Approvals

Approvals turn "did the client ever OK this?" into a record. You put an item in front of the client — a design, a document, a deliverable — and they record a decision on it in the portal: Approve, Request changes, or Decline. No more sign-offs buried three replies deep in an email thread.

Setting up approvals on a project

Approvals live on the project's Approvals tab (and the matching tab in the client portal — both sides see the same thing). Organise items into folders (they nest, so "Brand → Logo → Round 2" works), then add items and put what needs the decision in front of the client.

An item can be a file (PDF, image, document), a link (a Figma page, a Google Doc, a staging site) or a file from your cloud storage (Google Drive today; OneDrive and SharePoint are coming). Every version carries a "What should they approve?" note, because the approver may land on a page that holds far more than the bit that needs their eyes: "the hero section and pricing table only — ignore the footer". Links sit in folders and go through versions exactly like files.

Picking a file from Google Drive

If a Google account with Drive is linked to the project (under Settings → Integrations), the Google Drive tab searches it for you. Pick the file and it's added as a link; the file stays in Drive.

Ambital then checks who the file is shared with. If an approver can't open it, you'll see "Steve may not be able to open this" with a link to the file in Google, so you can fix the sharing before they hit "I'm unable to access this link". Ambital only reads your Drive, so it never changes sharing for you. A Google group can give someone access that Ambital can't see, so treat the warning as a prompt to check rather than a certainty.

Who's approving

On a new approval, or on an existing one with Edit next to Who's approving, add the people who need to sign off. Each person shows as a name tag; click the × to take them off. Nobody is added for you — if you raised the approval, you're not an approver unless you add yourself.

How many must approve

With two or more people, choose How many must approve:

• Everyone — all of them must approve (the default);
• Any one — one approval is enough;
• 2 of 3 (or any number in between) — a set number of yeses.

Whatever you choose, one Request changes or Decline still holds the item. A yes never outvotes a no.

Approving in rounds

Sometimes one person should sign off before anyone else sees it — your day-to-day contact first, then their director. Click + Add another round and put people in Round 1, Round 2 and so on. Each round has its own How many must approve.

• Round 1 is asked as soon as the item is sent. Round 2 isn't emailed, and can't answer, until Round 1 has approved. When it's their turn, they're told automatically.
• If someone in Round 2 opens the item early, they see Your turn comes after round 1 and can still comment.
• The approvals list shows where each item is, e.g. round 2 of 2.
• The item is approved when the last round approves.

When you add a new version to an item with rounds, you choose what happens (set it when you edit the approvers):

• Start again from round 1 (the default), so nobody signs off a version they haven't seen; or
• Keep rounds that already approved, and only re-ask from the round that hadn't. If someone in an earlier round objects to the new version, their objection still counts.

Rounds are on Business Pro and above. Choosing people and How many must approve work on every plan that has approvals.

Versions are immutable

Each item holds a stack of versions. When feedback comes back and you upload a new version:

• the new version supersedes the old one and the item resets to Pending;
• earlier versions stay exactly as they were, with their decisions attached.

That history is the point — you can always show which version was approved, by whom, when.

Compare versions side by side

On an item with two or more versions, Compare versions opens two panes with a version picker on each — the shipped or approved version on the left, the latest on the right by default. Images and PDFs render inline; when both sides are images, Wipe overlays one on the other with a slider so a changed detail jumps out. Link versions (Figma, a Google Doc) show their cards, since they can't be rendered here. The client has the same view in the portal and on their emailed sign-off page.

Pin a comment to a spot

Click anywhere on an image or a PDF page and a numbered pin drops with a note box. A pin remembers the version, page and position, so it stays where you put it at any size and never floats onto a later version. Pins appear on the page, in a list beneath it with Resolve and Reopen, and as a Pinned badge in the thread.

Everyone involved can pin — you in the panel, the client in the portal or from their emailed link. Word and PowerPoint files show a download card rather than a viewer, so comments on those go in the thread.

The version that shipped

For campaign deliverables, the approved version can be locked as the version that shipped — automatically when the client approves an item created from a deliverable, or when you mark the deliverable shipped. A later upload doesn't replace it: the item reads Locked v2 · Draft v3 pending everywhere, and unlocking asks for a reason that goes into the decision history. See Campaigns.

Several at once

Tick the boxes on the approvals list to select several, then add an approver to all of them in one go, or delete them. Adding keeps whoever is already named on each item (in Round 1 if they're new).

Who can answer

The people named on an item answer it. A client needs the Approve permission on their portal user to answer in the portal (or the emailed link below). Reviewing without deciding is also a valid setup for stakeholders who should see but not sign: name them nowhere and they can still read and comment.

Recording an answer for someone

When a client says yes on the phone or in a meeting, open the item and choose them under Record an answer for, then Approve, Request changes or Decline. It counts as their answer, in their round, and the history shows it as recorded by you. You can only record answers for people in the round being asked now (or an earlier one).

Comments and supporting material

Every item carries a comment thread, so the "can we make it bluer?" conversation lives on the item it's about — next to the version it refers to.

Either side can also add supporting files and links to an item: you might attach last year's brochure for comparison; the client might upload their marked-up PDF, or link the page they'd rather you used. These sit alongside the decision rather than in the version history — adding one never resets the item's status.

What the client does in the portal

On each approval the client can Approve, Request changes or Decline (a note is required for the last two, so you always know why), then comment, and upload their own document or add a link with their response.

Sign-off by email, without the portal

Some clients would rather not log in anywhere. Set the project's client sign-off to By email — in the new-project wizard, or later under Settings → Tabs — and approvals stop needing the Client Portal tab at all.

Each named approver then gets their own emailed link when you add an item (and whenever you click Email sign-off links on it). With rounds, only the round being asked gets a link; the next round's links go out when their turn comes. The link opens a page that shows the item, its versions, supporting material, the decision history and the comment thread, and lets them Approve, Request changes or Decline, and comment. It works exactly like the portal underneath: the decision is recorded against the version with their name, the item's status updates the same way, and you're notified the same way.

A few rules keep this safe:

• The link is personal: one per approver per item. Someone else's link can't act as them.
• It expires after 60 days. Clicking Email sign-off links again sends fresh links and retires the old ones.
• Approvers need an email address on their project member record — the item panel tells you if anyone couldn't be reached.

The Email sign-off links button is there on every project, not only email-sign-off ones, so a portal client who's dragging their feet can be nudged with a direct link too.

Where decisions surface

Pending approvals appear on the client's portal dashboard ("Approvals waiting") so they can't miss them — only for people whose round it is — and decisions notify you in-app and by email per your notification preferences.

Which plan

Sending work for approval is on Pro and above. Clients approving from an emailed link without logging in is on Business and above, and the client portal and approvals in rounds are on Business Pro and above. If your plan changes, approvals that already exist stay open and your client can still answer them. See Plans and billing.

Tip: one decision per item. "Homepage design" gets a cleaner yes/no than "all seven pages" — bundles invite the reply "yes except…", which is exactly the ambiguity approvals exist to kill.