Approval Workflow

How It Works

The approval workflow adds a review step between scheduling and publishing. When it is enabled, scheduled posts wait for an external person to approve them before they go live.

Enabling Approval

1. Create or edit a post as usual
2. Turn on Require External Approval in the post editor
3. Enter up to 5 approver email addresses. Approvers can be anyone (a client, manager or colleague) and don't need a PostRite account. Every approver receives their own review link, and any one of them can approve or reject. The first response decides. If your organization has a default approver email configured (Settings → General), it is filled in automatically
4. Set your desired schedule date and time
5. Click Schedule Post

The post is saved with Pending Approval status instead of going directly to Scheduled. The scheduled time must be more than an hour in the future, because approval links expire one hour before publishing and a closer time would leave no time to review. If you turn the approval toggle off on a pending post, the post is scheduled directly and any open review links stop working.

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Sending a Batch for Approval

Instead of enabling approval on posts one at a time, you can send several scheduled posts for review as a single batch. This is useful when a client or manager needs to sign off on a whole week or campaign at once.

1. On the List tab of Posts, tick the scheduled posts you want to group (up to 20). The checkbox is next to each post that can go in a batch
2. Click Request approval, enter one or more approver emails, and send

Every approver receives one link that lists all the posts. They can approve, request changes, or reject each post individually, or use Approve all remaining to approve the whole set in one click. You receive a single summary once the batch is fully reviewed, not one email per post. Only posts scheduled more than an hour in the future can be added to a batch.

The Approver Experience

The person you choose as approver receives an email with:

• A summary of the post content
• Which platforms it will be published to
• The scheduled date and time
• A preview of attached media (images/videos)
• Your organization name and who created the post

The email contains a secure link that opens a review page. This PostRite-branded page adapts to the approver's browser language (English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, or Greek) and shows:

• The full post content, hashtags, and media gallery
• Per-network previews: the post as it will appear on each connected platform (Instagram feed/Reel/Story, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and so on), with phone and desktop mockups
• The scheduled date and time, including the timezone it refers to

From there, the approver can:

• Approve: the post moves to Scheduled status and publishes at the planned time
• Request changes: the post goes back to the creator with a note describing what should change. The creator edits and resubmits it on the same approval timeline
• Reject: the post moves to Rejected status, with an optional note explaining why

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Post Statuses

When you use the approval workflow, your post goes through these statuses:

After a Rejection

If your post is rejected, you receive an email notification with the approver's feedback (if they wrote a note). You can then:

1. Open the rejected post
2. Review the rejection note
3. Click "Edit" and change the content, media, or platforms as needed
4. Click Resend for Approval to send a new approval request

Each resubmission generates a new approval link, and previous links stop working automatically.

Approval History

Every step of the approval workflow is recorded and shown as a timeline in the post detail view: when the request was sent, each time it was resent, and when it was approved, rejected (including the rejection note), or expired. This gives you a complete record of who reviewed what and when.

Token Expiration

Approval links expire automatically for security:

• Links expire 72 hours after being sent by default, or one hour before the scheduled publish time, whichever comes first. Each organization can set the lifetime from 24 to 168 hours in Settings → General
• When a pending link is about to expire (about 24 hours before), the approver automatically receives a reminder email with the same link. While the organization's subscription is restricted, reminders are not sent
• If the link expires with no response, the post is marked as Rejected with its approval state shown as Expired, and it does not publish
• You are notified by email whenever an approval request expires. A batch that expires sends one summary instead of one email per post
• You can resend the approval email at any time, even after the link expired, and a new link replaces the old one. The post detail also shows when the current link expires

Notifications

Both the post creator and the approver receive email notifications at key moments:

Security

The approval workflow includes these security measures:

• Private links: each approval link is unique and cannot be guessed, so only the person you emailed can open the review page.
• One-time decision: once the post is approved or rejected, every approver's link stops accepting actions and shows the outcome instead. With multiple approvers, the first response decides.
• Auto-expiration: links expire after your organization's configured lifetime (72 hours by default) or before the scheduled time, so old requests don't stay open. Media preview links have the same maximum lifetime.
• No account required: approvers don't need to create an account or log in to review a post.
• Content privacy: the review page shows only the post content and media previews, and nothing else from your workspace.

Use Cases

• Client approval: social media agencies can send posts to clients for sign-off before publishing
• Manager review: team members can send posts to managers for approval
• Compliance: regulated industries can require legal or compliance review before posting
• Brand consistency: make sure all content meets brand guidelines before it goes live

Frequently Asked Questions