> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.terminus.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Review and Approve Submissions

> Move submissions through draft, awaiting review, and approved; comment, get notified, and turn entries into records.

A submission is a staging area. Its entries become permanent records only when the submission is approved. How approval happens depends on one setting: whether the taxonomy requires review in that workspace.

<Info>
  With review **off** (the default), an editor approves 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 any plan.
</Info>

## The submission lifecycle

Every submission has one status at a time.

| Status              | Meaning                                                                                  |
| ------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Draft**           | Being edited. Saved and revalidated on every change.                                     |
| **Awaiting review** | Submitted and waiting for an admin to approve or reject. Only appears when review is on. |
| **Approved**        | Finalized. Its entries are now records, and it can no longer be edited.                  |
| **Rejected**        | Sent back by a reviewer. The author edits and resubmits.                                 |
| **Cancelled**       | Withdrawn before approval. Leaves no records.                                            |

The in-review state is labelled **Awaiting review** everywhere in the app.

Two paths lead to **Approved**:

* **Review off:** the author fills in the submission and clicks **Approve**. 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).

When review is on, there is no shortcut from draft straight to approved, not even for admins. Approval is always a separate step after **Submit for review**. For the full status reference and validation rules, see [Submissions](/reference/submissions).

## 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.

When review is required, you cannot approve your own submission unless you are also a workspace admin. That separation is the point of review: a second person signs off.

## Turn review on for a taxonomy

Review is set per taxonomy, per workspace, so the same taxonomy can require review in one workspace and skip it in another.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the workspace settings">
    Open the workspace and go to its assigned taxonomies.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Switch on Require review">
    In the assigned-taxonomies table, turn on **Require review** for each taxonomy that should be gated. New submissions for that taxonomy now go through review.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
  If the toggle is blocked with an upgrade message, your plan does not include review workflows. They are available on the **Business** and **Enterprise** plans. On **Free** and **Professional**, submissions are always approved directly with no review step.
</Note>

## Submit a draft for review

When a taxonomy requires review, the builder shows **Submit for review** in place of the direct **Approve** action.

<Steps>
  <Step title="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.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Submit for review">
    Click **Submit for review** and confirm. The submission moves to **Awaiting review** and waits for an admin.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  Editing a submission after it is in review (or after it has been rejected) returns it to **Draft**. The edited entries must be revalidated, and you have to submit for review again. This keeps a reviewer from approving a version they never saw.
</Warning>

## Review and approve (or reject)

Reviewers pick up work from the dashboard's **Awaiting review** queue, where each submission has a **Review** button, or from the submissions list filtered by **Awaiting review**.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the submission">
    From the review queue or the submissions list, open the submission and inspect its entries.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Leave feedback (optional)">
    Add a comment. When rejecting, explain what needs to change so the author can fix it, since rejection itself carries no message.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Approve or reject">
    Click **Approve** to finalize the submission, which creates the records and locks it, or **Reject** to send it back to the author for edits. Both ask you to confirm.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## 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](/reference/records) (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.
* Any new picklist options that submitters proposed in the entries are created as part of the same approval.

Approval is final. There is no "un-approve". To change something after approval, start a new submission that edits the affected record. Deleting an approved submission does not delete the records it already created.

## 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.
* Comments are permanent. There is no way to edit or delete one after posting, 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.

| Event                                               | Who is emailed                                         |
| --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| Submitted for review                                | The workspace's reviewers (admins) and the author      |
| Approved, rejected, cancelled, or returned to draft | The author                                             |
| New comment                                         | Everyone who has edited or commented on the submission |

Each email links straight to the submission so the recipient can act on it.

## 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.
* **Rejection carries no message of its own.** Leave a comment explaining the change before you reject, or the author only sees that it came back.
* **Turning review off is always allowed.** If you downgrade from a plan that included review workflows, the review setting simply stops applying and submissions can be approved directly again.

## Related

* [Submissions](/reference/submissions): the full status lifecycle and validation rules.
* [Records](/reference/records): what approved entries become and how records behave afterward.
* [Taxonomies](/reference/taxonomies): how a taxonomy is assigned to a workspace, where the review setting lives.