Project approvals: what did the client approve?

The drawing stays, the manual goes back to its author

Say a team hands the client a design drawing and an operating manual. A technical person on the client's side checks both files. They approve the drawing, and point out a passage in the manual that needs fixing. The project manager writes a general “approved” status on the board. A colleague taking over the project sees a finished review and does not know that the manual's author still has a task.

In the proposed app, the client opens both items in one place and replies to each separately. On the drawing, the team sees the approval and the file the client looked at. On the manual, the comment stays, with the person handling the fix. The project manager can pass the specific comment straight to the author, and show on the board that some items are still waiting for approval.

The author adds the corrected manual to the same matter. The client goes back to the earlier comment and assesses the new version. The decision on the drawing stays with the approved file; replacing the manual does not overwrite it. When someone later asks how the hand-over went, the project manager opens the right item together with the client's reply.

The client needs a simple place to give project approvals

The person checking the items may use your system only when a project is handed over. They should easily find the file to assess, the earlier comment and a place to reply. If a different person checks the manual from the one who checks the drawing, each needs access to their own items and a clear note of what the team expects from them.

For the project manager, a view of the whole hand-over helps: which file the team is fixing, and which is waiting for the client's reply. From there they can go to the author's task and the text of the comment. Such a view makes most sense when today you have to piece the project board together with emails and the file folder.

What you can do in your current tool

Power Automate supports approval requests with different response modes for approvers. Involving guest users requires conditions on the environment, settings and licences to be met. That is a starting point for a conversation with the administrator about your current approval flow.

In the project tool you use, check whether you can keep separate decisions for the drawing and the manual, and keep the file the client assessed. Having an approval feature does not settle how the current configuration handles replacing an attachment. If the information you need is already available, changing how the hand-over is run and setting up a view for the project manager may be enough.

An integration is a sensible purchase when the client has a convenient place to reply, and the team retypes decisions into tasks by hand. The reply on an item can be linked to its version and to the work of the person fixing the document. Your own app is worth considering when the available tools still force the client and the team to rebuild this history in several places. The scope can cover only handing over items, keeping the current board for day-to-day project work.

Open matters and later support

When you change tools, some items will already be approved and some will come back with comments. Moving such matters should keep the assessed files and the decisions with their right versions. The project manager needs to see what is still open. Older hand-overs can stay in an accessible archive.

When comparing offers, include support for clients who lost access or passed the review to a colleague, and upkeep of the connection to the project board. Settle who deals with a reply recorded in the portal that did not reach the task.

For your own app, agree ownership of the code and data, and access to the documentation a later supplier would need. The export should keep decisions together with the files they concerned, so the review can be rebuilt outside the portal.

How Syntalith can organise the approval of project items

As part of custom software and integrations, Syntalith can prepare a place for the client to review items and link their replies to the team's tasks. The project manager then gets a view of the remaining work, and a document's author can go back to the comment on a specific version. Your team sets which items it hands over, and agrees with the client who assesses them and when the review is finished.

Tell us about the last project where an “approved” status needed further explanation. On that example we will settle whether you need a change to the current flow, a connection between tools or your own view for the client. Syntalith's apps start from €3,000 net, and we set the scope after a free process review (pricing).

What a project approval system costs and when it pays back

Where to start

In the free process review we choose one process and count the team's volume and working time, and within 2 working days you get a written summary with a price. We build as part of AI apps, and we price maintenance separately.