Multi-step approval workflow for social media

Order stages by who is cheapest to interrupt. Your own editor is the cheapest, so they go first; the client is the most expensive, so they go last and only see posts your team has already cleared. That way the client is never asked to review a draft with a typo.

A three-stage chain covers most agencies: (1) an account manager or editor reviews copy and media, (2) a senior manager checks the post against the brief and the client rules, (3) the client approves. Regulated accounts may insert a legal or compliance stage before the client.

Resist the urge to add stages. A chain is only as fast as its slowest reviewer, and each stage is another place a scheduled post can stall.

A chain is configured on the client. It is an ordered list of stages, up to six, and each stage names who clears it: an internal reviewer (an Owner or Manager, deciding in the console) or a guest (the client, deciding through a signed link with no SkedCast account). A client with no chain configured gets one internal stage, which is the ordinary single approval.

When a post is submitted for approval, SkedCast creates one stage row per stage in the chain. The current stage is the first one still pending. When a stage approves, the next opens. When the last approves, the post is released: its held destinations move from draft to scheduled and publish on their schedule, or immediately if the time has already passed.

A "request changes" or "reject" at any stage settles the whole request. The post stays an unpublished draft, the reviewer's comment (required for both) goes to the author, and later stages are left pending because nobody asked them.

For a guest stage, an Owner or Manager mints a signed, expiring link for the pending approval (validity from one hour to seven days, defaulting to 72 hours) and can email it to the reviewer. The client opens it in a browser with no account. The page is branded with the agency's name and shows the post's copy, media and the platforms it will go to.

The client can approve, request changes or reject; a comment is required for the last two. Once decided, the link shows the result read-only, so an old email cannot be used to flip a decision.

Yes. An Owner (not a Manager) can approve and skip the remaining reviewers, for example when a client is unreachable and the post is urgent. The skip is recorded against the stages it passed, with who did it, and the approval history shows it. The design goal was that a chain whose skips are hidden would claim client sign-off that never happened.

Approval is only meaningful if the approved text is what publishes. Through the API's revise route, editing the content of an approved, still-scheduled post returns the whole post to review, because approval is recorded per post rather than per destination. A schedule-only change does not, since nothing that was approved changed.

Add the client, then set its approval chain (an ordered list of internal and guest stages) in the client settings. Optionally mark the client as requiring approval so that every post for it, including bulk imports, must go through the chain and a Member cannot publish that client's content unreviewed.

Members write and submit posts. Owners and Managers decide in the Approvals queue; each row has Approve and Reject, and a Share link that mints the client's guest link. Authors and reviewers are notified in-app and by email, and outbound webhooks (approval requested, decided, withdrawn) let your own systems follow along.

For the roles and what each can do, see client access levels.

Chain depth and pricing gates vary. Sprout Social's workflows can have several steps with any-or-all sign-off per step on Professional and Advanced; Planable's multi-level approvals are an Enterprise feature; Hootsuite lets Super Admins set up to three layers. All read from vendor pages on 2026-09-23; see how Sprout Social's workflow works and how others compare for the detail and links.

Last reviewed 2026-09-23. Every statement about another vendor's product was read from the vendor's own page listed here on that date, and every statement about SkedCast was checked against the product's code and docs. Vendors change plans and features without notice, so confirm on their page before you buy.