# Response Approval Workflow {#response-approval-workflow}


MQUAD provides a configurable approval workflow that lets designated reviewers examine responses before they are included in the final dataset.


## Enabling Approval Workflow {#enabling-approval-workflow}


1. Navigate to your survey's **Settings** tab.
2. Under **Response Processing**, toggle **Enable Approval Workflow**.
3. Configure the approval settings:
   - **Require Approval** — All responses require approval before inclusion
   - **Auto-Approve Known Respondents** — Skip approval for pre-approved email domains
   - **Number of Approvals Required** — Set 1 or 2 (two-person approval)
   - **Approval Deadline** — Auto-approve if not reviewed within N days

Once enabled, all new responses enter a **Pending** state until reviewed.


## Reviewing Responses {#reviewing-responses}


Approvers can access pending responses from:

- **Dashboard** — The pending count is shown in the overview widget
- **Survey > Responses** — Filter by status: **Pending**, **Approved**, **Rejected**
- **Notifications** — Email and in-app alerts when new responses need review

Click on any pending response to view the full submission. The review screen shows:

- The complete response data formatted as the respondent saw it
- Respondent metadata (submission time, IP address, device, duration)
- Previous version (if the response was edited before approval)
- Notes from previous reviewers


## Approve / Reject Actions {#approve--reject-actions}


Each reviewer can take one of three actions:

- **Approve** — The response is marked as approved and included in exports and analytics.
- **Reject** — The response is rejected. Provide a reason in the comment field. Rejected responses can be returned to the respondent for resubmission or permanently excluded.
- **Request Revision** — Send the response back to the collector with reviewer comments for correction.

Click **Submit Review** to finalize your action. If two-person approval is required, the response status changes to **Partially Approved** until a second reviewer acts.


## Bulk Approval {#bulk-approval}


When you have many responses to process, use bulk actions:

1. From the **Responses** tab, filter by **Pending** status.
2. Select responses using the checkboxes (or **Select All**).
3. Click **Bulk Approve** or **Bulk Reject**.
4. Optionally add a bulk comment that applies to all selected responses.
5. Confirm the action.

Bulk approvals respect the two-person approval requirement — if enabled, a single bulk action only provides the first approval.


## Audit Trail for Approvals {#audit-trail-for-approvals}


Every approval action is logged in the audit trail with:

- **Timestamp** — When the action was taken
- **Reviewer** — Who performed the action
- **Action** — Approved, rejected, or revision requested
- **Comment** — The reviewer's feedback
- **Previous Status** — The response's status before the action

To view the audit trail for a specific response, open the response and click **Approval History**. The full timeline of all actions is displayed in chronological order.


## Notifications {#notifications}


Configure who receives notifications for approval events under **Settings > Notifications**:

- New response pending approval (sent to all approvers)
- Response approved (sent to the collector)
- Response rejected (sent to the collector with rejection reason)
- Approval deadline approaching (sent to pending reviewers)