# Checking and approving

> Submit each location's log, have it checked and approved, and see its history.

On **Pro**, each location's log is signed off on its own, from its **Sign-off** tab.

## The steps

1. **Submit for checking** when the log is ready.
2. The **checker** reviews it and presses **Mark checked**, or **Return** with a reason.
3. The **approver** presses **Approve**, or **Return** with a reason.

A returned log goes back to whoever submitted it, to fix and submit again. Each step is
kept in the location's **History**: who did it, when, and why it was returned.

On the locations list, each location's dot shows where it is: grey not submitted, amber
submitted, red returned, blue checked, green approved. **Filter** lists them by step.

## Batches and rounds

To hand over a set of locations at once, filter the list to them and press the submit
button beside **Filter**: every listed location that's ready (not submitted yet, or
returned) goes as one batch. The checker is told once, for the whole batch, and checks
or returns each location on its own, so some can come back while the rest move on.

You can also submit from the [table editor](/manage/table-editor#working-with-selected-rows):
select rows and choose **Submit N for checking**. Its **Sign-off** column shows where
each location is, and opens it here.

Each submission is the location's next **round**: **R1** the first time, **R2** after
it has been returned and submitted again, and so on. The Sign-off tab shows the round,
and the history says which round each step was in.

On round 2 and after, the **Comments** tab lists what is **Still open from round 1**
first, apart from comments raised this round, so what came back unfixed is easy to see.
Returning a log says which open comments go back with it.

## The journey

The Sign-off tab's **History** is a timeline of the location's rounds, newest first.
Between a round that was returned and the next, it says what was fixed: how many rows
changed and how many comments were resolved, with **See the changes**.

Switch on **Changed since round N** to cloud, on the log, every row changed or added
since that round was submitted; rows that were removed are listed under the switch. It
comes on by itself when you are checking or approving a location on round 2 or later,
so you can look again at just what moved.

Work through the changes one at a time. Tick the mark at a cloud's top right to resolve
that change: it goes from the log for everyone on the project, and the count under the
switch shows only what's left. Removed rows have a **Resolve** of their own. **Show
resolved** brings resolved changes back, faded, with an arrow to reopen each. If a row
you resolved is edited again, it's clouded again as a new change.

## Who checks and approves

Choose the project's checker and approver under **Project's people** on the Sign-off
tab. Change them for one location on its tab, or for every location in the list with
the assign button beside **Filter**. With nobody chosen, anyone on the project can check
or approve. Choosing people needs permission to update the project.

- Whoever submitted a log never checks or approves it.
- Whoever checked a log doesn't approve it too, unless your company allows it.
- Nothing open stops a check or an approval. Open comments, flags and validation
  findings are named first, so you can decide, and they stay open. Validation findings
  are there to support what you say, not to hold a log up.

## What's waiting on you

**Filter > Waiting on me** lists the checks and approvals that are yours, and logs you
submitted that came back. The bell tells you when a log is submitted for your check or
approval, when one is checked and ready for your approval, and when one you submitted is
returned or approved.

## After approval

Editing an approved log doesn't undo its approval. The location shows **Changed since
approved** (and a ring round its dot), and its approver approves it again once the
change is checked. If your company sends edited logs back instead, it returns to
**Checked** for approval again.

<Callout type="note" title="Company settings">
  A Super Admin chooses in **Settings > Logs & Sheets** whether logs are checked and approved at
  all, whether there is a check before approval or approval only, and whether one person
  may check and approve the same log. Between rounds, they also choose whether an
  approver's return goes to whoever submitted it or back to the checker, whether a fixed
  log is submitted again by hand or goes back on its own once its comments are resolved,
  and whether an edit after approval marks it or sends it back for approval.
</Callout>
