How to manage client approvals in a monday.com client portal

Your team may already manage projects, deliverables and their current status in monday.com. But when something needs client approval, the workflow can quickly move somewhere else. A file gets emailed to the client. Feedback comes back in another email. Someone confirms that the latest version is approved. Your team then has to transfer that decision back into monday.com manually.

A client portal can keep the external part of the approval process connected to the same workflow. With Client Portal Builder for monday.com, clients can review relevant deliverables through their portal, provide feedback and take actions such as approving the work or requesting changes. Your team continues managing the underlying items, files, statuses and automations in monday.com. The result is an approval process that moves between your team and the client without moving the underlying workflow out of monday.com.

Workflow

What a client approval workflow can look like

A simple approval process might already be represented by a Status column on your monday.com board: In progress → Ready for client review → Approved

Most real approval processes also need a way to handle revisions: In progress → Ready for client review → Changes requested → Ready for client review → Approved

The important part is that these states remain part of the monday.com item your team is already working with. Instead of creating a separate approval record somewhere else, the client portal provides the external client with an interface for interacting with the relevant stage of that existing workflow. For example, when a deliverable changes to Ready for client review, the client could see:

• the name of the deliverable
• its current approval status
• a preview of the relevant file
• an Approve action
• a Request changes action
• comments for providing additional feedback

Once the client takes action, the workflow can continue in monday.com.

Review

Give clients one place to review deliverables

Clients usually do not need access to the entire board your team uses internally. A project board might contain owners, internal deadlines, time estimates, production notes or other information that is useful to your team but irrelevant to the client. Instead, a client portal can expose only the information required for the review.

The data still comes from your monday.com board. The portal simply gives the client a controlled view of the items and columns that concern them. Client Portal Builder supports Board Table and Board Grid sections for displaying monday.com items, including file columns and file previews. The technical setup for these sections is covered separately in the Client Portal Builder documentation.

Decisions

Let client decisions continue the monday.com workflow

Reviewing the work is only one part of an approval process. The client's decision also needs to reach the team. Client Portal Builder can add actions to individual board items in the portal. This makes it possible to provide clear options such as: Approve or Request changes

These actions can trigger monday.com automations on the underlying item, for example:

Client selects Approve → monday.com automation runs → approval status changes to Approved → your internal workflow continues

Or client selects Request changes → monday.com automation runs → approval status changes to Changes requested → the item returns to the team for revision

The exact automation can depend on your existing process. An approval might update a Status column, notify a project owner, move an item to another group or trigger additional steps in monday.com.

This is where the portal becomes more than a place to display information. A client action can become another input into the monday.com workflow your team already uses. For the technical configuration, see our documentation on Action Buttons and monday.com automations.

Feedback

Keep feedback connected to the deliverable

An approval is not always a simple yes or no. If a client requests changes, they usually need to explain what should be revised. Moving that conversation back to email separates the feedback from the item your team is working on. Item comments can keep the discussion attached to the relevant deliverable instead. Clients can comment on individual items through the portal, reply to existing conversations and attach files. Your team can respond from monday.com while the discussion stays associated with that item.

The approval loop can therefore become: Review the deliverable → Approve or request changes → Provide feedback → Team updates the work → Submit the revised version for review → Client approves

For teams that go through several review rounds, keeping each discussion connected to its deliverable can make it much easier to understand what was requested and where the work currently stands. See our item comments documentation for the current setup and configuration options. For a broader look at structuring project feedback and general messages, see how to manage client communication in a monday.com client portal.

Relevance

Show approval actions only when clients need them

Clients should not see an Approve button while a deliverable is still being prepared. The actions available in the portal can follow the current state of the monday.com item, for example:

• In progress
  No approval actions
• Ready for client review
  Show Approve and Request changes
• Changes requested
  No approval actions while the team works on the revision
• Approved
  No further approval action required

Client Portal Builder can conditionally show Action Buttons based on a monday.com Status column. This means the client facing experience can change together with the operational workflow rather than presenting the same actions throughout the entire project.

Example

Manage agency deliverable approvals

Consider an agency that manages client projects in monday.com. One item on its Deliverables board represents a new homepage concept:

The agency works on the design internally until its status changes from In progress to Ready for client review. The client then opens the portal and sees the homepage concept together with the current file. They review the design and select Request changes. The approval status in monday.com changes accordingly, and the client adds a comment asking the team to use a different hero image.

The designer sees the request on the same item, uploads the revised concept and moves it back to Ready for client review. The client returns to the portal, reviews the new version and selects Approve. The item is now Approved, and the agency can continue with the next stage of the project.

Throughout the process:

• the deliverable remains a monday.com item
• the file remains connected to the monday.com workflow
• the approval status remains in monday.com
• client feedback stays tied to the deliverable
• monday.com automations can react to the client's decision

The portal handles the client interaction without creating a second approval system beside monday.com. The same pattern can work for reports, campaign assets, proposals, plans, documents, project milestones and other work that requires external client review.

Internal or external

When to use a portal for approvals

Not every approval process needs a client portal. If the person approving the work already collaborates inside your monday.com account, it usually makes sense to keep the entire approval process there. A client portal becomes more relevant when the approval needs to come from someone outside your internal workspace. The distinction is:

• Internal approval
  The approver works directly in monday.com and can participate in the internal workflow.
• Client approval
  Your team manages the workflow in monday.com, while an external client needs a controlled way to review the relevant work, provide feedback and make a decision.

The portal does not replace monday.com's role in the workflow. It provides the client facing part of that workflow.

Summary

Keep the complete approval cycle connected to monday.com

Client approvals often sit at the boundary between your internal work and the client's involvement. Instead of moving that part of the process into email or another approval system, a client portal can extend the workflow you already manage in monday.com.

Your team prepares the work in monday.com. The client reviews it through the portal. Their approval or change request feeds back into monday.com. Your team then continues from the updated status, comments and next workflow step. That creates one connected cycle:

Manage work in monday.com → Share it for client review → Collect approval and feedback → Continue the monday.com workflow