Customer Approval

CraftStage's approval portal lets your customer review and approve proofs through a single link — no account needed, no email back-and-forth.

Sending for approval

On the job detail page, click Send Approval. CraftStage generates a unique approval link that you can copy and send to your customer however you prefer — email, text message, or your shop management system.

Each time you generate a new approval link, any previous active link for that job is deactivated. Only the most recent link works.

What your customer sees

The approval portal is a mobile-friendly page that shows:

• Your business name and the order details
• A progress bar showing how many items are reviewed
• Each proof in a swipeable carousel
• Two buttons per proof: Approve and Request Change

Your customer swipes through the proofs like photos. For each one, they either approve it or tap "Request Change" and type what's wrong. There's also an Approve All Remaining button for customers who are happy with everything.

No login or account is required. The link works on any device with a browser.

Handling revision requests

When a customer requests a change, here's what happens:

1. You receive a notification that a revision was requested
2. The job detail page shows the item with a "Needs Revision" status
3. The customer's notes are attached to the item (e.g., "Name should be Jon, not John")
4. You edit the item, regenerate the proof, and the updated proof appears in the same approval link

You don't need to send a new link — the customer can refresh the page to see the updated proof.

Link expiration and security

Approval links use 21-character tokens that are practically unguessable. Links can be configured with an expiration date. The portal is rate-limited to 100 requests per 15 minutes per IP address to prevent abuse.

Skipping approval

Approval is optional. If your customer says "just do it" over the phone, you can skip the approval step entirely. Run preflight to make sure everything is clean, then go straight to export. The activity log records that the job was exported without customer approval for your audit trail.

Activity tracking

Every action in the approval portal is logged:

• When the customer accessed the link
• Which proofs they viewed
• What they approved or flagged for revision
• Revision notes

This gives you a complete audit trail if a customer later questions what was approved.

Next step

With approval complete (or skipped), you're ready to export laser-ready files.