Approvals Workflow | Zylolo Help Center

Approvals Overview

"Approvals" covers two related things in Zylolo, both reachable from the Open Approvals Queue quick action on your dashboard:

Content review — checking the actual deliverables a creator submits (on the Approvals tab of /brand/applicants) before they're approved for payment.
Team approval workflow — on Rising and Scale plans, requiring one or more of your teammates to sign off on Campaign Publish, Creator Shortlist, and Payment Release decisions before they take effect (/brand/approvals).

Why two layers Content review makes sure what a creator actually posted matches what was agreed (including required disclosures). The team workflow adds a second check — useful once more than one person can accept creators or release payments, so a single person's mistake can't move money or publish a campaign unchecked.

Configuring the Approval Workflow (Rising & Scale)

If you're a brand owner (or have team-management permission) on Rising or Scale, the Approval Workflow Settings panel lets you define, for each of the three workflow types — Campaign Publish, Creator Shortlist, and Payment Release — which roles must approve, and in what order. You can add or remove steps (up to 4 per workflow), then click Save Workflow Settings. A reset to defaults option restores Zylolo's recommended chain.

On the Start plan, this configuration panel is hidden — approvals are single-step (you decide directly), since Start workspaces are typically a single person.

Why order matters Each workflow's "role sequence" runs in order — for example, a Reviewer might check content quality first, then Finance signs off on the payment second. A request only completes once every step in the sequence has approved.

The Approval Requests Queue

Below the workflow settings, the Approval Requests Queue lists every pending request — shown as "X pending approvals". When there's nothing to review, you'll see "All Caught Up" — "There are no pending approval requests right now."

Each request card shows:

A type badge — Campaign Publish, Creator Shortlist, or Payment Release — plus "High Value" if the budget threshold is high, or "Pending" otherwise.
For multi-level requests: a "Step X of Y" progress indicator, "Awaiting [Role]" for the current step, and a visual chain showing each step's status (Approved, Rejected, Awaiting review, Queued).
For requests with a budget impact: a Budget Control snapshot — campaign cap, committed + reserved amount, the amount being requested, and the projected total with a usage-percent bar.
Who requested it and when ("Requested by [email]", "Requested on [date]").
For payment-related requests, a compliance badge: "Payout Ready" (green), "Watch" (yellow, some checks missing), or "Action Required" (red) — with a note that "this release can be approved, but payout may fail until creator compliance details are completed."

Each card has three actions: Notes (internal discussion with @mentions — see below), Reject, and Approve (or Approve Step for multi-level requests, advancing to the next reviewer).

Internal Notes & Mentions

Expand Notes on any request to see "Internal Notes & Mentions — Keep internal discussion and teammate mentions attached to this approval." Add a note, optionally @mention teammates, and click Add Note. If empty: "No notes yet."

Who can approve Approving or rejecting requires the "manage applicants" permission; approving payment releases additionally requires the "manage finance" permission — so a Reviewer can clear content-related steps without being able to move money.

Reviewing Submitted Content

The Approvals tab on /brand/applicants (visible on Rising/Scale, or via your single-step flow on Start) is where you check the actual content a creator submitted for a milestone. When there's nothing pending: "All Caught Up" — "There are no pending submissions requiring your review right now."

Each pending submission card shows the creator's name and rank, the campaign, the milestone title and amount, a link to the Draft URL they submitted, which disclosure type (e.g. "Paid Partnership" label) they used with a link to the screenshot proving it, and any note the creator added.

Before you can approve, you must check the box: "I've checked the content and confirm the ASCI disclosure ([type]) is present." Then choose:

Approve Submission — accepts the milestone and moves it toward payment.
Request Revision — opens a text box: "Explain what's missing or needs to be fixed before resubmission..." Click Send Revision Request to send it back to the creator with your notes.

Why the disclosure checkbox is mandatory India's ASCI guidelines require paid promotions to be clearly disclosed. Zylolo won't let you approve a milestone — and therefore won't release payment — until you've confirmed the required disclosure is actually present in the published content. This protects both your brand and the creator from compliance issues.

You can also message the creator directly from any submission card using the Message button.

Paying Approved Milestones & Escrow

Once a milestone is approved (and, on Rising/Scale, once any team payment-release approval completes), it moves into the Payment Due queue on the Approvals page — shown as "X payment(s) due". Each card is labeled either:

"Escrow Due" — "Approved — pay the escrow deposit to fund and activate this contract." This is the upfront deposit for a newly hired creator.
"Payment Due" — "Approved — payment to the creator is still pending." This covers a milestone payout from funds already in escrow.

Each card shows the milestone title, amount, and approval date. A note reminds you: "Zylolo platform fee and GST are added at checkout. This single deposit covers all milestones — no further payments are needed."

If you have finance permission, click Pay Escrow Deposit or Pay Now to complete payment. If you don't, the card simply reads "Awaiting payment from your finance team" — so non-finance teammates can see what's queued without being able to move money.

All completed payments appear in your Wallet transaction history, with invoices available for download.