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Document Owner Guide

Document Owners are responsible for the accuracy and currency of specific policies or documents. You are a document owner because your administrator has assigned you to an owner title (for example “Head of HR” or “Quality Manager”), and that title has been set as the Document Owner on one or more documents. When version approval is switched on and someone changes a document you own, you receive an email asking you to approve the change before it goes live.

This guide can be customised to describe your organisation’s document ownership policy and escalation procedures.

What does a Document Owner do?

As a Document Owner you:

  • Approve (or reject) changes to documents you own before they go live, when your organisation uses version approval
  • Record periodic reviews confirming your documents are still accurate, when your organisation uses the document review workflow
  • Receive reminders when your documents are due for review
  • Act as the named contact for questions about your documents — your name and owner title appear as Owner on the document page (if your organisation displays that detail)

Being an owner is not a WordPress role. What you can do in WordPress itself depends on your account. If your account can edit documents (for example, you are an Editor), you can work from the admin screens as well as from email. If it cannot, you work from the emails you receive.

Receiving an approval request

When someone saves a change to a document you own and your organisation requires approval, you receive a Version Approval Required email. It contains:

  • The document title
  • The Proposed Version number and change type (patch, minor, or major)
  • Who submitted it (Submitted By) and their description of the Changes
  • A Preview Changes button — see how the document will look once approved
  • An Approve Version button
  • A View in Admin link to the document’s edit screen

The current version stays live until you approve. Nothing changes for staff in the meantime.

About the approval link: You do not need to log in to use Approve Version. After clicking it, you see a short confirmation page — click Confirm approval to finish. (This extra step stops email security scanners approving changes by accident.) The link expires after a set number of days (30 unless your administrator has changed it). If it has expired, ask your administrator to approve the change, or approve it from the admin screens if your account allows.

Describe any additional approval steps your organisation requires before clicking Approve (e.g. legal review, sign-off from a second owner).

Approving a version

From the email: Click Preview Changes to check the new version, then click Approve Version and Confirm approval. You see a confirmation that the new version is now live (or, if you are logged in with editing rights, you are taken to the document’s edit screen).

From the Pending Approvals page (only if your account can edit the document):

  1. Log in and open your organisation’s Pending Approvals page (ask your administrator for the link)
  2. It lists the versions waiting for you, with the Document, Version, Change, Submitted By, and Date
  3. Click Preview to check the change, then Approve and confirm

From the document’s edit screen (only if your account can edit the document): Open the document in wp-admin. A Pending Version Approval notice shows the version waiting for approval, with Preview, Approve, and Reject buttons.

On approval:

  • The new content and version number go live
  • The version history records you as the approver
  • If the change is significant enough under your organisation’s re-acknowledgement rule (by default, major changes), everyone in the document’s acknowledgement audience is asked to acknowledge it again and receives an email telling them so

Rejecting a version

The approval email has no reject button. To reject a change:

  1. Log in and open the Pending Approvals page or the document’s edit screen (this needs an account that can edit the document)
  2. Click Reject
  3. Optionally enter a reason — explain what needs to change
  4. Confirm

The pending version is discarded and the live document is unchanged. The person who submitted the change receives a Version Change Rejected email that includes your reason. They can make the corrections and submit again.

If your account cannot edit documents, tell your administrator or the author what needs to change. An administrator can reject the version for you.

A clear rejection reason saves time for everyone. Be specific:

  • “The data retention figures in section 2 are out of date — update them to reflect this year’s policy amendment.”
  • “The procedure steps have not been updated for the new intake form. Please review section 3.”

Reviewing your documents

Many organisations require owners to confirm periodically that each document is still accurate, even if nothing has changed.

Review reminders

If review alerts are switched on, you receive a Review Due email before each of your documents reaches its Next Review Date. The email says how many days are left and links to the document.

Recording a review

If your organisation uses the document review workflow, and your account can open the document in wp-admin:

  1. Open the document and read the current content
  2. If it is still accurate, find the Document Review box, add an optional Review note, and click Mark reviewed and current. The review is recorded against your name and the next review date moves forward by the document’s review cycle
  3. If changes are needed, edit the document (or ask the author to) and add a changelog entry describing the change

Only the assigned owner (or someone your administrator has authorised to sign off on owners’ behalf) can record a review.

Describe your organisation’s document review process here, including who to contact if you are unsure whether a policy needs updating.

🔒 Pro feature — requires the Pro plugin.

With the Pro add-on, you may also receive overdue acknowledgement escalations for critical- and high-risk documents you own, listing the staff whose acknowledgements are overdue despite reminders. Your organisation can also set up approval chains with several approval stages, in which case you may be asked to approve as one stage among several.

What happens to acknowledgement records when you approve a new version?

Acknowledgement records are tied to the exact version each person acknowledged. When you approve a new version:

  • Changes below your organisation’s re-acknowledgement level (for example a typo fix, when only major changes trigger re-acknowledgement): existing acknowledgements stay valid
  • Changes at or above that level: existing acknowledgements no longer count. Staff see the document as Outdated and must acknowledge the new version
  • Everyone’s previous acknowledgement records are kept as history either way

The author chooses the change type (patch, minor, or major) when they submit. If you think a change has been labelled too low — for example, a real policy change marked as a patch — reject it and ask the author to resubmit it with the right change type.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What if I approve something by mistake? Contact your administrator straight away. They can restore the previous content from the document’s saved versions.

Q: Can I edit a document myself? Only if your WordPress account can edit documents (for example, the Editor role). Being an owner does not give you editing rights by itself.

Q: I received an approval email but I’m not sure what changed. Click Preview Changes in the email to see the document as it will look after approval. The Changes line shows the author’s own description. If your account can edit the document, the edit screen also lets you compare saved versions.

Q: Can I delegate approval to someone else? Not directly. Ask your administrator to assign your owner title to your delegate while you are away. Approval requests go to whoever holds the title.

Q: I own a document but didn’t get an approval email. Approval emails only go out when version approval is switched on, and when the person making the change is not themselves an approver. Check your spam folder, then contact your administrator.

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