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Vista Social supports approval workflows to ensure posts are reviewed before publishing. How posts are submitted for approval depends on the user’s publishing access level.
Learn how to submit posts for approval:
- For contributors
- For admins & users with manage access
- What happens after submitting a post for approval?
- How to track the status of a post in review status
For contributors
Contributors are team members whose posts always require approval. Here are the following actions that contributors can perform:
Create and submit posts for approval
Edit posts that are pending approval
Contributors cannot publish posts directly. Every post they create must go through approval.
How contributors submit a post for approval
Go to Create → New post and start creating your content.
Once you're done, choose a scheduling option (Schedule or Add to queue).
Click Next.
Select Send for approval.
Submit the post.
Once submitted, the post will appear in the calendar of someone with approval permissions with an Awaiting approval status until an approver reviews it.
Pro Tip We recommend assigning content creators Contributor access to Publishing. This access is set when inviting a team member and can be updated later in Settings → Team members. |
How approval workflows work for Contributors
Learn how to set a default approval workflow here: How to invite post contributors (users whose posts always require approval)
For admins & users with manage access
Users with Manage access (Admins or Publishing Managers) have more control over how posts are reviewed. Here are the following actions users with manage access can perform:
In addition to creating and publishing posts, they can:
Assign posts for review to a specific user or to an approval workflow
Manage and edit approval workflows
Approve or reject posts submitted by contributors
Assigning a post for review
After creating a post:
Choose a scheduling option → Assign.
Choose one of the following options below. This flexibility is the main difference between Contributors and users with Manage access: Assign to user (single-user approval) & Assign to workflow (single-step or multi-step approval)
Click Assign, then send the post for approval.
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And that's it! Your post is now queued and is awaiting approval.
What happens after submitting a post for approval?
Once you submit a post for approval, what happens next depends on the type of approval workflow assigned.
Single-step approval
With a single-step workflow, the post is sent to one approver (or group of approvers). As soon as that approver reviews and approves the post, it moves forward and publishes or gets scheduled.
Multi-step approval
With a multi-step workflow, the post must be approved in a specific order. After the first approver approves the post, it is automatically routed to the next approver in the workflow. This continues step by step until all required approvals are completed.
Only after the final approver approves the post will it be fully approved and allowed to publish.
How to track the status of a post in review status
Once you’ve submitted a post for approval, you can easily monitor its review status in Vista Social.
Where to check the review status
After submitting a post for review, it will appear on your calendar with a purple “Pending review” status. When you open the post, a banner at the top shows which team member or approval step is currently required, along with how long the post has been waiting for approval.
Viewing post history
To get more context, open the post’s post history, where you can see:
When the post was submitted for review
Who reviewed or approved it
Any rejection notes or feedback
Progress through multi-step workflows
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What happens if the post I submitted for review gets rejected or doesn't get reviewed?
A: If the post hasn’t been reviewed yet, it will remain in an Awaiting approval status and will not be published until all required approvals are completed.
For multi-step approval workflows, the post must be approved at each step before moving to the next reviewer. If any step is rejected, the approval process stops, and the post is returned for edits.
Once all required approvals are completed, the post will proceed based on its scheduled date and time.
Q: Can Contributors choose or change the approval workflow for a post?
A: No, Contributors cannot select or change approval workflows. All posts created by Contributors are automatically routed through the default approval workflow configured by an admin. This ensures that content follows the correct approval structure and prevents required review steps from being bypassed.
Need further help?
If you have questions about approval roles, workflows, or access levels, feel free to contact our support team. We’re happy to help 💙
Related Reading:
Creating approval workflows (single-step and multi-step)
Using shared calendars for external/client approvals (no login)
How to invite post contributors (users whose posts always require approval)
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