IQApprove – Module Workflow
Introduction
The IQApprove module enables seamless uploading and monitoring of proofs for customer approval.
By incorporating an operation into the job, which is associated with the operation category of ‘Proofing’, users can efficiently manage this process:
Depending on your workflow configuration, jobs will be visible on the Pre-Production board under the ‘Proof’ tab:
Uploading Proofs
The current Proof Status is ‘Not Yet Sent’.
When proofs for a job are ready to be sent to the client, navigate to the job details screen and click the PDF Proof button (the name of this button will match the Description on the proofing operation):
This opens a proof upload screen where the ‘Add Proof’ modal will automatically load:
Inside this modal there are several options:
Send Email
- Yes – With ‘Send Email’ active, the button at the bottom right of the modal remains as ‘Send Proofs’
- No – With ‘Send Email’ inactive, the button at the bottom right of the modal changes to ‘Save Proofs’
Proof Type
- Soft Proof
- Hard Proof
Send Proof As
- PNG
Contact
- One contact or multiple contacts can be added:
- If a quote question for selecting a proof contact is active, the ‘Add Proof’ modal will load with the Contact field pre-populated with that contacts details. Otherwise, the quote contact set on the quote will populate this field.
- If ‘Send Email’ button is set to NO, the contact field will not display.
Choose File
- One file or multiple files can be uploaded:
- Select the proof file(s) and they will upload. A blue progress bar will appear on-screen as the files upload to remote server. Once complete a success message will display.
- When Proof files have uploaded, they can be linked to any related artwork file and notes can be added by clicking the speech bubble icon.
‘Send Email’ button set to NO
Send Email button set to YES:
Proof files can be removed by clicking the x icon on the right of the proof file details.
Once the proof files have been uploaded, and all necessary information has been applied, click the ‘Send Proofs’ button to email the proof files to the contacts listed above.
The ‘Proof Ready’ email template configured for the site, will be sent to each of the Proof Contacts and the Proof Status will update to ‘Awaiting Approval’:
Order Based Proofing
When there are multiple products/jobs from the same quote acceptance, these can be proofed collectively through the Proof screen.
If users access the Proofing screen through a job, the ‘Add Proof’ modal will load for that job.
If the screen is accessed through the Orders Board (by clicking the Proof status icon), the modal will load when the ‘Add Proof’ button is clicked.
Either way, multiple proofs can be selected, and linked to any job from the same order/acceptance:
The Proofing screen allows filtering proofs by status. For example, if you prefer to only see proofs that have not yet been sent you would select the ‘Not yet sent’ checkbox only and only proofs at this status will display:
Click the ‘I’ icon to expand the job details information:
The Expand All/Collapse All button will apply this to all jobs listed on the screen.
Customer Review
The ‘Proof Ready’ email will be sent to the contacts assigned in the ‘Add Proof’ modal. This email contains a link which allows the receivers to review the proofs.
Upon clicking the link, contacts will access the approval screen where they can ‘Review Proof’:
When the ‘Review Proof’ button is clicked, the file will download to allow the review to happen.
Once reviewed the user can click Reject or Approve to update the proof status and inform the Account Manager:
Customers and non-registered users will also have access to an ‘Other Proofs’ tab on the Proofing screen, if proofs linked to other jobs have been sent to them and are pending approval.
When the Select All/Deselect All button is clicked all proofs on the screen will be selected/deselected:
These can be Approved or Rejected collectively. Other multi-select options include:
Contact AM – this button will only be active if all selected jobs have the same account manager.
Download – enables users to download multiple files to a ZIP folder.
All of the above options are available to internal/staff users also.
Handling Rejections
If a proof is rejected, the user rejecting it must provide a reason and can attach supporting files if this function is configured.
The setting to allow file upload on rejection is known as ‘IQ APPROVE - Allow file upload on Rejection’.
Setting to allow file upload on rejection can only be accessed by IQ support staff.
Internally, the proof approved icon appears on the ‘All Jobs’, the Orders Board and the Job Details screen, as well as the proofing screen.
The proofing screen will also display the reason for rejection. if a supporting document was uploaded, an attachment icon will be visible and the file can be downloaded by clicking the attachment icon:
A Proof Rejection email can be configured to be sent to relevant parties when a proof has been rejected.
The proof can be replaced, and the process begins again.
Approval Confirmation
When a proof is approved, the proof status updates to Approved and the proof approved icon displays:
Internally, the proof approved icon appears on the All Jobs Board, the Orders Board and the Job Details screen.
A Proof approval email can be configured to be sent to relevant parties when a proof has been approved.
If there are multiple proof files on the same order, with some rejected and some approved, the proof multi-status icon will display on Job Details screen, All Jobs and Orders Board.
Completing Proof-related Work
Internally, back on the jobs details screen, mark the proof operation as complete by clicking the ‘stop’ timing icon.
This action closes the ‘Proof’ operation and progresses the job to the next status:
Advanced Tracking using Saved Filters
Utilize Saved Filters on the ‘All Jobs’ and ‘Orders’ board to enhance proof tracking. Separate filters for ‘Proof Statuses’ alongside ‘Job Status’ facilitate tailored views.
The following image displays a list of custom proof filters:
Using the ‘PROOF – All’ filter users can see all jobs currently out on proof. The proof icons can be used as a quick reference to see what the proof status is. Creating filters with specific proof status options selected, users can quickly switch between one status and another:
The proof status icons are:
Not Yet Sent
Awaiting Approval
Approved
Rejected
Multiple statuses/files
Resetting Approvals
In cases of late changes after proof approval, internal users can ‘Reset Approval’:
Clicking this will revert the proof status to Awaiting Approval. Next, the Delete & Replace would need to be clicked form the ‘Other Actions’ dropdown list:
The Upload Replacement Proof modal will appear, and a new proof file must be uploaded.
Click ‘Delete & Upload Replacement’ button to delete the original proof file and replace it with the new one:
This streamlined workflow ensures effective management of proofs from upload to approval, enhancing efficiency and communication throughout the process.
Setting - Expand Other Jobs on Proof Details by Default
When accessing the proofing screen from a job that is on an order with other jobs; only details for the job you have accessed the proofing screen through, will be expanded by default:
In the example above, the order has 3 jobs in total and the proofing screen has been accessed via J003528-01. Therefore, proof details for J003528-01 are expanded and are collapsed the other two jobs.
This is controlled by the setting; ‘Expand Other Jobs on Proof Details by Default’:
Change this to ‘ON’ and proof details will always be expanded for all jobs when the proofing screen loads. This is a global setting.
This setting can be found under Admin -> Customise -> Settings -> Production
Email Templates
To cater for the 'Proof - Ready' and the ’Proof - Contact account manager’ email, sending information for multiple jobs and proofs, a table can be inserted into the templates to display the necessary details.
Add the placeholder {ProofDetails} to add a table of proof information as show below:
If you prefer not to display a table like the one shown above, and prefer to swap out a list of job numbers with one base job number, this is done by swapping the placeholder {JobNumber} with {BaseJobNumber}.
This will change the Proof Ready email template from displaying like this:
To this:
These placeholders also exist, and can be used, in the ’Proof - Contact account manager’ email template.
printIQ recommends using the Proof Details table as it displays information in a clear, easy to read format:
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