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KathyPal
Level 4
May 8, 2026
Solved

Is anyone else seeing some reviewers asked to “Make a Decision” while others get the three standard options: “Approve,” “Approve with Changes,” or “Needs Work”?

  • May 8, 2026
  • 3 replies
  • 55 views

I’m hoping someone can help me understand why reviewers/approvers on a proof are receiving two different approval experiences. In some cases, reviewers are prompted to “make a decision,” while in other cases they are only given the options “Approve,” “Approve with Changes,” or “Needs Work,” which is the workflow we want to use consistently. Because the options presented are not the same for all reviewers/approvers, it creates confusion in our review and approval process. Could you clarify what causes these different approval methods to be sent, and whether there is a setting or configuration that controls this behavior?

I’m also seeing what appears to be a related issue when I upload a new document to a project. I automatically receive an approval notice in my Home widget, even though these documents do not actually require my approval. Note: when we upload documents, they automatically create a proof.   In this situation, I am consistently asked to ‘Make a Decision’.   This clutters the widget and makes it harder to identify the approvals that truly need my attention. The only way I’ve found to remove these items is to open the proof and select “Not Relevant” under “Make a Decision.” Is there is a way to prevent them from appearing in my approvals list unless my approval is actually required?

I appreciate any insight.

Thank you, 

Kathy Palumbo

Best answer by MikeEngel

Hi Kathy,
What you’re seeing is typically the result of two different approval experiences in Workfront being used on the same content.

  • “Make a Decision” comes from the proof approval workflow.
  • “Approve,” “Approve with Changes,” and “Needs Work” come from document approvals / Unified Approvals.

Because those are separate processes, reviewers can end up seeing different actions depending on how the file was set up, and in some cases both experiences can overlap. That’s why it can feel inconsistent even though the system is behaving as designed.

For your second question, if ‘Automatically generate proofs when uploading documents’ is enabled (just like in that image posted in this thread) in the user profile, uploading a document can automatically create a simple proof. That can introduce proof-related review actions into Home even when the intent was just to upload a document, which is why those items can start cluttering the approvals list.

A few practical suggestions:

  1. Standardize on one approval method for a given use case whenever possible.
  2. If your team wants the simpler Approve / Approve with Changes / Needs Work experience, avoid also assigning proof approval roles on the same file.
  3. If uploaded files don’t need proofing by default, review whether Automatically generate proofs when uploading documents should be turned off for those users.
  4. If someone only needs to provide feedback, assign them as a Reviewer rather than in a proof role that requires a decision.

Also, this is exactly the type of confusion that Unified Review and Approval is meant to reduce. Adobe’s direction is to streamline review and approval into a more consistent experience so teams aren’t bouncing between separate proof and document approval models. If your organization is evaluating process cleanup, that’s probably the best long-term direction.

Hope that helps clarify what’s happening.

3 replies

Melanie-Lynch11
Melanie-Lynch11
Level 2
May 11, 2026

Regarding your second question, go to your Workfront Profile and uncheck “Automatically generate proofs when uploading documents” in the Preferences section. 

 

skyehansen
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
skyehansenCommunity Advisor and Adobe Champion
May 12, 2026

I agree, the experience right now can be kind of inconsistent. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten into it, but if my memory serves:

  • The “Make a decision” button is part of the Proof experience (workflows that are set up within the proof). If you create proofs, you do tend to get added to that experience and I don’t think there’s a way out of it, but you might experiment on whether or not you could escape by setting your default role to reviewer (I’ve never tried that so it’s just a guess). It’s especially difficult when you start to add a second version of an existing proof because I think then the functionality is really trying to throw you in that direction.
  • The “Approve/Needs Work” buttons are part of the Document Approval experience (currently being called unified review and approval). I’ve definitely seen cases where they show up alongside the “Make Decision” button (and I feel like this really is a miss, and gets messy). 

I think maybe the thing to do (aside from voting on ideas or making your thoughts known to your Adobe rep) is just more training for users, around ignoring the Make Decision button and focussing on the approve buttons.

I don’t know what your thoughts are about talking to the product managers for the Home widgets or even just for Proofing about the fact that you’re being added to the workflow even though you only generated a proof, but that’s definitely a direction to try.

skyehansen
Community Advisor and Adobe Champion
skyehansenCommunity Advisor and Adobe Champion
May 12, 2026

cc ​@jerflo  ​@jbarron 

M
Adobe Employee
MikeEngelAdobe EmployeeAccepted solution
Adobe Employee
May 12, 2026

Hi Kathy,
What you’re seeing is typically the result of two different approval experiences in Workfront being used on the same content.

  • “Make a Decision” comes from the proof approval workflow.
  • “Approve,” “Approve with Changes,” and “Needs Work” come from document approvals / Unified Approvals.

Because those are separate processes, reviewers can end up seeing different actions depending on how the file was set up, and in some cases both experiences can overlap. That’s why it can feel inconsistent even though the system is behaving as designed.

For your second question, if ‘Automatically generate proofs when uploading documents’ is enabled (just like in that image posted in this thread) in the user profile, uploading a document can automatically create a simple proof. That can introduce proof-related review actions into Home even when the intent was just to upload a document, which is why those items can start cluttering the approvals list.

A few practical suggestions:

  1. Standardize on one approval method for a given use case whenever possible.
  2. If your team wants the simpler Approve / Approve with Changes / Needs Work experience, avoid also assigning proof approval roles on the same file.
  3. If uploaded files don’t need proofing by default, review whether Automatically generate proofs when uploading documents should be turned off for those users.
  4. If someone only needs to provide feedback, assign them as a Reviewer rather than in a proof role that requires a decision.

Also, this is exactly the type of confusion that Unified Review and Approval is meant to reduce. Adobe’s direction is to streamline review and approval into a more consistent experience so teams aren’t bouncing between separate proof and document approval models. If your organization is evaluating process cleanup, that’s probably the best long-term direction.

Hope that helps clarify what’s happening.

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