# Mark a proposal final

URL: https://engiprose.com/help/finalize/mark-a-proposal-final
Updated: 2026-09-02
Audience: member

Lock a finished proposal for export, whether your firm reviews in-app or not.

Marking a proposal final is a mandatory gate before export, in every
organization and every review configuration. Whether you reach it by
clicking **Mark as Final** yourself or by having a proposal approved, the
result is the same locked Final screen.

:::checklist title="What you'll do"
- Understand the two paths to a locked, final proposal
- Read the locked confirmation and the approval history
- Continue to Export, or re-open if something needs to change
:::

## Two ways to get here

If your organization has in-app review turned off, the author marks a
draft final directly from the editor: **Mark as Final**. "Mark this
proposal as final? This locks the proposal and moves it to the Final stage.
You can re-open it later if you need to make changes." Select **Mark as
Final** to confirm.

If review is on, a proposal reaches the same place by being
[approved](/help/review-and-approval/review-a-proposal) instead: the
approver's **Approve** action locks the document and lands everyone on this
same Final screen.

## The locked confirmation

:::figure src="/help-figures/finalize/mark-a-proposal-final-1.png" srcDark="/help-figures/finalize/mark-a-proposal-final-1-dark.png" alt="The Final screen with a locked confirmation banner, approval history showing an approved event and a submitted for review event, a Continue to Export button and a Re-open button" caption="The Final screen after locking" route="/proposals/$proposalId/finalize/final"
:::

The heading and byline read one of two ways, based on who locked the
document: **"Marked Final"** and "Marked final by {name}" when the same
person is both the proposal's author and the one who locked it (the direct
review-off path, and the edge case where an approver is also the author on
a review-on proposal); **"Approved & Final"** and "Approved by {name}"
whenever someone else did the approving. Either way, "Document is locked"
and the approval history below it lists every submit, return and approve
event on the proposal.

## Continue, or re-open

Select **Continue to Export** to move on to
[Export to Word](/help/finalize/export-to-word). If you need to make one
more change, **Re-open** is available to an Organization Admin, an Admin,
or an approver on this proposal. "Re-open this proposal for editing? The
proposal will return to the in-review state. The current approval is
recorded in the audit log and will not be erased." If a final document has
already been saved on the Outcome step, the dialog also warns that
re-opening will delete the uploaded final document and clear the sent date
and recorded outcome, so the saved final always stays a trusted record of
exactly what was sent. Re-opening also clears the proposal's "First
exported on" date, so the cycle-time anchor resets and the next final
download records a new one.

::::faq title="Common questions"
:::q question="Can I edit a proposal once it is marked final?"
No. The document is locked, and the read-only preview on this screen shows
the frozen content an export will be built from. Re-open first if you need
to change anything.
:::
:::q question="Do I need to mark a proposal final if I never turned review on?"
Yes. Marking final is a mandatory step in every organization, review-on or
review-off; there is no direct path from Edit to Export that skips it.
:::
::::