Managing an Active Approval Workflow

Once you've launched an approval workflow, your job as document owner shifts from setup to management. Holly gives you tools to monitor progress, nudge reviewers when needed, and make adjustments as circumstances change.

When you built your workflow, you chose how stages advance—either automatically or manually. (Not sure which you picked? See Building an Approval Workflow for a refresher on the difference.)

Here's what each mode looks like in practice once your workflow is running:

When all reviewers in a stage complete their reviews, the next stage starts immediately:

Your role: Monitor progress and respond to feedback as it comes in.

When all reviewers in a stage complete their reviews, the workflow pauses and waits for you:

To advance to the next stage:

This pause gives you a checkpoint to incorporate feedback between stages rather than having reviewers see a version you're still refining.

The Workflow tab is your home base for monitoring the approval process. Here you'll see:

If a reviewer is taking longer than expected, you can send them a reminder directly from the Workflow tab.

The note will be included in the reminder email, which is helpful for providing context or reiterating deadlines.

Click "Remind" to send a reminder email. When you send a reminder, you can add a personal note that will be included in the email—helpful for providing context or reiterating deadlines. The system tracks when you sent the reminder, so you can see at a glance who's been nudged and when.

Holly keeps track of all reminders you've sent to each reviewer. In the Action column, you'll see:

You can adjust the workflow after it's launched, with some limitations to preserve the integrity of completed reviews. Click the edit button on the workflow timeline to make changes.

What you can edit depends on where each step is in the review process:

Edit Step Names and Descriptions Update step names or descriptions to clarify expectations for steps that haven't been completed.

​Edit Stage Advancement: Change the stage advancement from manual to automatic or vice versa if you decide you want more or less control over the progression of the workflow. Please note that this is not retroactive, so if a stage has already started automatically, it will not be stopped because the stage advancement was switched.

Add Reviewers: Add new reviewers to any step—current or future—if you realize someone else needs to weigh in.

Remove Reviewers: Remove reviewers who haven't yet completed their review. You cannot remove reviewers who have already submitted—their feedback is part of the permanent record.

Delete Steps: Delete steps that haven't started, or in-progress steps where no reviews have been completed yet. Completed steps cannot be deleted.

Change the Document Owner: Transfer ownership to another team member if responsibilities shift during the review process.

Force Finish Stage: The "Force finish stage" button (next to the edit button) allows you to advance the workflow to the next stage even if some reviewers in the current stage haven't completed their review. This is useful when you've received enough feedback to proceed or when a reviewer is unavailable and you don't want to hold up the process. Reviewers who haven't submitted will be marked as "Skipped" rather than "Completed."

How Force Finish interacts with your advancement mode:

As reviewers work through the document, they'll leave comments and suggestions. You'll see this feedback in the Collaborate tab, where you can:

You don't have to wait until a stage is complete—you can review and respond to feedback as it comes in. Many document owners prefer to address comments in batches or wait until a full stage is done before making edits.

For detailed guidance on working with comments, managing suggestions, and preparing your spec for publication, see Reviewing Feedback and Publishing.

Once all stages are complete and you've addressed reviewer feedback, you're ready to publish the final specification. The Reviewing Feedback and Publishing article walks you through finalizing your document.