Before you start, it helps to know the vocabulary this article uses. If you haven't already, see How Holly's Approval Workflow Works for a quick rundown of stages, steps, document owners, and reviewers.
Spec Owners
Setting the Spec Owner
Before you start a workflow, make sure the specification has a document owner assigned. The document owner is responsible for moving the spec through the workflow and has final authority to publish it, so this needs to be in place first.
You'll find the owner control near the top of the specification's page. If no owner is set yet, you'll see an Assign owner button — any Holly user can click it and assign someone, including themselves, with no confirmation required.
Once an owner is set, only that owner or a Holly admin can change it. Changing the owner prompts a confirmation dialog, and both the outgoing and incoming owner are notified by email.
What Changes When Ownership Transfers
When you transfer ownership, the new owner takes over responsibility for the spec, including progressing it through the approval workflow and publishing it. The previous owner keeps their editor access, but is no longer responsible for moving the spec forward.
If an owner is removed entirely and the spec is left without one, any approval step currently waiting on the document owner pauses until someone new is assigned.
Tip: You can also change the document owner after a workflow is already running. See How to Manage an Active Approval Workflow.
1. Starting the Workflow
What you click to start a workflow depends on the specification's current status.
Draft specs show a Start approval button directly on the page. Click it to open the Start review workflow modal.
Imported or Published specs don't show that button. Open the three-dot menu instead and create a draft first. Once the spec is back in Draft status, Start approval becomes available.
2. Choosing a Stage Advancement Mode
Near the top of the Start review workflow modal, the Automatic stage advancement toggle controls how much control you keep over the pace of the review.
Manual (default) — The toggle starts off. The workflow pauses after each stage until you manually advance it, giving you a chance to review feedback and make edits before the next group of reviewers sees the document.
Automatic — Turn the toggle on, and the next stage starts the moment the last reviewer in the current stage finishes, with no action needed from you.
Manual keeps you in the loop between every stage. Automatic keeps things moving faster if you don't need a checkpoint at each handoff. You can change this setting later, though it won't retroactively affect a stage that's already advanced.
3. Building Your Stages and Steps
Your workflow is made up of stages, and each stage contains one or more steps.
Stages run one after another. Use multiple stages when reviews need to happen in a specific order — for example, HR review first, then Legal.
Steps within a stage run at the same time. Use multiple steps in one stage when several people at the same level need to weigh in simultaneously, like three department managers reviewing in parallel.
Adding a Stage
Click Add stage to create an additional phase of your review process.
Adding a Step
Click Add step inside a stage. You'll be offered two paths:
Start from template — Lists your previously saved templates by name (for example, "Legal Review v2"). Selecting one adds it straight to the stage as a fully configured step, with its name, description, and reviewers already filled in. You can still edit it (pencil icon) or remove it (trash icon) from the card itself.
Start from scratch — Opens a blank New step form where you'll set everything yourself:
Step name (required)
Due date (optional) — A relative timeframe, like "2 Weeks," measured from when the step starts
Description (optional) — A short note on what you want this step's reviewers to focus on. This is included in the email notification reviewers receive, so be specific about what feedback you need
Reviewers (required, unless the step has none) — Click Add reviewer to add internal reviewers (people with Holly accounts) by name or email, or external reviewers by email address alone. External reviewers get a link to review the specification but won't have access to any other part of Holly. If a step genuinely doesn't need a reviewer, check This step has no reviewers instead.
Saving and Reusing Templates
If you run similar reviews often, save yourself the setup work next time.
Save a step as a template — In the New step form, toggle Save as template to store its name, description, and reviewer list for future workflows.
Manage your templates — Click Manage templates near the top of the modal to create, edit, or delete templates directly.
Editing or deleting a template only affects future workflows built from it. It has no effect on workflows that are already running.
Adding Attachments
At the bottom of the modal, click Click to upload to attach supporting files to the workflow, such as a redline document or supporting materials reviewers should reference alongside the specification.
4. Launching the Workflow
Once your stages, steps, and reviewers are set, you have two options:
Save as draft — Saves your setup without notifying anyone, so you can come back and finish later.
Start review — Launches the workflow.
Clicking Start review brings up a confirmation: "Are you sure you want to start the approval workflow? All of the reviewers from [Step Name] will be emailed." Click Start to confirm.
Once confirmed:
The specification's status changes from Draft to In Review.
All reviewers in the first stage receive an email notification with a link to begin their review.
You'll land on the Workflow tab, where you can track progress from here on.
Tip: You're not locked into what you set up here. You can add or remove reviewers, edit step descriptions, and add or remove stages after the workflow has already started. See How to Manage an Active Approval Workflow for how.
5. Next Steps
Once your workflow is live, reviewers will start leaving comments and suggestions, and your job shifts from setup to tracking progress and responding to feedback. Head to How to Manage an Active Approval Workflow to see how to monitor reviewers, send reminders, and adjust the workflow while it's running.