Streamline your design workflow with Approval, a powerful feature that adds a structured review process to your Abyssale projects. With Approval enabled, you can establish a systematic approach to design validation, ensuring that all designs meet your team's standards before moving to the generation phase.
What is Approval?
Note: The Approval feature is only available in specific subscription plans. Please check our pricing page to view plan comparisons and feature availability.
Approval allows project managers to set up a review system where designated approvers must validate designs before they can be generated. This creates a controlled environment where:
Designs must go through a formal review process
Designated approvers can provide feedback and validation
Generation capabilities are unlocked only after design approval
Teams can maintain consistent quality standards
This feature is particularly valuable for teams who need to maintain brand consistency, require stakeholder sign-off, or want to implement quality control measures in their design production workflow.
Enable or disable Approval on a project
Note: Only users with appropriate permissions can enable or disable Approval mode. Disabling this feature will remove all design status history and unlock generation methods for all designs in the project.
To enable or disable Approval on a project:
Open your Project
Click "Approval" in the top-right corner
In the modal window, toggle the Enable Approval switch:
ON to enable Approval mode
OFF to deactivate Approval mode
When enabling Approval, use the search bar below to add project approvers
Click "Update Project Settings" to save your changes
Manage Approvers in your project
To add or delete approvers on a project:
Open your Project
Click "Approval" in the top-right corner
Use the search bar to add new approvers to your project
Below the search bar, you'll find the list of current approvers
To remove an approver, click the
×icon next to their nameClick "Update Project Settings" to save your changes
Understanding Design Status in Approval Mode
Note: Generation methods are only available for designs in "Approved" or "Completed" status.
When Approval is enabled on your project, designs can be assigned different statuses to track their progress through your workflow. Here's a detailed explanation of each status and its specific characteristics:
Work in Progress 🟣
This is the initial active status for designs under development.
Only in this status:
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Pending Approval 🟠
When your design is ready for review:
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Approved 🟢
A status that can only be set by project approvers:
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Declined 🔴
Also exclusively set by project approvers:
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Completed 🟢
A final status for approved designs:
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On Hold ⚪
An organizational status that:
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Review designs from the Approval board
The Approval page (in the left sidebar, between Templates Library and Creative Hub) gives you a board of the designs of all your projects that use Approval. Each design is a card, and the cards are grouped in four columns that follow the status workflow:
Work in progress
Pending Approval
Approved
Declined
Each column shows its number of designs and keeps its header visible while you scroll. Columns load 20 cards at a time: click Show 20 more at the bottom of a column to load the next ones.
Note: Designs in the "Completed" and "On Hold" statuses are not shown as columns on the board.
Read a card
Each card shows the design thumbnail, its project, its name and its type (Static or Animated). The ... menu in the top-right corner of the thumbnail lets you change the status, as described in "From Approval page" below. Click a card to open the design overview page.
The button at the bottom of the card depends on the column the card is in:
Column | What you see on the card |
Work in progress | Send for approval button |
Pending Approval | If you are an approver of the project: a "Waiting on you" label with Approve and Decline buttons. Otherwise: a "Waiting for an approver" label |
Approved | No button |
Declined | Reopen button |
Note: Only approvers of the project can approve or decline a design. See "Manage Approvers in your project" above.
Move a card
You can also change the status of a design by dragging its card onto another column. Only the moves allowed for your role and for that design are offered: the columns that can take the card light up while you drag it.
In each column, the design with the latest status change is shown at the top.
Find a design
Click Search designs or projects in the top-right corner of the page and type a design or project name. The board updates after a moment.
Click Filter by and, in the Projects section, tick the projects you want to see.
Change status of a design in Approval mode
From project page
Open your Project
Hover over the design you want to update
Click the
...(three dots menu) in the top-right corner of the designIn the dropdown menu, click the current status to reveal a second menu
Select the new status from the second dropdown menu
From design overview page
Open your Project
Select the Design you want to update
Click the current status button located next to the share button (top-right corner)
Choose the new status from the dropdown menu
From Approval page
Head to the Approval page
Hover over the design you want to update
Click the
...(three dots menu) in the top-right corner of the designIn the dropdown menu, click the current status to reveal a second menu
Select the new status from the second dropdown menu
You can also use the buttons on the card itself: Send for approval, Approve, Decline or Reopen (see "Review designs from the Approval board" above).
Checking Approval Status on the project
On the project page, you can quickly identify if Approval is enabled by looking at the tag in the top-left corner:
When enabled, you'll see an "Approval enabled" tag
When disabled, you'll see an "Approval disabled" tag