Approve your documents with ease using Plexus to track your workflow from end to end.
Video Tutorial: Approving on Plexus (Microsoft Word for Web editor)
Unlock the power of seamless contract approval within Plexus using our brand-new Microsoft Word for Web in-app editor. This 4 minute video demonstrates how to approve contracts with precision and ease, revolutionising your contract management process
Initiating a document approval
When a document is sent via Plexus for you to approve, you'll receive an email to let you know.
Once you receive an approve request email, you will be able to access and approve your Plexus documents from one of three places:
The email notification
You can click the Review and approve link in the email to get started
The Plexus dashboard
Find and click the the Approve notification on your Plexus Dashboard
The document list
Navigate to the correct document from your documents list.
From the resulting page, you'll have access to a workflow timeline where you can click Approve to progress the file.
Top tip! External counterparties approving work can only access Plexus from their email notification.
Alternatively, if you'd like to make changes, you can also view the document using the preview pane located directly below the workflow timeline.
Making changes on a document during the Approve stage
Editing a document
To make a change to the document in Plexus, click Edit document and make changes as outlined in more detail here. You may also be required to approve tracked changes from other collaborators.
Top tip! If your organisation is using Microsoft Word Online to edit a document, please refer to this guide instead.
Close the editing tab once you are done!
Where completing your edits, you'll have up to three 3 options to close the document at this workflow stage:
Send for review
Click to send the document back to the team at the Review stage of the workflow.
Restart approval stage
Clears all approvals, and sends a document back to the first approver.
No, continue workflow
Continues the workflow at the current stage.
You will also have the option to Notify other users of editing session.
Downloading and uploading a document
If you'd like to download the document to make changes outside of the platform, you can click the Download button to save the file on your device.
You may opt to make changes to the document if it's in an editable format, and you may opt to upload a new version to sync up your changes.
With the exception of some custom applications, if a new version is uploaded during the Approve stage, the document will be sent back to the start of the Approve stage clearing all prior approvals if a new version of a main document or sub-document is uploaded. The workflow timeline will advise in more detail once you have uploaded your file.
Comparing versions
As you begin to make changes to the document, you'll notice an option to Compare any two versions of that file side by side. Select any two versions using the checkboxes and click Run comparison.
Viewing previous versions of the document
Temporarily revert back to previous versions of the document by selecting it from the Version dropdown.
Adding comments
You can also add comments in the comments section.
Completing your approval
Click either Approve or Decline at the top of the page to progress your work to the next stage of the workflow.
If you approve a document, the document will send to the next required user in the workflow.
If your document has tracked changes, Plexus might prompt you with different messages depending on whether:
If other people need to approve the document...
Files with unresolved tracked changes can be Approved provided that you are not the last approver on the workflow. If you are not the last approver on the workflow, Plexus will prompt you to Approve with tracked changes.
By clicking Approve with tracked changes, the tracked changes will remain on the document for the next approver to review.
If the next stage of the workflow is Sign...
If you are the last defined approver on the workflow before a signing workflow, Plexus will prompt you to resolve tracked changes before the document progresses to the signing stage.
In this scenario, Accept all changes and approve will prompt Plexus to automatically accept all tracked changes in the document before progressing the document to the Signing stage.
Alternatively, you may opt to Review main document to manually review and accept the tracked changes on the document before progressing the workflow.
If the next stage of the workflow is Complete...
If there are no additional approvers required and there is no signing stage, the document will move to a Complete status. A document with tracked changes can be permanently saved with tracked changes in this state, and in the event that there are unresolved tracked changes on the file, Plexus will notify you of this ahead of time.
Click Approve with tracked changes to permanently save your file on Plexus with tracked changes.
Alternatively, you may opt to Review main document to manually review and accept the tracked changes on the document before progressing the workflow.
Note that any sub-documents also awaiting approval or with unresolved tracked changes will progress with your main document.
Reach out to our support team via live chat or at [email protected] for assistance with approving your documents.