Does the client need to install anything or sign up?

No. The client opens the portal with a code, a link, a one-time code sent to their phone or an email. It works in a browser, on a phone as well as a desktop.

Can two people at the client approve?

Yes. Each person gets their own door that may decide, and each decision is recorded against the person who made it.

How often does the client get reminded?

No more often than every twelve hours for the same approval, by email or SMS, pointing at the portal.

What happens if the client rejects the cut?

The project returns to the rework stage named by the approval stage, Edit in the video templates, and one revision round is consumed.

Can the approval be changed later?

A review session closes with its decision and is not reopened. The next round is a new session on a new version. The original decision stays in the audit log.

Client approval before colour and delivery

The client approves the picture before colour and delivery through a portal that needs no account: they enter with a code, a link, a phone number or an email, watch the cut, leave notes on the frame, and choose approve, approve with changes or reject. The decision is recorded with the person, the time and the version, the workflow moves to delivery only on an approval, and a request for changes sends the cut back to the edit stage. In the Commercial template the final cut approval carries a default SLA of 72 hours, with reminders to the client no more often than every twelve hours.

Published September 15, 20266 min read

Why the approval sits before colour

Colour and sound are done once, on a locked picture. An approval that comes after the grade is an approval that can send the colourist back to the start, so the video templates put the client's decision before the Delivery stage, which is where colour grade, sound mix and export live. In the Commercial template the Delivery stage's tasks are 'Color grade and sound mix' and 'Export deliverables per spec', and the stage is reachable only from a granted Final cut approval.

The approval stage names its rework stage. When the client requests changes, the project moves to Edit, not to some generic 'in progress'; when the client approves, it moves to Delivery. The stage's two exits are the two answers a client can give, and there is no third door for a cut to slip through.

The four doors into the portal

The client does not create an account. The studio issues a door of one of four kinds: a code the client types, a link the client opens, a phone number that receives a one-time code by SMS, or an email address. The door defaults to the client's own contact details, and an explicit address on the door wins, so the invitation reaches the person who decides rather than the billing address.

A door can be scoped to a single project or to everything the client has with the studio. It can be view-only, for the people who comment but do not decide. It expires after 30 days by default, or after a period the studio sets, or never. It can be revoked at any time, and the studio can see what has been done with it. The door is minted and delivered in one step, and the credential is never stored in a readable form, so a reminder cannot re-send it; a reminder points at the portal and the client enters the way they came in.

What the client can do inside

Inside the portal the client plays the cut at its source frame rate and leaves notes on the frame, with the time attached. The client can upload files and download what the studio has shared, and can read the thread with the studio.

The decision is one of three: approve, approve with changes or reject. Approve moves the project forward. Approve with changes and reject both send the cut back to the rework stage and both consume one of the agreed revision rounds. The decision closes the review session; the next round is a new session on a new version, which is what keeps the note history honest.

Timed notes at the source frame rate: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94 and 60.
Approve, approve with changes, reject.
Upload, download, and the thread with the studio.

The SLA and the reminder

Every approval stage has an SLA in hours. The template defaults are 48 hours for the script approval and 72 for the final cut approval in Commercial; 72 and 72 in Corporate video; 96 for the treatment and 120 for the final cut in Documentary; 120 for the final films in Wedding film. They are defaults and a project can set its own.

When an approval is waiting, the studio can send a reminder. It goes to every live door that is allowed to decide this approval and can be reached, by email or by SMS, and it says which approval is waiting and points at the portal. There is a cooldown of twelve hours between reminders on the same approval, so a client is not nudged twice in an afternoon. A door with no email and no phone, handed over by hand, cannot be reached, and the reminder falls back to the studio, which is the only party that can nudge that client.

The record an approval leaves behind

An approval in an email is a sentence someone has to find. An approval in Tasked is a decision recorded against a version, with the person who made it and the time, in an audit log that is append-only: nothing in the product can edit or delete an audit row. The revision round it consumed, if any, is derived from the same decision.

That record is what a producer reads six weeks later when the client asks why the film has the old end card. The version the client approved is there; the notes on it are there; the decision is there. The project's brief and due date sit beside them.

Approval by automation, and approval on the client's behalf

The approval decision is an event automations can act on: 'when the final cut is approved, notify the colourist and create the export task' is a sentence that compiles into a rule, is translated back for checking and is simulated over the last month before it runs. A deadline-near trigger can create the reminder task for a producer when an approval is 24 hours from its SLA.

When a client approves by phone, a studio member can record the decision, and the record shows that member rather than a portal door as the one who recorded it. The Corporate video template adds a Client review stage before the final approval, at 72 hours, for the account manager to collect the client's notes first.

Questions that keep coming up

Does the client need to install anything or sign up?: No. The client opens the portal with a code, a link, a one-time code sent to their phone or an email. It works in a browser, on a phone as well as a desktop.
Can two people at the client approve?: Yes. Each person gets their own door that may decide, and each decision is recorded against the person who made it.
How often does the client get reminded?: No more often than every twelve hours for the same approval, by email or SMS, pointing at the portal.
What happens if the client rejects the cut?: The project returns to the rework stage named by the approval stage, Edit in the video templates, and one revision round is consumed.
Can the approval be changed later?: A review session closes with its decision and is not reopened. The next round is a new session on a new version. The original decision stays in the audit log.