How to approve social media posts before publishing
Bottom line: Approve social media posts before publishing in the Review tab at /dashboard/content?tab=review. Click Approve, Reject or Edit on each card, and use Approve all for clean batches. Switch Approval Mode to Approve Automatically only after two or three clean weeks of manual review.
In short:
- Before you start: you need posts waiting in Review. An OWNER or EDITOR seat can switch Approval Mode.
- Steps: check Approval Mode, read Why this, Approve, Reject, Edit, Approve all, switch to Approve Automatically when ready, then watch the Scheduled queue.
- What to expect next: the publish queue runs every 5 minutes, and a failed send is retried twice before the post is marked FAILED.
- Common mistakes: approving without checking the channel, leaving posts past their slot, and treating automatic mode as no review at all.
Before you start
Approval Mode is available from the Presence plan onward. Presence, the entry plan, costs ₹30,000 a month + 18% GST (₹35,400). It includes 20 social posts a month, counted per platform, so one piece sent to three platforms uses three. See the pricing page.
To approve social media posts before publishing, check three things:
- Your role. An OWNER or EDITOR can switch Approval Mode. A VIEWER cannot. The workspace owner can invite a receptionist or practice manager under Settings › Team with Send invite. Give them the EDITOR role. Seats are 2, 5 or 10 by plan.
- Posts waiting in Review. They arrive from a calendar cycle (Calendar tab › Generate calendar → Generate full content) or from the weekly content job. That job runs Monday 06:30 IST. It needs an active plan and at least one connected social channel. Each cycle makes at most one piece per day, copied to each connected platform. If Review is empty, follow generate your first content calendar first.
- A browser. A phone browser works. There is no mobile app and no WhatsApp approval.
The content hub at /dashboard/content has six tabs: Live, Calendar, Review, Make your own, Post Setting and Brand settings. This guide uses two of them.
Picture a practice manager at a dental clinic in Ahmedabad. The Monday 06:30 IST batch is waiting when she reaches the clinic. Before outpatient (OPD) hours start, she reads each card on her phone. She approves the clean ones, rejects one and edits one.
Steps: approve social media posts before publishing
- Approval Mode — Open
/dashboard/content?tab=review. The Approval Mode control reads "Choose whether posts should wait for review or auto-queue." Its two buttons are Approve Manually and Approve Automatically. For a new workspace, keep Approve Manually. A toast confirms a change with "Approval mode set to manual" or "Approval mode set to automatic". - Why this — On each post card, read the Why this strip. It is a strip, not a button. Its chips are Pillar (the content category), Theme (the week's theme), Persona (the reader it targets) and Why (the intent). Older posts may not show it. If the purpose is wrong for your clinic, reject the post rather than polish it.
- Approve — Click Approve on a card you are happy with. The toast reads Approved & queued. Approve is disabled once the scheduled slot has passed. The tooltip says "This post's slot has passed — reschedule it to approve". If the post's channel is disconnected or posting is switched off, Approve still succeeds and the post leaves Review without being queued, and the toast does not say so. Check the channel under Connectors before approving.
- Reject — Click Reject on a post you do not want. The toast reads "Rejected" and the post drops out of the queue. Reject still works after the slot has passed.
- Edit — Click Edit to change the headline and caption in place. Saving does not approve the post. The toast reads "Saved · still needs your approval". To change hashtags, the image or the schedule, click the post title to open the composer at
/dashboard/studio/[postId]. A failing brand rule flags the post but does not block approval. The full walkthrough is in edit a post before it goes live. - Approve all — Tick the cards you want. A bar appears with Approve all and Reject all. Use it when a whole batch is clean. Bulk approve shows the toast "Approved N posts", where N counts every selected post. It does not list which ones failed to queue, so check the Live tab afterwards.
- Approve Automatically — Switch only after two or three weeks in which you approved almost everything untouched. Click Approve Automatically. Every post already waiting in Review is approved at that moment and queued if it can be. A post whose slot has passed is marked FAILED, and one whose channel is disconnected is approved but not queued, so reject or reschedule those first. A banner appears: "Auto approve is on", with the line "All pending review posts will be automatically approved and scheduled." New posts then go straight to the queue. A draft the quality score rates weak still stops in Review for a person to decide.
- Scheduled queue — Open
/dashboard/content?tab=live. The Live tab shows what is already published and what is queued next. In the Scheduled queue section, an "N queued" count shows how many posts are waiting.
What to expect next
The publish queue runs every 5 minutes. If a send fails, Sunbots retries it after 5 minutes, then after 15 minutes. After the third failed attempt, the post is marked FAILED.
A post that stays APPROVED but never reaches the queue is marked FAILED once its scheduled time is more than 24 hours past, instead of being published late. A FAILED post cannot be rescheduled, so create a fresh one. Troubleshooting a failed post covers the disconnected-channel case.
Notifications help you keep up. Under Settings › Notifications the types include "Approval Required" and "Post Failed". Email Digest Frequency can be Instant, Daily Digest, Weekly Digest or Disabled.
When you open Review with nothing waiting, it shows "Nothing waiting" and "You're caught up" with a link to Live. Right after you approve the last post, a summary card appears instead.
Common mistakes
- Approving without checking the channel. If the channel is disconnected or posting is switched off, Approve still succeeds and the post leaves Review without being queued. Check the channel under Connectors first.
- Leaving posts past their slot. Approve is disabled once the scheduled time has passed. Reschedule the post in the studio, or reject it.
- Expecting a failing rule to block approval. It flags; it does not block. Images are not checked at all. A person still has to look at every image for things your rules forbid, such as a before-and-after photo.
- Treating automatic mode as no review. A weak draft still stops in Review, and the queue on the Live tab is yours to watch. Keep the "Approval Required" notification on.
- Trusting the bulk toast. "Approved N posts" counts every selected post and does not list failures to queue. Check the Live tab afterwards.
- Editing a queued post and forgetting it. Changing the caption or hashtags of an approved or queued post sends it back to Review for a fresh decision.
- Switching to Approve Automatically in week one. Use the first few weeks to learn what the drafts get wrong. Tighten your brand voice Do and Don't lists.
Frequently asked questions
What does Approve Automatically actually do?
It changes how posts enter the queue. In Approve Manually, every post waits in Review for a click. When you switch to Approve Automatically, every post already waiting is approved at that moment and queued if it can be. A post whose slot has passed is marked FAILED, and one whose channel is disconnected is approved but not queued. New posts then go straight to the queue, and a banner says so. A draft the quality score rates weak still stops in Review. Only an OWNER or EDITOR can switch the mode.
Can I still edit a post after it is auto-approved?
Yes, until it publishes. Click the post title to reach the composer, where you can change the caption, hashtags or image. Changing the caption or hashtags sends the post back to Review for a fresh decision. Once a post has published, or is publishing, you can no longer edit it. A FAILED post cannot be rescheduled, so create a fresh one.
Does a failed brand rule stop me approving?
No. A failing brand rule flags the post but never blocks Approve. Treat the flag as a prompt to look, not a gate. Generated images are not checked, so look at every image yourself. For a clinic, watch for anything your own rules forbid, such as a before-and-after photo.
Where do approved posts go?
Into the publish queue, which runs every 5 minutes. The Live tab lists what is queued next beside what has published. Its Scheduled queue section shows an "N queued" count. Failures and late posts are covered under What to expect next above.
Related guides
Message us on WhatsApp at wa.me/919104177936 for a 15-minute walkthrough of your own Review tab.
Sources
- Sunbots Marketing pricing page — checked 1 October 2026
- Sunbots WhatsApp demo — checked 1 October 2026
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our team for accuracy.