Approvals

What is the Marq Approval Process?

The Marq Approval process is a structured workflow that allows users to submit documents, templates, or projects for review and approval. This feature helps teams maintain quality control by ensuring that only approved content is published, distributed, or used. The approval process in Marq is especially useful for organizations with stringent brand, compliance, or quality requirements.

Key Benefits of Marq Approvals

Control and Compliance: Ensures that content meets brand, legal, or regulatory standards before going live.
Transparency: Provides a clear, auditable trail of each project’s approval history, including who reviewed it, the decisions made, and the dates of each action.
Efficiency: Reduces bottlenecks by automating notifications, reminders, and approvals, keeping projects on track.
Customizable Workflows: Set up approval stages that match your team’s review needs, such as multi-stage approvals or departmental sign-offs.

Core Components of the Approval Workflow in Marq

Marq’s Approval feature provides a flexible framework to set up custom approval workflows. Here are some of the core components:

Approval Stages: Each project can be set up with multiple stages, allowing for step-by-step approval from different teams or individuals.
Approval Statuses: Marq’s status tracking lets users see where a project is in the approval process—whether it’s pending, approved, or declined.
Approval Requests and Notifications: Automated requests and notifications prompt approvers when their input is needed, streamlining the communication around reviews.
Approval History: For each project, Marq maintains a detailed log of approvals, rejections, and any comments, providing full visibility into the review process.

Setting Up Approvals in Marq

To set up an approval workflow within Marq, follow these steps:

Access Approval Settings: Open the project you want to set up approvals for, and navigate to the approval settings.
Define Approval Stages: Choose the number of approval stages and assign the approvers responsible for each stage. You can set up a simple, single-stage approval or a multi-stage process for more complex workflows.
Add Approvers: Assign team members or roles as approvers for each stage. Each approver will receive notifications when their review is needed.
Customize Notifications: Set up email or in-app notifications to remind approvers when a document needs their review or when it has been approved or declined.
Start the Approval Process: Once a project is ready, submit it for approval. Approvers will be notified and can view, approve, or decline the project as needed.
Track Approval Status: Project creators and collaborators can view the approval status at each stage, including details on which steps are pending, completed, or declined.

For a detailed video walkthrough on setting up approvals in Marq, you can watch the following tutorial: Marq Approval Process Tutorial

Common Use Cases for Approvals

Marq Approvals can be tailored to various workflows across different departments and project types. Here are a few examples:

Marketing Campaigns: Ensure that all campaign assets go through brand and legal review before being published.
Sales Collateral: Implement an approval process for sales materials to maintain brand consistency and messaging standards.
Internal Policies: Set up a review process for internal documents to ensure compliance with company policies.
Event Materials: Approve materials for company events to guarantee consistency in branding and messaging.

Integrating Marq Approvals with Other Applications

For teams that work across multiple platforms, Marq offers a powerful API and webhook integration to enable real-time, bi-directional updates. You can set up integrations to receive approval requests in third-party applications and automatically update approval statuses back into Marq.

Using the Marq REST API for Approvals

The Marq REST API allows developers to interact with the approval process programmatically. Below are some key endpoints:

The Approval Object: Provides information about approval objects, including statuses, approval stages, and approver information.
Get Approvals for Project or Account: Retrieve a list of approvals associated with a specific project or account, which can be helpful for reviewing pending approvals or tracking historical records.
Get Project Details: Access project data, including approval requirements, as a reference for setting up or verifying approval workflows.
Get Specific Approval Status: Retrieve the status of a specific approval, such as “pending,” “approved,” or “declined.”
Update Approval Status: Update the status of an approval. This can be used to reflect actions taken in third-party applications back in Marq, ensuring that both systems stay in sync.

Setting Up Webhooks for Real-Time Approval Updates

Marq’s webhook functionality provides real-time notifications about changes in approval statuses. Use webhooks to automate workflows and keep your external applications up to date with Marq approval activities:

Approval Created Webhook: Receive notifications when a new approval is initiated. This can be used to trigger notifications or display new approval requests in third-party applications.
Approval Approved Webhook: Get notified when an approval is granted. This can be used to unlock content or trigger further actions within another application.
Approval Declined Webhook: Receive notifications when an approval is declined, allowing for tracking of issues or follow-up steps in other systems.

Example of a Bi-Directional Integration with Approvals

Receive Approval Requests: Use the approval_created webhook to send notifications to a third-party application (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams, or a custom dashboard) whenever a new approval request is created in Marq. This allows team members to review approval requests in their preferred platform.
Review and Update Approval Status in Third-Party Application: In the external platform, approvers can review the document or content needing approval. Once a decision is made, the application sends the updated status back to Marq using the update_approval endpoint.
Sync Status in Real-Time: Use the approval_approved and approval_declined webhooks to keep Marq and third-party applications in sync. Whenever the approval status is updated in Marq, the webhook sends a notification to the external system to update its records, ensuring that both platforms reflect the current approval state.

Helpful Links for Getting Started with Marq Approvals

Approval Process Overview: An in-depth overview of Marq’s approval functionality, including setup and best practices.
Defining Approvals: A guide on setting up custom approval workflows and assigning approvers.
Video Tutorial on the Approval Process: Watch a step-by-step video tutorial on using Marq’s approval process for content review and approval.