# Review a proposal: tracked changes, comments, approve or return

URL: https://engiprose.com/help/review-and-approval/review-a-proposal
Updated: 2026-09-02
Audience: reviewer

Edit inside tracked changes, leave comments, then approve or return the proposal to its author.

This article applies only when your admin has turned on in-app review. Review
is off by default for every new organization; if you do not see a Reviewer
stage in the proposal, ask your admin about [lifecycle
options](/help/set-up-your-firm/lifecycle-options).

:::checklist title="What you'll do"
- Open a proposal that is waiting on your review
- Edit inside tracked changes and leave comments
- Return it to the author with notes, or approve it
:::

## The reviewer strip

When a proposal reaches you, the editor opens in review mode with its own
toolbar above the document.

:::figure src="/help-figures/review-and-approval/review-a-proposal-1.png" srcDark="/help-figures/review-and-approval/review-a-proposal-1-dark.png" alt="The reviewer toolbar with Return with notes, Add Comment and Approve buttons above a scored draft, with the AI Coach panel open on the right" caption="The reviewer strip" route="/proposals/$proposalId/write/reviewer"
:::

Anything you type here is captured as a tracked change, the same insertion
and deletion marks Word uses, so the author can see exactly what you changed
when the proposal comes back to them. Scores in the AI Coach panel stay
visible but read-only while you review.

## Return with notes, or approve

**Return with notes** and **Approve** are the two ways a review ends. Both
of them, and **Add Comment**, are available to everyone on this proposal's
**Approvers** list: being on that list is what puts the proposal in front of
you and what lets you end the review.

Approvers are set on the proposal's Details step, with the "Add approver..."
picker. Leave it empty and the card says "No approvers selected. Review step
will fall back to organization admins." Your organization's Organization
Admins then review and approve the proposal.

::::steps
:::step
To send the draft back, select **Return with notes**. A dialog asks for a
"Summary of changes needed": the placeholder reads "What does the author
need to address before resubmitting?" This note is required. Select
**Return to Author** to send it back, which moves the proposal to
**Returned**. The author sees your summary, makes their changes, and
resubmits from the same [Send for review](/help/review-and-approval/send-for-review)
screen, where it reads "Resubmit for review".
:::
:::step figure="/help-figures/review-and-approval/review-a-proposal-2.png" figureDark="/help-figures/review-and-approval/review-a-proposal-2-dark.png" alt="The Approve this proposal confirmation dialog with a warning that one tracked change is still pending and will be frozen alongside the approved content" caption="Approving with a pending change" route="/proposals/$proposalId/write/reviewer"
To approve instead, select **Approve**. "Approve this proposal? It will be
locked for export. No further edits are possible until it is re-opened."
If you or another approver left any tracked changes unresolved, the dialog
adds a warning: "N tracked change(s) are still pending. They will be frozen
alongside the approved content." Approving does not silently drop them.
:::
:::step
Select **Approve** to confirm. The proposal moves to **Approved** and you
land on the [Final screen](/help/finalize/mark-a-proposal-final), which
walks you toward Export next.
:::
::::

:::warning title="Approved is not the end"
Approving locks the document for export, but a proposal is not finished
until someone marks it final and downloads it. Approved sits partway
through the lifecycle, not at the end of it.
:::

## Comments

Use **Add Comment** to leave a note anchored to a specific piece of text,
separate from a tracked change. The author sees it in the margin and can
reply. Once addressed, the person who wrote the comment can mark it
resolved, and so can an Organization Admin or an Admin: "Resolve comment.
Mark this comment resolved?" is a confirmation step, so a comment is never
cleared by accident.

::::faq title="Common questions"
:::q question="Why don't I see Approve on this proposal?"
Either you are not on this proposal's Approvers list, or the proposal is
not in review right now. Approve renders for an approver on a proposal
whose status is **In Review**, and for nobody else.
:::
:::q question="Can I approve a proposal that still has open comments?"
Yes. Open comments do not block approval the way pending tracked changes
warn you; only the tracked-change count is called out in the dialog.
:::
::::