Pour les décisions qui demandent plus d’un oui.

When one yes is not enough.

• A creator wants to work with your brand.
• Someone needs to approve the creator.
• Someone needs to approve the budget.
• Someone needs to approve the campaign.
• Someone needs to approve the agreement.
• Someone needs to approve the work.
• Someone needs to approve the invoice.
• Someone needs to release the funds.
• And those people are rarely the same person.

Approval Chain lets large brands and agencies build the process around those decisions. Put the right people in the right order. Make every step visible. And know exactly what is waiting on whom.

The problem

Large companies don't have one approval process.

• They have dozens.
• A creator may be perfect for a campaign.
• But the Brand Manager can't approve the budget alone.
• The budget may need the Digital Marketing Manager.
• The campaign may need the CMO.
• Procurement may need to approve the commercial terms.
• Legal may need to approve the Agreement.
• The content may need Brand approval.
• Finance may need to approve the invoice.
• The CFO may need to release the funds.
• Every organisation has its own structure.

The problem is that the structure often lives in people's heads, email threads, spreadsheets and internal messages. So when something gets stuck, nobody immediately knows:

• Who has it?
• Who is supposed to approve it?
• What has already been approved?
• What is still waiting?
• How long has it been sitting there?
• What happens next?
• And sometimes the answer is:
• "I think Sarah is waiting for David to approve it."
• That's not an approval system.
• That's institutional memory.

Approval is part of the work

• Creator operations aren't simply:
• Find creator.
• Make content.
• Pay creator.
• There are decisions all the way through.
• Who should we work with?
• How much should we spend?
• Is this campaign worth approving?
• Can this agreement be signed?
• Can this content go live?
• Can this invoice be paid?
• Can these funds be released?
• Those decisions belong to different people.
• Approval Chain gives those decisions a defined path.

Build your own approval structure

There is no single "correct" enterprise approval chain.

• Your organisation might require:
• Brand Manager → Digital Marketing Manager → Head of Marketing → CMO.
• Another might require:
• Brand Manager → Finance → CFO.
• Another:
• Agency Account Manager → Creative Director → Client Brand Manager.
• Another:
• Marketing → Legal → Procurement → Finance.
• Another:
• Campaign Manager → CMO → CFO → Funds Release.
• Approval Chain is built around that reality.
• You define the people.
• You define the order.
• The process follows your organisation.

Not just content approval

Content approval is one possible use.

It is not the whole product. Approval Chain can sit around the decisions that happen before, during and after the content exists.

Creator approval

Should we work with this creator?

Budget approval

Should we spend this amount?

Campaign approval

Should this campaign go ahead?

Brief approval

Are we aligned on what the creator is being asked to deliver?

Agreement approval

Are these commercial terms acceptable?

Content approval

Is this work ready to go live?

Invoice approval

Is this invoice valid and ready for payment?

Fund release

• Has everything required for payment been approved?
• And more.
• The point is not the individual approval.
• The point is the system connecting them.

A chain can follow the money

Creator work often involves significant budgets.

That means the person who approves the work may not be the person who approves the money.

• For example:
• Brand Manager:
• "Yes, this creator is right for the campaign."
• Digital Marketing Manager:
• "Yes, this campaign fits our marketing plan."

Cmo:

"Yes, approve the ₦20 million budget." Finance: "Yes, the commercial documentation is complete."

Cfo:

"Release the funds." Each person has a different responsibility. Approval Chain keeps those responsibilities separate while keeping the overall process connected.

A chain can follow the creator

A large organisation may also have a formal process for onboarding or selecting creators.

• For example:
• Campaign Manager selects creator.
• Brand Manager reviews.
• Legal checks required documentation.
• Procurement confirms vendor requirements.
• Marketing Director approves.
• Creator is cleared to proceed.
• The creator doesn't need to know the company's entire internal structure.
• They simply see what they need to see.
• The organisation gets the governance it requires behind the scenes.

A chain can follow the campaign

A campaign might require approval before it launches.

• For example:
• 1. Campaign Manager creates campaign.
• 2. Brand Manager reviews.
• 3. Digital Marketing Manager reviews.
• 4. CMO approves budget.
• 5. Finance confirms funding.
• 6. Campaign goes live.
• The campaign isn't "waiting."
• It is waiting at a specific step.
• That difference matters.

A chain can follow the content

Once the campaign is running, the content itself may need another chain.

• Creator submits.
• Brand Manager reviews.
• Legal reviews.
• Marketing Director reviews.
• Client approves.
• Only then can it go live.

The content chain is different from the budget chain. And that's okay. The organisation gets to build each process around the actual decision being made.

A chain can follow payment

The campaign is complete.

• The creator submits an invoice.
• The Brand Manager confirms delivery.
• The Campaign Manager confirms the agreed work was completed.
• Finance verifies the invoice.
• The appropriate financial authority approves payment.
• Funds are released.
• Again:
• Different people.
• Different responsibilities.
• One visible process.

The right person at the right step

The point of an approval chain isn't to involve as many people as possible.

• It is to involve the people who actually have authority over that decision.
• A CMO doesn't need to approve every content revision.
• A CFO doesn't need to approve every creator selection.
• A Brand Manager shouldn't necessarily be able to release a ₦50 million payment.

Good approval infrastructure reflects how authority actually works inside the organisation.

Sequential by design

Some decisions depend on previous decisions.

You shouldn't ask Finance to release funds before the required commercial approvals are complete. You shouldn't ask Legal to approve an agreement that hasn't been commercially agreed. You shouldn't ask the client to approve content that the agency hasn't reviewed. The chain makes those dependencies explicit.

• Step one closes.
• Step two opens.
• Then step three.

Everyone knows when their responsibility begins.

And sometimes people can work in parallel

Not every approval depends on the previous one.

Legal and Brand may both need to review something independently. The process should reflect that too. Approval Chain isn't about forcing every organisation into one rigid sequence. It is about giving the organisation a defined approval structure that matches how the decision actually works.

Know where the decision is

This is one of the simplest and most valuable things Approval Chain does.

• Instead of:
• "What's happening with the campaign?"
• You can see:
• Creator approved.
• Budget approved.
• Campaign approved.
• Agreement approved.
• Content approved.
• Invoice waiting on Finance.
• Funds waiting on CFO.
• That's a very different kind of visibility.

Know what is holding everything up

A large organisation can lose days without anyone intentionally causing a delay.

• One person is away.
• Someone missed an email.
• Someone is waiting for another team.
• Someone thought someone else had approved it.
• The campaign sits.
• Approval Chain makes the bottleneck visible.
• You can see:
• The current step.
• The person responsible.
• How long it has been waiting.
• What has already been completed.
• What comes next.
• Now you can fix the process rather than chase the entire organisation.

The approval record

• Large companies need more than:
• "Yeah, someone approved it."
• They need to know:
• Who approved it.
• What they approved.
• When they approved it.
• Which version or request they approved.
• What happened before that approval.
• What happened after it.
• Approval Chain keeps that history.
• That matters for accountability.
• It matters for internal governance.
• It matters when people change roles.
• And it matters when someone asks six months later:
• "Who approved this?"

For enterprise brands

Approval Chain gives large brands a way to bring their internal approval structures into creator operations. Marketing can keep control of marketing decisions. Finance can keep control of financial decisions. Legal can keep control of legal decisions. Executives can approve the decisions that actually require executive authority.

The creator gets a clearer path through the organisation. The organisation gets control without turning every campaign into a manual chase.

For agencies

Agencies often sit between creators and clients.

• That means there may be two approval systems:
• The agency's internal approval process.
• The client's approval process.
• For example:

Creator → Account Manager → Creative Director → Client Brand Manager → Client Marketing Director. The agency can ensure the work is ready before the client sees it. The client can maintain its own approval authority. Everyone knows where the work sits.

For creators

Creators don't build the approval chain.

• They submit into it.
• That distinction matters.
• A creator shouldn't have to understand:
• Who the CMO is.
• Which finance team approves payments.
• Which procurement policy applies.
• Who has authority to approve the budget.
• They should simply be able to see what they need to know about their work.
• Submitted.
• Under review.
• Approved.
• Changes requested.
• Waiting on Brand.
• Waiting on Finance.
• Approved for payment.
• The complexity belongs to the organisation that owns it.

How it works

From decision to approval

Define the decision

• Decide what needs approval.
• A creator.
• A budget.
• A campaign.
• An agreement.
• A piece of content.
• An invoice.
• A fund release.
• Or another business decision.

Build the chain

Add the people or roles that need to approve it. Put them in the appropriate order.

Assign responsibility

Each step has a person or authority responsible for the decision.

Submit

The request, work or commercial item enters the chain.

The right person reviews

The current approver sees what they are responsible for approving.

Approve or send back

They approve it or request the required change.

The next step opens

Once a required step is complete, the next step becomes active.

Watch the process

Everyone with the appropriate visibility can see where the item is and what is still outstanding.

Complete the chain

When every required approval is complete, the underlying action can proceed.

Keep the record

The approval history remains available as part of the commercial record.

Three ways to use Approval Chain

A ₦20 MILLION CREATOR CAMPAIGN

• A large consumer brand wants to run a ₦20 million creator campaign.
• The campaign manager selects the creators.
• The Brand Manager approves the creator mix.
• The Digital Marketing Manager approves the campaign strategy.
• The CMO approves the budget.
• Finance confirms the funding.
• The campaign launches.

The organisation doesn't need five different email threads to prove who approved what.

The chain shows the entire decision.

A creator's content through a large brand

A creator delivers a campaign Reel.

• The brand's internal process requires:
• Creator submission.
• Brand Manager.
• Legal.
• Digital Marketing Manager.
• CMO.
• Client.
• The content moves through the required approvals.
• Everyone knows where it is.

The creator can see that it is waiting on the Marketing Director rather than wondering why nobody has responded.

The organisation keeps the approval record.

From campaign to payment

A creator completes the agreed campaign.

• The process becomes:
• Delivery confirmed.
• Brand Manager approves completion.
• Campaign Manager confirms deliverables.
• Finance approves invoice.
• CFO or authorised finance approver approves payment.
• Funds are released.
• The creator gets paid.
• The company has a clear record from work completed to money released.

Approval Chain + Campaigns

Campaigns manage the commercial engagement.

Approval Chain manages the internal decisions required to move that engagement forward.

• Campaign:
• Creators.
• Budget.
• Attribution.
• Deliverables.
• Performance.
• Approval Chain:

• Who has to approve the campaign.
• Who approves the budget.
• Who approves the content.
• Who approves the payment.

This is why Approval Chain belongs around Campaigns rather than being reduced to a content-review feature.

Approval Chain + Brief

The Brief says what the creator is being asked to make.

Approval Chain can govern whether the Brief itself needs internal approval before it reaches the creator. For example: Campaign Manager creates Brief. Brand Manager approves. Digital Marketing Manager approves. CMO approves budget. Brief is released to the creator. The approval process happens before production begins.

Approval Chain + Agreement

An Agreement formalises the terms between the parties.

But a large organisation may need internal approval before that Agreement can be signed.

• For example:
• Campaign Manager.
• Brand Manager.
• Procurement.
• Legal.
• Finance.

Then the authorised party signs. The Agreement is the legal document. Approval Chain is the internal decision process that gets it approved.

Approval Chain + invoices

• An invoice arriving does not necessarily mean:
• "Pay it."
• A large company may need to establish:
• Was the work delivered?
• Did it match the Agreement?
• Was the amount correct?
• Did the campaign owner approve it?
• Does Finance approve it?
• Is the payment authorised?
• Approval Chain can provide the workflow around that decision.

Approval Chain + Payouts

Payouts moves money.

Approval Chain determines whether the organisation has completed the internal approvals required before that money is released.

• That distinction matters.
• Approval:
• "Yes, this payment should happen."
• Payout:
• "Move the money."

Approval Chain + Workspaces

Different clients and brands may have completely different approval structures.

• An agency working with:
• Brand A
• may need:

• Account Manager → Creative Director → Client Marketing Manager → CMO.
• Brand B may require:
• Account Manager → Client Brand Manager → Legal → Procurement → Finance.
• Workspaces provide the organisational environment.
• Approval Chain provides the decision structure inside it.

Approval Chain + creator operations

This is where the feature becomes powerful.

• Creator operations are full of decisions.
• Who gets hired.
• What they are paid.
• What they produce.
• What rights the brand gets.
• Whether the work is approved.
• Whether the invoice is valid.
• Whether the money can be released.
• Approval Chain provides one consistent way to govern those decisions.

Approval Chain vs email

Email can communicate a decision.

It is not a decision-management system.

Approval Chain vs manual internal process

The larger the organisation, the more expensive an undocumented process becomes.

Before you build an Approval Chain

A few things matter.

• DON'T ADD EVERYONE.
• An approval chain is not a distribution list.
• Include people who actually have authority over the decision.
• SEPARATE TYPES OF AUTHORITY.
• The person who approves the creator doesn't necessarily approve the budget.
• The person who approves the content doesn't necessarily release the money.
• Reflect that.
• MAKE THE ORDER MAKE SENSE.
• If Finance depends on commercial approval, don't put Finance first.

If Legal needs to review the Agreement before signature, put Legal where that decision actually belongs. USE PARALLEL APPROVAL WHERE APPROPRIATE. If two teams can independently approve the same thing, don't create unnecessary waiting. MAKE THE CHAIN MATCH THE COMPANY. A startup and a multinational should not have the same approval structure.

The point is configurability. SET EXPECTATIONS FOR REVIEW. If an approval normally takes three days, don't promise a creator that the campaign launches tomorrow. The approval process is part of the campaign timeline. DON'T LET APPROVAL BECOME INVISIBLE. The whole value is knowing where a decision is.

If people still have to ask: "Who has this?" the process isn't doing its job.

Why Klairova

The creator economy has grown up.

• The companies buying creator work have grown with it.
• A creator campaign can now involve:
• Marketing.
• Brand.
• Digital.
• Legal.
• Procurement.
• Finance.
• Executives.
• Agencies.
• Creators.
• Clients.
• And millions in budget.
• But the infrastructure connecting all those decisions is often still:
• Email.
• Spreadsheets.
• WhatsApp.
• Slack.
• "Can you approve this?"
• "Who is waiting on this?"
• "Did Finance sign off?"
• "Has the CMO seen it?"
• "Can someone release the payment?"
• That's not a scalable operating model.

Approval Chain gives the organisation a defined way to move decisions through the people who have authority to make them. Not just for content. For the work around the content.

• The creator.
• The budget.
• The campaign.
• The agreement.
• The invoice.
• The payment.
• The release of funds.

And whatever else your organisation needs to control. Because when the organisation gets bigger, "just ask Sarah" stops being a system.

Who can use Approval Chain?

Enterprise

For large brands with multiple departments, approval authorities and financial controls.

Agencies

For agencies managing creator work internally and across multiple client organisations.

Creators

Creators submit into approval chains created by brands and agencies. They don't have to understand or configure the organisation's internal approval structure.

Account access

Approval Chain is available with:

Enterprise accounts. Agency accounts. It is designed for organisations where creator operations involve multiple people, departments and levels of authority.

Related features

• Campaigns: Manage the creator campaign and commercial engagement around the approval process.
• Brief: Define what is being requested before it enters the approval workflow.
• Agreement: Formalise the terms once the relevant commercial approvals are complete.
• Invoices: Handle billing after the agreed work has been completed.
• Payouts: Move approved funds to the creator.
• Workspaces: Give agencies and organisations the environment to manage their teams, brands and workflows.
• Workdeck: Manage the actual work that happens between approval steps.

FAQ

What is Approval Chain?

Approval Chain is Klairova's enterprise and agency approval infrastructure. It lets organisations create defined approval workflows for creator-related decisions such as creator selection, budgets, campaigns, agreements, content, invoices, fund releases and other internal approvals.

Is Approval Chain only for content approval?

No. Content approval is only one possible use. Approval Chain is designed for the wider decision-making process around creator operations.

Can I use it to approve creators?

Yes. An organisation can create an approval process for deciding whether a creator should be engaged.

Can I use it to approve a budget?

Yes. Budget approval can be part of a chain, including approval by senior marketing or finance leadership where required.

Can a cmo be part of an Approval Chain?

Yes. A CMO can be an approver where the organisation's internal process requires CMO approval.

Can a cfo be part of an Approval Chain?

Yes. A CFO or other authorised finance leader can be included where financial approval is required.

Can a brand manager be an approver?

Yes. The chain can include Brand Managers and other people with the authority to approve a particular decision.

Can a digital marketing manager be an approver?

Yes. The chain is designed around the organisation's actual decision-makers.

Can different people approve different things?

Yes. That is one of the reasons to use Approval Chain. The person responsible for creator selection may not be the person responsible for budget, legal, content or payment approval.

Can I create a chain for a campaign?

Yes. A campaign can have an approval workflow around its required decisions.

Can I create a chain for a Brief?

Yes. A Brief can require internal approval before being released to the creator.

Can I create a chain for an Agreement?

Yes. An organisation can require internal approvals before an Agreement is signed.

Can I create a chain for an Invoice?

Yes. An invoice can go through the required delivery, commercial and finance approvals before payment.

Can I create a chain for releasing funds?

Yes. Fund release can be part of an approval workflow. The approval determines whether the organisation authorises the release; Payouts handles the movement of money.

Can a creator see the Approval Chain?

Creators can see the relevant status and where their work is in the process.

They do not configure the organisation's internal chain.

Do creators need an enterprise account?

No. Creators submit into chains created by brands and agencies. The Enterprise or Agency account is where the organisation manages its approval infrastructure.

Who builds the Approval Chain?

The organisation using Approval Chain builds the workflow. That is typically the brand or agency.

Can an agency create different chains for different clients?

Yes. Different clients can have different approval requirements.

Can an agency have internal approvals before the client sees something?

• Yes.
• For example:
• Account Manager → Creative Director → Client Brand Manager.
• The agency can complete its internal review before the work reaches the client.

Can the client be part of the chain?

Yes. External parties such as clients can be included where appropriate.

Do all approvals have to happen in sequence?

Sequential approval is the core model. Where approvals are genuinely independent, the workflow can accommodate that rather than forcing unnecessary waiting.

Can different departments be in the same chain?

• Yes.
• That is a core enterprise use case.
• Marketing.
• Legal.
• Procurement.
• Finance.
• Executive leadership.
• Different departments can have different approval responsibilities.

Can the same person approve multiple steps?

The exact permission and configuration rules depend on the implementation. The important principle is that the organisation defines who has authority for each step.

Can I see who has approved something?

Yes. The approval record identifies who approved the relevant item and when.

Can I see what is still waiting?

Yes. The chain shows the current step and what remains before the process is complete.

Can I see how long something has been waiting?

Yes. The system is designed to make the current bottleneck and the time spent there visible.

What happens if an approver is on leave?

The chain makes the blocked step visible so the organisation can address the responsibility rather than allowing the request to disappear inside an inbox.

The exact reassignment controls depend on the implementation.

Does Approval Chain keep a history?

Yes. The approval record and relevant version history remain available so the organisation can establish what was approved and when.

Why is version history important?

Because an approval is only useful if you know what was actually approved. If the work changes after approval, the organisation needs to distinguish the approved version from later versions.

Can I use Approval Chain for finance?

Yes. Financial approvals are one of the important enterprise use cases.

Can I use it for procurement?

Where procurement approval is part of the organisation's creator workflow, Procurement can be represented as an approval step.

Can I use it for legal?

Yes. Legal can be an approval step for agreements, content or other work requiring legal review.

Can I use it for content?

Yes. Content approval is supported, but it is only one part of the broader Approval Chain system.

Can I use it for creator payments?

Yes. The approval process can govern whether an invoice or payment is approved before funds are released.

Is Approval Chain the same as Campaigns?

No. Campaigns manages the creator campaign. Approval Chain manages the internal decisions required to move that campaign forward.

Is Approval Chain the same as Brief?

No. Brief defines what is being requested. Approval Chain governs who needs to approve that request.

Is Approval Chain the same as Agreement?

No. Agreement is the formal contract between the parties. Approval Chain can determine whether the organisation has completed its internal approvals before that Agreement is signed.

Is Approval Chain the same as Payouts?

No. Approval Chain governs authorisation. Payouts handles the movement of money after the required conditions are met.

Is Approval Chain available to every Klairova account?

No. Approval Chain is available with Enterprise and Agency accounts.

Why is it an enterprise/agency feature?

Because it is designed for organisations with multiple decision-makers, departments, approval authorities and financial controls. A solo creator usually does not need a CMO → CFO → Finance → Legal workflow.

A large organisation might.

Can I create different approval chains for different processes?

Yes. The point is to reflect the different approval requirements across creator operations rather than force every decision through one generic chain.

Can I create a chain for creator selection and another for payment?

Yes. Those are different decisions with different authorities, so they can have different workflows.

Can I use it across multiple brands?

Yes, particularly in agency and enterprise environments where different brands or clients have different approval structures.

Does Approval Chain replace email?

It replaces the approval process that would otherwise be managed through email and manual chasing. Email can still be used for communication. The important decisions have a structured workflow and record.

Does it replace a company's entire approval system?

No. Approval Chain is designed to provide approval infrastructure for creator-related and connected commercial workflows inside Klairova. Your organisation may have other approval processes outside Klairova.