Use the Approval Form in the Tekst SidePanel – Tekst

When an automation includes an Approval Form, it pauses until someone on your team reviews the prepared content and approves or declines it. The Tekst SidePanel is where that review happens: the form appears next to the item it belongs to, whether you use the Tekst SidePanel as an Outlook app or as a browser extension.

This article is for the person reviewing the approval. For how to add an Approval Form to an automation as an administrator, see Add an Approval Form to an automation.

Where the Approval Form appears

Open the item in the tool you work in - an email conversation, a Salesforce case, or an SAP ticket - then open the Tekst SidePanel. Pending approvals appear on the Actions tab, which is selected by default.

The Tekst SidePanel always shows approvals for the item you currently have open. If a colleague opens the same item, they see the same pending approval.

To see an approval at all, an automation must use the Approval Form block and must have produced an approval step for the item you are viewing.

Reviewing the content

Each approval appears as a card. The card is titled Human approval, unless the person who built the automation gave it a name of its own.

The form itself is built by whoever designed the automation, so its contents vary. It can contain short text, long text, number, date and email fields, single and multiple choice questions, and tables. Some tables expand: rows with a small chevron open into a detail table beneath them.

An approval card named Order change request, holding a text field, a long text field, an editable table of order lines, and a date field, next to the Salesforce case it belongs to

Editing before deciding

Editable fields can be changed directly in the panel, for example a drafted reply that needs a different figure. Some fields are read-only, which keeps a value your models predicted visible without letting it be changed.

There is no Save button. Your changes are stored as a working draft automatically, a moment after you stop typing, so reloading the panel or switching to the side-by-side view does not lose them.

Approving or declining

Approve saves your edits first, then submits the decision. The automation continues along its approved path with the content as you left it.
Decline submits the decision without submitting your edits. Anything you changed is still kept as a working draft, but it is not validated or passed on - the automation simply continues along its declined path, if one is configured. If you want your corrections used, approve instead.

There is no prompt for a reason or a comment when declining.

Once you decide, the card shows Processed with the decision, your name, and the date and time, along with a badge: a green check for approved, a red cross for declined. The card then collapses and no longer offers the decision buttons.

A collapsed approval card reading Processed (Create order), with the name of the person who approved it, the date and time, and a green check badge

The buttons may be named differently

Your administrator can rename both decision buttons and the card title. An automation might show Send reply rather than Approve, and the processed state repeats whatever label you clicked, for example Processed (Send reply).

When Approve is not available

If a required field is empty or a value is invalid, Approve appears dimmed. Clicking it highlights every field that needs attention, and hovering over the button explains what is blocking it. No decision is recorded until the form is valid. Decline stays available.

If a field could not be loaded at all, both buttons are blocked, because the field cannot be completed in the panel. Contact whoever owns the automation in that case.

Reviewing side by side

Next to the tabs sits a full-screen icon labeled Open in window. It appears once the item has at least one approval, and opens a split-screen view: the message on one side and the item's approval forms on the other, with the decision buttons next to each other. Each card also has its own full-screen icon (Open full screen) that opens just that one form.

The top of the Sidepanel with the Open in window tooltip showing on the full-screen icon beside the tabs, and the approval card below it carrying its own full-screen icon

The split-screen window with the attached purchase order on the left and two approval forms stacked on the right, the first one open with its decision buttons side by side

Approving in the split-screen view keeps the result on screen instead of collapsing it away, which is useful when you are working through a batch.

No approval showing?

If you expect an approval but the panel shows that the automation is still running, the run has not reached the Approval Form yet - the panel updates automatically the moment it does. If the panel shows nothing at all for the item, no automation produced an action for it.

Other messages you may see

Already processed. Someone else decided this one first. Nothing you did was lost. The card may keep showing as pending for a short while; close and reopen the panel to see the decision that was actually recorded.
Approval expired. The approval window closed before anyone acted, and the card shows an expired state with a red alarm-clock badge. The automation has moved on. Contact whoever owns the automation if the item still needs handling.
This message can not be reviewed. The automation is off, was removed, or is blocked by your organization's rules, so the approval can no longer be decided.

See Troubleshoot the Tekst SidePanel if the panel itself does not load.