Zoho Writer lets you build your own document approval steps

Zoho Writer, the word processor from Zoho, now lets you build your own approval chain for documents. You choose the stages, decide who signs off at each one, and even add customers or vendors by email address. Those outside people do not need a Zoho account to take part. Zoho also upgraded its pre-built approval workflows with the same kinds of options.

What changed

Before, you picked from ready-made workflows. Now you can design one from scratch, with your own stages and your own rule for when each stage is complete. Zoho gives a sales contract as an example, with four stages in order: Salesperson Review, Sales Manager Approval, Legal Approval, and Customer Approval.

New controls

• Send a document to all reviewers at once, or to one reviewer after another in a set order.
• Require every approver to sign off, or let any one approval move the document forward.
• Start a workflow automatically at a set date and time, so no one has to trigger it by hand.
• Attach a workflow to a file or a folder, so every document placed there enters it automatically.

Zoho describes a policy document sent to the HR, legal, and compliance teams at the same time. Once all three finish, it moves to the next stage. In another example, a compliance document goes to three approvers, but the first approval is enough to move it on.

Who it affects

This is aimed at teams where contracts, policies, or agreements pass through several people. The folder option is the most hands-off. Zoho's example is a contracts folder in WorkDrive, its file storage service, where every contract added starts the approval process on its own.

The outside approver feature may matter most for small businesses. Zoho's example is a vendor agreement that goes to an internal legal team for review and then to the vendor for final approval. The vendor only needs an email address.

What is not known yet

Zoho's announcement does not say what the features cost, which plans include them, or when every customer will see them. It points readers to its user guide for setup steps. Questions can go to support@zohowriter.com, or support@eu.zohowriter.com for the EU service.