Artwork approval and proofing workflow for your print store

Every design on an order gets a recorded decision before the job prints, with a reason the buyer can act on.

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Quoted per project, no obligation. The assessment is free and carries no price list.

The Customer Design box on an order, where a design is accepted or declined. Demo store, sample products and prices.

In short

How do I add artwork approval to a WooCommerce print store?

Cmsmart Product Designer already includes per-design approval: your team accepts or declines each design on the order, emails the reason, and approved artwork is locked. Multi-step approval chains, comments with version history and approver portals are built as custom development. We agree the rules with you first, then configure or build them.

Key facts: Artwork approval workflow
Scope	Approval of customer designs and uploaded files on each order, before the job goes to production
What you get	A recorded decision for each design, a status the buyer can see, and a release step before production
Typical inputs	Who must approve, the reasons for a rejection, what happens after one, and your current order flow
Deliverables	Written approval rules, a configured or custom workflow on staging, a test run with a deliberate rejection and a run book
How pricing works	Free assessment, then a quote per project. Per-design approval ships with the plugin; chains and portals are quoted.

How it works

From a design on an order to production

From a design on an order to production. A declined design goes back to the buyer with the reason. An edit after ordering returns the order to review. Once approved, the artwork is locked and the job can be released.

The problem

What goes wrong when nobody can show who approved what?

A dispute over which version of a file was approved
A new upload that silently replaces a file that was already reviewed
Several people with a say in the artwork (designer, brand owner, buyer) and no record of what each one decided
Approved artwork edited after the fact
Silence read as consent

Fit

Is this the right service?

A good fit	Another route fits better
A job should not print until someone has signed it off on the record	You need a contract colour proof with measured tolerances, which is controlled at the press and not in software
Several people each need to record a decision on the same artwork	The same person approves and orders, so a simple confirmation step is enough
You have already had an argument about which version was approved	Your print files are not reliable yet: fix the file step first with prepress automation

What we do

What is in scope?

Part	Input	Deliverable
Approval rules	Who approves, why a design may be rejected, and what happens after a rejection	A signed rule sheet
Decision per design	The designs and files on the order	Accept or decline with an emailed reason (ships in the plugin)
Buyer status	The order screen and My Account	Approved, Needs fix or Pending review (ships in the plugin)
Locking	Approved artwork	The server refuses a save over an approved design (ships in the plugin)
Chains and versions	Several approvers, comments and version history	A custom workflow built to your rules
Release step	The order status that sends a job to production	A gate that opens when sign-off is complete, with a link to your MIS if you want one

The Cmsmart angle

What the plugin does today, and what is custom

Artwork Approval is built into Cmsmart Product Designer for WooCommerce. Its edges are documented, and they mark where custom work starts.

Core Ships in the plugin

Accept or decline per design. The Customer Design box on the order lists each design and file. Your team accepts or declines the selected ones and emails the buyer the reason.
Status for the buyer. Orders show an Approved, Needs fix or Pending review pill beside the print-file status.
Fix a declined design. Customers can edit or re-upload a design after ordering until it is approved. Editing returns a declined proof to pending review and queues a new print file.
Approved artwork locked. Saving over an approved design is refused on the server, whichever link the save comes from.

Custom Built as custom development

Multi-step approval chains with several approvers
Online proof sign-off with comments and version history
Approval portals for B2B company accounts
Reminder schedules, because the notify mail is sent by your team
Integration with your MIS or job tracking

Design principles

What a sign-off record should hold

When we build a custom approval workflow, these four rules decide the design. They are what turns a chat thread into evidence.

Versions, never overwrites

Each upload becomes a numbered version of its own, so it cannot overwrite a file that a reviewer has already marked up.
A decision per approver

Each required approver records approval or rejection. No reply is not approval.
A reason with every rejection

The buyer sees what to fix, and the next version carries the earlier notes forward.
A gate to production

Production receives the job only once every required approver has signed off that version, and the release notes who let it through and when.

Scope

Included, not included, and extra

Clear lines before you start. The final scope is written into your proposal.

Included

Written approval rules
Configuration of per-design approval, buyer status and the fix path
Custom approval steps, version history or a release gate, where scoped
A test run with a deliberate rejection
A run book for your team

Not included

A colour-managed contract proof, or any assurance that the proof will look like the print
Spend or purchase-order approval. That belongs to B2B portal work.
A promise that a reviewer replies within a set time
File-level preflight, which is the prepress automation service
Licences, hosting and third-party fees (plugins, fonts, images, services, provider accounts)
Anything that is not written in the approved scope

Extra, quoted separately

A B2B company-account approval portal
Integration with your MIS or job tracking
Reminder schedules for approvers

What we need from you

The people who must approve, and in what order
Your usual rejection reasons
Examples of orders that went wrong because of approval
Access to a staging copy with sample orders
A staging copy of your store, or approval to create one
Someone on your side who can make decisions when a question comes up

Process

How the work runs

Each phase is a milestone, approved and invoiced one at a time. The timeline is set in the assessment because it depends on your store, your products and your systems.

Free assessment. We read your brief, your store and your constraints, and tell you whether the service fits and what it would involve.
Written scope and quote. Included, not included, extra and what we need from you, set out before any work starts.
Build on a staging copy, in milestones you approve one at a time in your dashboard.
Acceptance with your own products, files and orders, including the awkward ones.
Handover with a run book, then support through tickets in your dashboard.

This service in three phases

What happens, and what you receive

Phase	What happens	What you receive
1. Specify	We agree the required approvers, the rejection reasons and the re-proof rules, and write them down.	A signed rule sheet
2. Configure or build	We configure the plugin's approval, and build any chain, version history or gate on staging.	The workflow handling a set of genuine proofs, including rejected ones
3. Accept and hand over	Your approvers push their own jobs through it and reject one on purpose.	An acceptance record and a run book

Free assessment

Start with a free assessment

Describe your store and what you need. We reply with whether the service fits, what it would involve and a quote, with no obligation.

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Does this promise that the proof matches the printed colour?

No. It records approval of content and release. Colour-managed contract proofing is handled at the press, with its own equipment and standards.

Can several people be required to approve one design?

Per-design approval by your team ships with the plugin. Several required approvers with a release gate is a custom workflow.

What happens to a declined design?

The buyer gets the reason by email and, with the setting on, which is the default, can edit or re-upload until it is approved. An edit returns the order to pending review and queues a new print file.

Can we find out afterwards who approved a job?

A full audit trail with the approver, time and version is part of the custom workflow, and the export format is agreed in the rule sheet.

Do approvers need an account in our store?

Your own team works in wp-admin. Approvers outside your team, such as a client's brand owner, need the custom portal.

Related services

Learn more

The team behind Cmsmart and its published work

2012Netbase since 2012Cmsmart Ecommerce is a Netbase JSC company
6,300+client projectssince 2012
80+countriesclients worldwide
17,133proposals writtenin our project system, live count

Client projects and countries: Netbase portfolio library and WorkSuite project records, as of Sep 2026. Proposals: records in our Cloodo WorkSuite project system, all-time, refreshed every 6 hours.

Talk to an ecommerce expert

Huy Nguyen (David)

Founder & CEO, Cmsmart · Netbase JSC

Every request is read by the team before you get a written scope and estimate.

Request a proposal Chat with David on WhatsApp

Published Cmsmart projects

Project records from our portfolio. They show the wider work of the team, not this exact service.

Stores on Cmsmart Ecommerce

Artwork approval workflowFree assessment

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