Customer Approval Link

To send a file to your customer for approval you do not need to deal with e-mail attachments: you create one link and pass it on yourself. Your customer looks at the file without opening an account and either clicks Approve or Ask for changes.

Who can send one?

Signed-in members. If you are not signed in, the button is replaced by "Sign in to send this file to your customer for approval".

Steps to send

The file can be at most 25 MB and must really be a PDF. If the upload stops halfway, the link does not work yet; the screen says so and suggests Try the upload again.

What does your customer see?

• Your note, the file name and size, and the date until which the link is valid.
• Thumbnails of the pages, a large view and a Download the PDF button.
• Preflight notes: only the number of errors, warnings and info notes. They do not mean the file is fit for print.
• A Your decision section: a name (optional, at most 120 characters, not verified), an e-mail address (optional, at most 254 characters, not verified; if it is mistyped it is not sent), a comment (at most 2000 characters), Page notes (optional), Approve and Ask for changes. To ask for changes, the customer must write a comment or add at least one page note; either one is enough.

The decision is made once and cannot be undone. The customer sees "Your request for changes was saved.", together with the comment and notes they wrote. "Changes requested" is final; you cannot upload a corrected file to the same link, you send it as a new version (see below).

Page notes

When asking for changes, the customer can write notes for specific pages. A note is added in two ways: with Pin to the page the customer taps the spot for the note on the page (the page number is filled in automatically), or without a pin they use Add a note and write the page number and the note themselves. Pinned notes appear on the page with a numbered marker; on the keyboard, the Pin button on the row pins the note to the middle of the page, and the arrow keys move the pin.

• At most 20 notes can be added; when the limit is reached the page says "You can add at most 20 page notes."
• Each note is at most 300 characters and is turned into a single line. If several unpinned notes are written for the same page, " · " is put between them and the total is again limited to 300 characters; pinned notes are not merged and stay separate.
• The page number must be a whole number from 1 to 10000. A number typed by hand is not compared with the file's real page count; the server does not read the PDF. If the number is invalid on a row that has text, the customer cannot send. On a pinned note the number comes from the page shown; if the customer changes the number, the pin is removed.
• Notes are sent only with Ask for changes. If there is note text when the customer presses Approve, they are asked to delete the notes or choose Ask for changes.
• Notes are plain text only. A file cannot be attached to a note, and an area cannot be selected or a drawing made on the page; only a single point can be marked (the pin). The pages are drawn in the customer's browser; the pin and the note draft do not leave the browser until the decision is sent. If there is a request for the whole file, the customer writes it in the Your comment field.

Slow connections and failed previews

• Slow connection or data saver. If the customer's browser reports a slow connection or data saver, the pages are not loaded automatically, so the decision form can be used straight away. A Show pages (size) button with the file size appears; the pages load when it is pressed. On a normal connection they load by themselves.
• Previous and Next move through the pages in the large view.
• Preview fails. If the page preview cannot be loaded, the page says "The page preview could not be loaded. You can still approve or ask for changes below." If the PDF cannot be loaded, it asks the customer to check the connection and try again.
• Too many attempts. If the page is opened or a decision is sent too often in a short time, the customer sees "Too many attempts. Wait a moment and try again." and, when opening, a Try again button. Waiting a moment is enough.

What happens when changes are requested?

When the customer presses Ask for changes, only the member who created the request is notified; no notification goes to the other members of the organisation or to the customer.

• In-app notification: "Your customer asked for changes" and "Request: {title} · Page notes: {n}".
• E-mail: the subject is "Your customer replied to your approval request". The comment is shortened and comes with the first 10 page notes; any further notes are counted as "+N more". The button in the e-mail opens the PDF tools page.
• Customer approval status panel (under the workflow output): a "Changes requested" badge, "Customer's comment", "Customer's page notes" and a hint telling you what to do. If the customer entered an e-mail address, an "Email (as entered, not verified)" line also appears. The Show on the page button next to a pinned note opens a small preview of that page with the pins as numbered markers. The preview appears only in the browser that ran the workflow, while that run's file is still there; the file is not sent anywhere from this browser and is not saved.
• Approval links page (in the sidebar, for the organisation): the same decision, the first 5 of the page notes and "+N more". In the filter, "Changes requested" sits under Decided. The organisation owner and admins see all of the organisation's links; other members see only the ones they sent themselves.

Sending the corrected file as a new version

A request with changes requested is closed; a new file is not uploaded to the same link. Fix the file, run the workflow again, and when you send it, choose the old request from the Continues an earlier version list (None or "{title} · Version {n} · {date}"). The newest request with the same file name is suggested.

• The new version has a new link and a new access key; you pass the link on again yourself.
• On the new page the customer sees "Version {n}" and a "Changes you asked for on the previous version" section: the previous comment and page notes (without the name, only the last decision). Earlier pinned notes are drawn on the new page as numbers with a dashed outline.
• On a new version that is waiting for a decision, the customer sees a Compare with the previous version button. The previous file is downloaded only when this button is pressed and is not saved; the two versions are drawn in the customer's browser.
• The old request is marked "New version sent". One continuation version is opened from a request; if that version is cancelled or its file is never uploaded, you can continue from the old request again. A chain can have at most 20 versions.
• Only a request closed with "Changes requested" can be continued.
• The organisation's Approval links page does not show the version chain or the previous decision, only the "Version {n}" badge and the latest decision. For the version history, see the panel under the workflow output.

Following the status and cancelling

As a member you see the history in the Customer approval status panel: request created, link activated, customer opened the link (only the first opening is recorded), customer approved or asked for changes, link cancelled. Cancel the link closes the link and the customer can no longer open the file. A request that already has a decision can also be cancelled if it has not expired; the decision stays on record. An organisation admin can also cancel the link.

Sending to several approvers

You can send the same file to up to 3 people for approval. In the send form, turn on Several approvers and use Add approver to enter a name or a role for each person (e.g. Marketing). Only you and that approver see this name or role.

• Every approver gets their own link. Each approver receives only their own link; send each link to that person only. The links are shown only once, when they are created. If you lose one, use Create a new link for that approver in the status section.
• Approved when all approve. The status appears as "2/3 approved"; when everyone has approved it becomes "All approved".
• If one asks for changes. The status shows "Changes requested" and the name of the person who asked. The other links become "Stopped" and no longer take a decision; the approvers see the note "Another approver asked for changes". Send the corrected file as a new version. If you send it as a continuation of an earlier version, the names come from that earlier version; check them before sending. If "Several approvers" is off, the new version goes to one approver only.
• Cancelling one by one. You can cancel one approver's link separately; that person's decision stays on record. When a link is cancelled or expires, the status becomes "Closed".

When the time runs out

When the link expires, the customer's page says so (or, if a decision had been made, only shows the outcome: approved or changes requested). The PDF, the comment and the name are no longer shown to the customer. As a member you still see the full record.

If the customer has not decided yet, Create a new link gives you a new link (even if the old one has expired). The old link stops working at once. Only the member who created the request sees this button. After the customer has decided, no new link is created; if changes were requested, you send a new version.

Expiry reminder

If a link that is waiting for a decision is going to expire within 48 hours, a check that runs once a day sends a reminder to the member who created the request: an in-app notification and an e-mail, "Your approval link is about to expire". The reminder does not go to the customer and does not contain the link itself or anything the customer wrote. It is sent at most once for each expiry date. The button opens the Approval links page and highlights the row as "From your reminder"; from there you can press Create a new link. No reminder is sent for a request that has a decision, is cancelled, or has already expired. We do not promise at what time of day the reminder arrives.

Approval record

For an approved request a Download the approval record button appears: on the customer page (while the link is open), in the status panel and on the Approval links page. The record is a plain-text (.txt) file; it is not a PDF. It contains the file name, its SHA-256 digest, the version, the decision, the time of the decision, and the approver's name and e-mail (as entered, not verified). It has no comment, page notes or page content. It is not a legal signature. After the link is closed it cannot be downloaded from the customer page.

For a job sent to several approvers, the record on an approver's own page covers only that approver's decision. Once everyone has approved, you can download a combined record that includes all the approvers.

What it does not do

• It does not send an e-mail or notification to the customer; you pass the link on. The decision notice and the expiry reminder go only to the member who created the request.
• It does not verify the customer's name or e-mail address.
• It does not change the original PDF; it is stored as it is.
• It does not say "ready" on the strength of the preflight notes.
• When you delete your account, your requests and files are deleted.