With review off (the default), an editor finalizes a draft directly and its entries become records right away. With review on, the editor submits the draft for review and a workspace admin approves or rejects it. Turning review on is plan-gated; approval itself works on every plan.
The submission lifecycle
A submission is a Draft while you edit it, Awaiting review once submitted (only when review is on), and Approved once its entries are records. A reviewer can send it back as Rejected, and you can withdraw it as Cancelled, which leaves no records. When it is not awaiting review, anyone who can edit it can use Cancel submission in the builder toolbar. While it awaits review, someone who can cancel but not reject it uses Cancel in its row menu on the submissions list. For the full status reference and validation rules, see Submissions. Two paths lead to Approved:- Review off: the author fills in the submission and clicks the builder’s main button, which is named after what it produces: Create URL or Create record (plural for several entries), or Update … when the submission edits existing records. Entries become records immediately.
- Review on: the author clicks Submit for review. The submission waits as Awaiting review until an admin clicks Approve (creating records) or Reject (sending it back).
Who submits and who approves
Roles come from each person’s access to the workspace that owns the submission.- Editors (and above) create submissions, fill in entries, and submit for review.
- Workspace admins (and account owners or admins) approve and reject when review is on.
Turn review on for a taxonomy
Requires the Business plan or higher. See Plans and limits.
1
Open the workspace settings
Open the workspace’s settings and find Assigned taxonomies. (The same table appears in a taxonomy’s settings, listing the workspaces it is assigned to.)
2
Switch on Require review
In the Require review column, turn the switch on for each taxonomy that should be gated.
3
Save
Click Save changes. New submissions for that taxonomy now go through review.
Submit a draft for review
When a taxonomy requires review, the builder shows Submit for review in place of the direct create action.1
Fill in the submission
Enter your campaigns in the builder. Every entry must be valid before you can submit. For a campaign URL builder, that means each row has its
utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, and any other required fields filled in correctly.2
Submit for review
Click Submit for review and confirm. The submission moves to Awaiting review and waits for an admin.
Review and approve (or reject)
Reviewers find waiting work on the Approvals page, opened from the sidebar, where a badge shows how many submissions are waiting. It lists the submissions awaiting review that you can approve: in every workspace for account owners and admins, otherwise in the workspaces where you are a workspace admin. Search by submission name, taxonomy, or workspace, and click a row to open the submission. The dashboard’s Awaiting review block shows the five most recent of the same submissions, with See all linking to the Approvals page when there are more. You can also filter a workspace’s submissions list by Awaiting review. On a plan without review workflows, the Approvals entry shows a lock and the page explains the upgrade.1
Open the submission
From the Approvals page, the dashboard, or the submissions list, open the submission and inspect its entries.
2
Approve or reject
Click Approve to finalize the submission, which creates the records and locks it. Click Reject to send it back to the author for edits: enter a Reason saying what needs to change, then confirm. The reason is posted to the submission as a comment and emailed to the author. The Approvals page and the dashboard offer the same Approve and Reject buttons on each row, so you can act without opening the submission.
What approval produces
Approving is the whole point of the workflow: it turns the submission’s entries into permanent records.- Each entry becomes a record (or updates the record it was editing). For a campaign URL builder, that record carries the entry’s UTM values and any generated tagged URL, short URL, and QR code.
- Approval requires every entry to be valid. If any entry has errors or is unvalidated, approval is blocked, the submission stays a draft, and the per-cell errors are shown so you can fix them.
- The submission and its records are pinned to the governance-model revision in effect at approval.
Plan checks at submit and approve time
Two plan checks run when a submission goes live (submitted for review or approved), never while you save a draft. If one fails, your work stays saved as a draft.- Records per submission. Your plan sets how many records a single submission can carry. See Plans and limits.
- Automated picklists. A taxonomy that uses an automated picklist can’t go live unless your plan includes automated picklists.
Comment on a submission
Every submission has a comment thread shared by the author and reviewers, shown as Comments in the builder.- Type in the Write a comment… box and send the comment. Comments can be up to 2,000 characters. Press Enter to post; Shift+Enter adds a line break.
- Anyone who can view the workspace can read the thread. Anyone who can edit it can post.
- You can comment on a submission in any status, including approved.
- There is no way to edit or delete a comment in the app, so review before you send.
Email notifications
Terminus Hub emails the relevant people as a submission moves through its lifecycle. The person who took the action is never emailed about their own action. These are emails only; there is no in-app inbox.
Each email links straight to the submission so the recipient can act on it. No emails are sent while the account is locked; see Locked accounts.
Gotchas
- Editing after submitting resets the status to Draft. Any change to a submission that is awaiting review or was rejected sends it back to draft. Resubmit after editing.
- Approved submissions are immutable. Correct an approved record through a new submission that edits it, not by reopening the original. There is no un-approve.
- Approval needs every entry valid. One invalid or unvalidated entry blocks the whole submission. The blocked entries show their errors so you can fix them and try again.
- Only admins approve when review is on. Editors create and submit; approving and rejecting need a workspace admin (or an account owner or admin). You cannot approve your own submission unless you are also a reviewer.
- Rejecting asks for a reason. From the Approvals page, the dashboard, or the submission itself, Reject requires a reason, which reaches the author as a comment. The row menu on a workspace’s submissions list still rejects with only a confirmation, so leave a comment first if you reject from there.
- Edit an awaiting-review submission with Convert to draft. While a submission awaits review, the builder’s Save as draft becomes Convert to draft, which saves your edits and moves the submission back to Draft. Someone who can edit it but not approve it sees only that button.
- Turning review off leaves only Approve. If a taxonomy stops requiring review while a submission is still awaiting it, the submission can be approved but not rejected. On the Approvals page and the dashboard, Reject is disabled and hovering it explains why; in the builder, the main button finalizes the submission.
- After a downgrade, turn review off. If your plan no longer includes review workflows but a taxonomy still has Require review on, submissions for it can’t be submitted for review, and they can’t be approved directly either. An admin needs to switch Require review off to unblock the team.
Related
- Submissions: the full status lifecycle and validation rules.
- Work with records: find, clone, edit, and delete records after approval.
- Records: record columns, limits, and export format.
- Workspaces: assign taxonomies to a workspace, where the review setting lives.