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Document Approvals

How document approval state, summaries, history, restore behavior, and approval events are handled in TrialStack.

Document Approvals

Document approvals are their own governed workflow. They exist to preserve review state, decision history, and approval accountability separately from ordinary document editing.

Who this is for

This page is for teams responsible for formal review, approval decisions, or approval-history visibility.

What this workflow covers

  • approval state for a document
  • approval summary views
  • saving approval data
  • approval history and restore behavior
  • approval events connected to the document

When to use approvals

Use approvals when the question is no longer “what content should we draft next” and has become “what review state does this document carry, and who made that decision?”

Approvals are useful when teams need:

  • visible decision state for a document
  • a review summary others can trust
  • history that shows how approval information changed over time
  • a recoverable trail when approval data is corrected or disputed

How approvals differ from ordinary editing

Document approvals do not replace the document. They sit alongside it.

The important distinction is:

  • the document holds the governed content
  • the approval workflow holds the review state around that content

Typical approval workflow

  1. Complete the document drafting or revision work.
  2. Move the document into a formal review path.
  3. Record approval information and supporting events.
  4. Review approval summary and history when decisions are challenged or corrected.
  5. Restore prior approval state if the recorded review path needs recovery.

Key decisions and common mistakes

  • use a revision when the content itself needs a derived working path
  • use approvals when the team needs formal review state around the content
  • do not treat an approved state as a substitute for version review when the underlying content changed materially
  • do not blur approval updates with silent document edits

API reference

Use TrialStack API reference for exact approval summary, approval history, restore, and approval-event contract details.