How to use Item Approval Workflow

Last updated: 6 September 2026

Item Approval Workflow answers one question honestly: was this item approved, and is what I am looking at right now the thing that was approved? Everything below exists to keep that answer true. This page covers every screen, what each label means, what does and does not bring an approval down, and — at the end — what the app deliberately does not do.

The one idea worth reading first. An approval belongs to a version of an item, never to the item. So when somebody edits an approved item, the app does not keep saying "Approved". It says "Approved on version 2 by Ana Byrne — the item is now on version 3, with 1 change since then", and it names the column that moved. That is the whole product.

1. Getting started

Add the app as a view on a board. The first time somebody opens it, the app asks your account to authorise it once — one screen, two permissions: read boards, and write updates. That authorisation is what lets the app read the item on the server instead of believing the browser, and it is the reason the stamp means anything.

After that there is nothing to configure. Anyone who can edit the board can send an item for approval and choose who signs off. The Setup tab (section 6) is optional: it only saves people from repeating themselves.

2. The stamp — what everyone sees

Every item the app knows about carries one short label:

Label	What it means
Not submitted	Nobody has asked for approval on this item.
Waiting for approval · 1 of 3	A request is open and one of three approvers has signed off.
Approved	Approved, and the item is still on the version that was approved.
Approved · item changed	Approved once, but the item has moved on since. This is the state the category is missing.
Changes requested	Somebody sent it back with a written reason.

3. The approval panel on an item

Open an item and the panel shows four things, in this order.

The sentence that says the whole truth

One line, no reading between the lines — for example "Approved on version 2 by Ana Byrne — this is the current version." or "Approved on version 2 by Ana Byrne — the item is now on version 3, with 1 change since then." Next to the stamp, the current version number is always in view.

When the item has moved on, a link says how many columns changed. Opening it lists them one per line, with the value before and the value after, so nobody has to guess what happened. If the app cannot be sure what the approved version looked like, it says nothing rather than inventing a list — staying quiet is honest; inventing changes is not.

Who has to sign off

One line per person, with the name and the state: signed off, with the version and the date; signed off on an older version, with both numbers shown; sent back, with the written reason; or not decided yet. Anyone who can edit the board can add or remove approvers here, and signatures already given are never wiped — somebody added later simply starts as waiting, and somebody removed keeps their signature on the record, marked as no longer on the list.

The decision

Two buttons. Approve records your signature against the version you are looking at. Send back opens a text box, and the reason is required — the button stays off without one, and the server refuses it too. Once you have signed, the Approve button goes: a log that counts clicks instead of decisions is not evidence.

Every decision is also posted to the item's Updates, where the team already talks: Sent for approval on version 1., Approved on version 2., Changes requested on version 2: "the price is wrong". Being sent back is a first-class outcome here, not an afterthought — it lands in Updates like an approval does, so your automations can act on it.

The written reason is stored and colleagues read it. Treat it like any other update: say what needs changing, and do not put personal or sensitive information into it.

The history

One line per decision, newest first — v2 · approved · Ana Byrne · 6 Sep 2026, 14:12. The history never disappears: not when a signature goes stale, not when somebody is erased (the line stays, without the name), and not when a subscription lapses.

4. What counts as a change — and what does not

A monday.com item has no version number of its own, so the app makes one: it takes a fingerprint of the columns that matter, and the version moves up only when that fingerprint moves. This table is the heart of the app.

What happened	Does the approval still stand?
Somebody changed a watched column — status, price, dates, text, people	It is flagged — the state becomes "Approved · item changed", with the count and the list of what changed.
The item was renamed	It is flagged. The name is part of the version.
Last updated moved	Yes, it stands. That column is written by the platform — including by this app posting its own update. Counting it would make an approval knock itself down.
A formula, mirror, lookup, auto-number, item ID, progress bar or button column moved	Yes. Nobody approved the result of a formula, and a mirror moves when a board on the other side of the company moves.
A new column was added to the board	Yes. A column nobody has filled in is not part of any version, so adding one does not invalidate every approval on the board at once.
A column was renamed, or moved to another position	Yes. The heading changed, the content did not.
Somebody changed their own display name, or the board is read in another language	Yes. The fingerprint is taken from the stored value, not from the text on screen.
An approver was added or removed	Yes — existing signatures are kept.
The board rule was changed	Yes. Nothing already signed is reset.

This table exists because the most common complaint about apps in this category is both failures at once: approvals wiped by a change that had nothing to do with the content, and approvals left standing after a real edit. A board owner can narrow the watched list on the Setup tab — see section 6.

5. This board — the report

The first tab of the app. Five numbers across the top, each one a filter you can click: how many items are on this board, how many changed after approval, how many are waiting, how many are approved, and how many were sent back. Below them, one line per item with its stamp and the one fact that matters — who it is waiting on, or the last decision, or "signed on version 2 · 1 change since then". There is a search box for finding an item by name.

The number in the middle is the one to look at: items that currently say "approved" and are no longer telling the truth. If you are preparing for an audit, start there.

Subitems count as items. They appear in the report and are approved the same way, because in most boards the thing that actually needs signing off is a subitem.

When the report cannot read everything, it says so. A line at the top states plainly that the totals are short and invites you to try again — it never quietly shows a smaller number as if it were the whole picture.

6. Waiting for me

The second tab, and it reaches across boards. Three lists, each with its count in the title:

Waiting for me — opens here. What is waiting on your signature.
I asked for — what you sent for approval, and where each one stands.
All — everything you can see, with a board filter.

Opening a line takes you to the item, on purpose. Signing happens on the item itself, so nobody rubber-stamps a queue without opening what they are approving.

7. Setup — optional

The third tab. Only people who can edit the board can change anything here; everyone else sees it read-only.

Who signs off, by default. Leave it empty and whoever sends an item chooses at that moment.
Any one of them is enough — off means everybody has to sign. Off is the default.
What counts as a change. By default, every column a person fills in. Untick it and choose the specific columns that matter — useful on a board where a comment field or an internal note moves constantly and should not bring a sign-off down. The screen tells you, in a sentence, what the rule is right now.

Two more cards appear for an administrator of the monday.com account, and only for them:

What this app keeps about people — the list of every monday.com user ID the app holds and where each one appears, with an Erase this person button on each. Erasing leaves the decision in the history without the name, and anything still waiting on that person stops waiting.
Delete everything this app keeps — every approval, signature and history the app stores for this account, gone for good. You type the word DELETE to confirm. Your items themselves are untouched.

8. Asking in words — the six things the assistant can do

The app publishes six actions to the assistant that already lives in your monday.com account, so approvals can be handled in a sentence:

"What is waiting for my approval?"
"Send this item for approval."
"Approve this item."
"Send it back — the price is wrong."
"What changed since it was approved?"
"How is approval going on this board?"

Three things about this are worth knowing before you rely on it:

The rules do not get softer. Somebody who may not sign off cannot sign off by asking, and a lapsed subscription blocks the same actions by voice as by button.
Approving by conversation is deliberately stricter than by button. If the item changed after it was sent for approval, the assistant refuses and tells you both version numbers. On the screen you had the item in front of you; in a conversation you did not. Approving blind would be selling the opposite of what this app promises.
Who signs off is never chosen by voice. A misheard name would put the wrong person on a contract, so the board's rule applies and that is that.

The intelligence belongs to monday.com, not to us: the app calls no AI service and holds no AI key.

9. Plans, and what counts as one approval

The free plan covers 25 approvals a calendar month, on one board. Paid plans have no monthly limit. Every plan has every feature.

An approval is an item, not a click. The first time an item is sent for approval in a month it counts once; after that the same item is free for the rest of the month, however many times it changes and goes round again. Catching an edit after sign-off is what this app is for, so re-sending never costs you a second approval.

You always see where you stand before you click — the app shows “Free plan · 7 of 25 approvals left this month” at the top of the screen, and when the month is used up it says so there rather than after you press the button. Approving and sending back never stop, so nothing already under way is stranded; only a new item waits for the 1st, or for a plan. The full table is on the plans and prices page.

9.1 If your subscription lapses

Nothing is hidden and nothing is deleted. Everything already recorded keeps working — the stamp, the history, the board report, Waiting for me, and the sentence saying what changed. Only writing stops: sending an item for approval, deciding, and changing the board rule. Renewing turns them back on immediately, with nothing to reinstall. Erasing your data is never blocked.

10. What the app does not do

It does not send email and no push notification. What is waiting for you is on the Waiting for me tab with the count in the title, and you can ask the assistant.
It does not lock, freeze or archive an item. Somebody who can edit an approved item in monday.com can still edit it. What this app does is notice, and say so — that is the product.
It is not an electronic signature product with legal effect. That is a separate category of software.
It is not a quality management system — no training records, no risk management, no CAPA.
No signing order, no numeric quorum, no conditional approvers in this version. The rule is one switch per board: everybody signs, or any one of them is enough. These were left out on purpose — in the apps that have them they are the top source of confusion, not of value.
No automatic scope rule yet — you send an item for approval, rather than the board deciding for you that every item under a label needs one. We would rather ship no button than a button that does nothing.

11. Support

Email help@saoirsesoftware.com — English, business days, and we aim to reply within two business days. Emails reach the person who writes the code.

← Back to Item Approval Workflow