How to set up a post approval workflow for your team
An approval step catches mistakes before they go out on your brand's account, as long as it stays light. Decide who needs approval, keep approvers few, agree on what they check, and send posts back with a reason.
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The first time someone other than you posts on your brand's account, three questions come up: who checks the caption, who decides when it goes out, and what happens if nobody looks before it does. An approval step answers all three. Set up badly, it also turns a quick post into a week of waiting, so the goal is the lightest process that still catches the mistakes that matter.
Decide who needs approval
Not everyone needs to pass through a gate. A split that works for most small teams:
- people still learning the brand voice, such as new hires, interns, and freelancers, write drafts that someone approves
- people who own the account publish directly
- people who only need to see the plan can read the calendar without editing it
In eksis this maps onto roles. A Contributor can create and edit drafts, but their posts wait for approval before anything goes live. An Editor can schedule and publish posts and answer the inbox. Admins and the Owner can approve posts, as well as manage members and connected accounts. A Viewer can only read.
Keep the number of approvers small
One approver per account is usually enough, with a named stand-in for holidays. Two approvers who each wait for the other is how a post planned for Monday goes out on Thursday, or not at all.
Make the approver someone who is around on the days posts go out. Approval only works if it happens before the scheduled time, not after.
Agree on what an approval checks
A short checklist that everyone knows keeps approvals fast and stops them from turning into rewrites:
- Facts: prices, dates, links, names, and spelling of product names.
- Voice: does it sound like the brand?
- Account and time: is it going to the right channel at the right moment?
- Media: the crop, any text inside the image, and the right to use the photo.
- Context: could it be read the wrong way next to today's news?
If a post passes all five, approve it, even if you would have phrased it differently. Taste is a reason to talk about the brand voice later, not a reason to block today's post.
Send it back with a reason
When a post is not ready, say exactly what needs fixing. In eksis a rejection cannot be sent without a note, and the post goes back to the author's drafts with that note attached. "Not quite" costs another round. "Use the new price, 45 not 40" gets fixed in a minute.
Make waiting posts easy to find
Every channel in eksis has an Approvals tab alongside Queue and Drafts, and a post waiting for review is marked Awaiting approval until someone acts on it. Pick a time each day to clear the tab, so authors know when to expect an answer and nobody has to chase approvers in chat.
Keep a record
Sooner or later someone asks who said yes to a post. eksis records approvals and rejections in the workspace audit log, along with who made them, so the answer takes a few seconds to find instead of a search through old messages.
Know when to remove the gate
Approval works best as training for new people and as a safety check for sensitive accounts, not as a permanent queue for everyone. Once a contributor's drafts stop needing changes, move them to Editor and let them publish.
Post approvals are part of every paid plan, starting with Starter. The Free plan has a single seat, so there is nobody else to approve for. The pricing page lists how many people each plan holds, and if your team also shares the inbox, read how to answer comments and DMs from every platform.
