admation project.

From the advanced screen, you can click the pen icon  to browse and load your files.

Additional Features on the Advanced Screen

The advanced screen also has additional features that are not available under the simple screen. Keep reading to find out more! 

Including Your Annotations in Your Forward Request

The Advanced Screen also has the ability for you to create markups to draw attention to parts of the work you want your reviewers to consider, and perhaps provide feedback on. To include your comments and annotations, click the button that says Include My Markups. If you had made any annotations on the work before clicking forward, they will show here.

You may also like to create new annotations – only for your approvers to see. To create new annotations, click the pen icon  and use the mark up tools at the bottom of the screen to make your comments. Click Done once you're happy with your inputs.

Some users prefer to forward items without their annotations. This is done by default. 

 

Adding Region Masks to Your Forward Request

Region masks are an advanced feature available only from the Advanced Screen.  A region mask refers to a black box that hides or conceals an element of your artwork from your reviewers. You can apply custom region masks on your artwork per-approver. To add a region mask, ensure that you have added at least one approver to your forward, then click the edit pen icon   next to the appropriate heading.

To apply a region mask, select a person's name from the list along the left hand side of your screen. Then select the square tool from the bottom of the screen. It will turn blue once selected. Then drag and drop your mouse from left-to-right over the area you wish to conceal. Click OK to confirm your region mask for that user. Repeat this step as necessary until all required region masks have been applied for each individual or group. Once you have applied the appropriate region masks to all users, then Done to save your changes.

You can also check out this guide for additional assistance on adding region masks.

Submitting your Forward Request

Review your selections, then click Submit to forward the artwork. Admation will take you back to the approval. You will be able to see the current status of the job from the Forwards tab on this screen.

Click Show All Reviewers to see everybody on the approval path, then click Exit once you are ready to leave the page. Note that you do not need to click Approve or Changes until you have heard back from these stakeholders.

 

Adding a Manual Approval to your forward request

Manual Approvals gives greater control to you when feedback for an approval request will be received, this feature enables you to lock and unlock an approval request whenever needed.

Similar functionality has now been added to Forwarded Approval Requests.

When you forward on an approval request, you will be able to manually lock the request, which prevents additional feedback coming in after you have already processed the request yyourself. If needed, you can unlock the request again to allow feedback to come in once more. 

From here, you may like to:

• view the approval status of the work that's been forwarded for approval or feedback
• learn how to lock your approvals once you no longer wish to receive feedback from your forwards, or
• read up on how to collate feedback from stakeholders once they respond.