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Quick Start: Approvers

This guide walks you through creating your first project in ApprovIQ, from account creation to inviting your applicant.

1. Create Your Account​

  1. Go to the ApprovIQ registration page and select Approver as your role
  2. Enter your full name, email address, and a secure password
  3. Check your inbox for a verification email and click the confirmation link
  4. Sign in to access your dashboard

2. Create a New Project​

From your dashboard, click New Project to launch the project wizard. The wizard guides you through five steps:

Step 1: Define Your Project​

  • Enter a project name (e.g., "123 Main Street - Building Certification")
  • Enter the project address
  • Enter the applicant's email address — this is the person who will be submitting documents
  • Choose how to build your approval list:
    • Choose a Project Type — pick a pre-built project type and have items, tasks, fields, and document sets populated in one click
    • Based on Previous Project — duplicate an existing project's approval list
    • Upload a PDF — AI will extract approval items from a checklist document
    • Add Items Manually — start from an empty list

Step 2: Build Your Approval List​

Depending on your chosen method:

  • Project Type / Copy: Items are pre-populated. Review and adjust as needed.
  • PDF Upload: Upload your document and AI will extract the approval items. You can provide custom instructions to guide the extraction.
  • Manual: Add items one by one with a description of what's required.

For each item, you can:

  • Set the item description
  • Attach reference documents
  • Configure AI document checks (the approver can run these against any uploaded document from the review page)

Step 3: Invite Your Team​

  • Co-approvers — invite other certifiers to help review documents (they get most of your permissions)
  • Collaborators — invite external parties who need visibility (view and comment only)
  • The applicant invitation is sent automatically based on the email you entered in Step 1

Step 4: Review and Confirm​

Review your project details, approval list items, and team members. Make any final adjustments before proceeding.

Step 5: Payment​

Complete the payment via Stripe to activate your project. Once payment is confirmed, your project goes live and invitations are sent.

3. Review Submissions​

Once your project is active and the applicant starts uploading documents:

  1. You will receive email notifications when new documents are submitted (with smart debouncing to avoid notification fatigue)
  2. Open the project to see which items have new submissions
  3. For each submitted document:
    • View the document in the built-in PDF viewer
    • Review any AI document check results
    • Choose an action:
      • Satisfied — the document meets requirements
      • Request for Info — ask for additional information or a revised document (add a comment explaining what's needed)
      • Not Applicable — this item doesn't apply to this project

4. Stamp Approved Documents​

Once you've reviewed and satisfied an approval list item, you can stamp the document:

  1. Navigate to the document you want to stamp
  2. Click Stamp Document
  3. Select which pages to stamp
  4. Add an optional reference number and custom text
  5. The stamp is applied with your name, credentials, signature, and logo
tip

Set up your stamp configuration in Settings before your first project. You can customise colours, upload your signature and logo, and enter your certification details. See Stamp Configuration for details.

5. Stay Organised with Project Creation Setup​

After completing your first project, spend a few minutes setting up Project Creation Setup so your next project is one click away:

  1. Go to Project Creation Setup.
  2. Add entries to your Approval Items and Tasks libraries based on what worked in your completed project.
  3. Create any Project Information Fields and Document Sets you want on similar projects in future.
  4. Bundle them all into a Project Type. See Configuring a Project Type.
  5. Attach document checks to your library approval items — they will automatically propagate to all active projects that use them.
  6. Next time you create a project, pick Choose a Project Type in the wizard and everything is populated for you.

Next Steps​