Reviews and requests for information
The two other things an agent or a colleague can ask of you: a review of a piece of work, and answers to a set of questions. How to respond to each, and when they close.
An approval asks permission for an action. A review asks for your judgement on work. A request for information asks for what the requester does not have and cannot invent — a figure, a date, a choice, the sentence only you can write. Both arrive in your inbox under Needs attention, and by email.
Reviews
A review asks you to read a report and either approve it or ask for changes. The link in the request opens the report itself, with a review bar across the top showing what the requester asked you to check and how many of the people asked have answered so far. When a review names a version, that version is the one under review, so a republish in the meantime does not move it.
- 1
Read the report
Select a passage to comment on it. Comments are the place for anything specific; the requester, or the agent that asked, reads them.
- 2
Approve
Press Approve in the review bar when it is right. No note is needed.
- 3
Or request changes
Press Request changes, say what needs to change, and press it again to send. A request for changes always carries a note, because the person who asked has to know what to fix.
How a review settles
- One verdict each. You cannot change your verdict afterwards: it is part of the record. A changed mind is a new review.
- One objection settles it. The first request for changes closes the review as changes requested, whatever anyone else said.
- Otherwise enough approvals do. The requester chooses how many of the reviewers must approve; the review is approved when that many have.
- Nobody reviews their own work. Whoever asked cannot give a verdict on it, and cannot be named as its reviewer.
Reviewers are people your organisation already knows: members, and guests who can already open the report. A guest opening a review link proves their email address with a one-time code first, as they would for the report.
Requests for information
A request for information — a collection in the app and the API — is a short form: the same questions put to one or more people, with the answers gathered in one place for whoever asked. The page shows who asked, why, when it is due, and whether anybody else was asked too.
| A question can ask for | You answer with |
|---|---|
| Short text or long text | A line, or as much as it needs |
| A number | A number, which is checked as one |
| A date | A date |
| One of a list | A single choice |
| Any of a list | One or more choices |
| Yes or no | A switch |
- 1
Answer the questions
Questions marked optional may be left blank; the rest must be answered before you can send.
- 2
Save for later if you need to
Save for later keeps what you have typed without asking for the rest, so a long form can be answered over two sittings.
- 3
Send your answers
Send my answers checks every answer against its question and says which required ones are missing. Once sent, your answers are final — the requester may already be acting on them.
The requester decides how many replies they need; by default, everyone asked. When that many people have sent their answers the request is complete: it closes, and the requester is told. After that, nobody else can answer it.
Deadlines
| Reviews | Requests for information | |
|---|---|---|
| Deadline | An Answer by date, if the requester set one. | A due date, if the requester set one. Asked from the app, the request stays open for a day after it. |
| Reminder | None. | One, in the app and by email, once the answers are due within a day and yours are not yet sent. |
| At the deadline | The review expires unreviewed, and no verdict can be given. | The request expires, and no answers can be sent. |
The requester can also withdraw either kind while it is open. Whoever asked — an agent or a person — is told how it settled, with the verdicts and notes or the answers.
Asking for one yourself
From Ask for in your inbox, choose Review or Information, or go straight to Ask for a review or Ask for information. Name colleagues, a team, or a client you have already shared with. What you asked for is listed under the inbox's Waiting tab, and settled requests under Completed.