The lengthy project you’ve been working on is finally coming to an end.
After implementing waves and waves of revision requests and edits, you’re proudly tagging your deliverable as “final draft.“
Now, all that’s left is for the stars and planets to align so the project passes the project approval stage with flying colors.
You keep your eyes on your inbox nervously and wish there was a way to have visibility into what management, clients, and stakeholders think of the final draft.
To make your decision-making process easier, we’re going to explore the main features of four of the best project approval tools out there.
Wow, we’re first on the list!
We’d like to thank our parents, our friends, our mentors… OK, fine, we’ll skip the speech.
Integrify helps users manage approvals through standardized project intake templates and routing that account for custom criteria and business rules.
Features
Integrify offers a wide range of features that can help users standardize their project approval processes, including:
Who is it for?
According to Capterra, Integrify is best for medium-sized businesses, as well as large enterprises that need to increase workflow visibility and efficiency.
Integrify users rely on the platform to approve things like:
ProofHub is a project planning software solution that can help professionals simplify project management, deliver projects on time, and stay organized.
Specifically, the platform offers tools for project scope estimation, feedback, communication, and task management.
Features
In terms of project approval features, ProofHub provides:
Who is it for?
ProofHub is suitable for teams of any size, including freelancers and large corporations.
Filestage is part of the annotation tool category. The platform helps teams make their approval process more organized and time-efficient.
Features
Filestage.io gives users the ability to establish a consistent approval process through features like:
Who is it for?
Filestage is great for small teams, large organizations, and anything in between.
As you can probably already tell, not all project approval software solutions are created equal.
On one hand, we have proofing software, like MarkUp.io and Filestage.io, which can help you:
On the other hand, project management and workflow automation software, like Integrify and ProofHub, can give your project team a more structured way of doing things from the project ideation stage to project approval.
It is important to note that these two categories are not mutually exclusive! For maximum results, you can use workflow automation in combination with annotation tools.
It all just comes down to mixing and matching to find the perfect fit for your needs.
Generally, collaboration tools help teams save time and make sure all team members are on the same page.
MarkUp.io is no different!
The platform features multiple communication tools that help you and your project team speak the same language.
For instance, MarkUp.io enables you to add contextual feedback to any element that needs to be edited.
This eliminates confusion and helps you reach the final draft stage faster without having to spend long hours straining your eyes while trying to figure out what the reviewer is referring to when providing email feedback.
Let’s assume you chose MarkUp.io as your go-to annotation tool for project approval. Now, let’s dive into a hands-on tutorial for sharing deliverables with your reviewers.
So, in this case, you are the submitter.
Before sharing your projects with the team, you have to create a MarkUp—a virtual copy of your project.
With MarkUp.io, you can create MarkUps of design files, documents, spreadsheets, images, and even live websites (Pro tip: if you have questions about how to annotate a website in a few simple steps, this guide is for you).
For MarkUps of anything but live webpages, you can simply drag and drop your files into your MarkUp.io workspace.
Once your MarkUp has been created, you can click anywhere inside it to leave notes before sharing it with your stakeholders.
Next, share your MarkUp by clicking on the “Share” button at the bottom right corner of the page.
You can choose whether you’d like to share the MarkUp link yourself or if you’d prefer to send it over email.
Do you know what this means?
No need for email attachments. 🥳
Now, the wait begins.
Your reviewer receives the MarkUp link, and the approval process starts. Reviewers will ensure your deliverables meet the project requirements and live up to the company’s quality standards.
And, usually, you have no idea what’s going on with your draft until you receive an email from the reviewer.
But when using an approval tool, the approval process is different from what you’re used to. 😏
For example, with MarkUp.io, you have full visibility into the feedback process. Namely, the comments your reviewer makes are displayed on your end in real-time.
The second to last step of the process is to implement feedback. 🙂
Resolve comments by hovering over the active comments on the left side of the screen and clicking on the green “Resolve” button.
If you accidentally resolve a comment that’s not implemented yet, you can go to the “Resolved” tab and click on the red “Unresolve” button.
Once you resolve all the comments, they will be permanently stored in the “Resolved” tab of each specific project MarkUp.
In other words, you’ll have a feedback archive for each MarkUp in your workspace.
As soon as you’re done implementing the feedback you’ve received, you’re close to the finish line.
Now, you can create another MarkUp with the final version of your project and share it once again with your clients or managers.
Fingers crossed for a green light!
As you can see, when using a proofing tool as part of your approval workflow, things get easier.
You’re more likely to reach milestones faster, stay on top of due dates, and collaborate better with team members.
Are you ready to experience all this and more?
It’s time to remove instant messaging from your project approval process for good and gain a competitive advantage with cutting-edge visual collaboration technology.
If this sounds like something you and your team would benefit from, give MarkUp.io a try.
Sign up with MarkUp.io and let back-and-forth feedback become a thing of the past!
