Keep the big decisions moving from one place
Runner brings sends and other sensitive work to the owners and admins who can approve them, and gathers decisions from several areas — reply approvals, merges and visitor promotions among them — onto one page with who decided and when, each linked back to the work.
Built into Runner
- Sends wait for a go-ahead from an owner or admin
- Whoever prepared a send is refused as its approver, outside a one-person team or a time-boxed exception
- Delegation for a set period, never beyond the delegator's own authority
- One page listing decisions from several areas, with who decided and when
- Every approval and rejection kept in an audit trail nothing in the product can edit or delete
Worth knowing
The decision history records what was decided; it never decides. Approvals are given by a person on the page that owns the work, the few entries the rules decide — such as whether a meeting was recorded — are marked automatic, and each entry links back.
A second person signs off, and the database checks it isn't the author
It's Friday afternoon, a campaign to every trial account is ready, and the person who wrote it would very much like it gone before the weekend. Sending it opens an approval request, and a project owner or admin who didn't prepare it gives the go-ahead from Approvals. Until then, nothing has been sent.
The approver sees the subject, the body and how many people it reaches. No list of addresses goes into the request, so approving a send never copies your contacts into the approval record.
The rule on who may approve lives in the database, in the function that records the decision. It refuses the person who prepared the send, refuses a second vote from someone who already decided, and refuses an approval made under a delegation from the author, so delegation is no side door to approving your own work.
Two cases get through, and both are written down. A time-boxed exception on record can cover a named person, and a workspace with exactly one active member can approve its own sends. Either way, the audit entry says which basis applied. Every approval and rejection writes one of those entries, and the role the application writes with holds no permission to edit or delete them.
An approval covers the exact email it approved, once
Change the subject, the body or the audience size after the go-ahead and the send becomes a new request with no approvals on it. The old approval was for different words, and it stays with them.
When the send runs, the approval is spent in a single atomic step, so of two clicks at the same moment only one wins, and an expired approval or a changed payload is refused with the reason. An approval is also never the last word. Each recipient's opt-out status is read again immediately before their email goes out.
Picture this
The approver signs off at 4pm. At 4:05 the author fixes a typo in the subject line and clicks send. Nothing goes out, and the new wording is waiting in Approvals for a fresh go-ahead.
One page answers who decided what, and when
The decision page reads across eight areas that each kept their own records: sends, calls, spend, merges, identifications, replies, recordings and next actions. Filter by person, area, outcome and dates, and a counts line answers the question you came with, such as how many identifications were turned down last month.
It reads, and it never decides. There's no approve button on it: every go-ahead is still given on the page that owns the work, and each entry links back there. Spend rows appear only for people allowed to see payment figures.
Questions buyers ask
Can someone approve their own email campaign?
Only in two recorded cases: a time-boxed exception on file names them, or they're the only active member of the workspace. Otherwise the database refuses it, and the audit entry for any self-approval names the basis.
What happens if a campaign is edited after it's approved?
It needs a new approval. A change to the subject, the body or the audience size makes a new request with no approvals, and the earlier go-ahead stays attached to the earlier wording.
Is there one place to review decisions across the workspace?
Yes. The decision page reads eight areas, from sends and spend to merges and identifications, filtered by person, outcome and dates, with a count for whatever you filter to. Each entry links to the page where the decision was made.
Can a delegate approve while I'm away?
Yes, for the dates you set. A delegation has a start and an end, never outlasts your own approval authority, is written to the audit trail when created, and confers nothing the moment it lapses.
Use what already works
Keep the operating tools that still perform part of the work. Runner coordinates the decision and rechecks the governing rules when the work runs; the person who prepared it runs it once it is approved.
How teams often buy this job
Nothing is usually bought for this job — it lives in a spreadsheet.