Review and approve a document in a screening
Your step approved with a comment or evidence on record, or the work sent back to the right step with a reason.
Screenshots are taken from the app on every release. Updated 13 October 2026.
A colleague has put a document through a screening: the board minutes for Beta Holding A/S, the draft share purchase agreement on Project Alpha, a step memo for a reorganisation. You are one of the named reviewers, and the screening is now waiting on you. Read the document, then either approve your step with a record of what the approval rests on, or send it back with a reason the author can act on.
Two questions decide what you do. Is it ready for the next reviewer? And if it is not, who has to fix it? Sometimes the reviewer before you can put it right; sometimes the drafter has to.
Find the screenings waiting on you
Open Screening in the sidebar. Turn on Show ongoing to hide finished reviews, and Assigned to you to keep only the screenings whose next step is yours. Together they are your review queue.
The Awaiting column says who each screening is waiting on, and reads You where it is your turn. Juristic also emails you when a screening reaches your step. Click a screening to open it.
Read the document
The screening opens on the step it is waiting on, so when it is your turn your own step is already selected. The line under the title says who it is waiting on: Awaiting action from. The steps across the top show who has reviewed so far; hover over a ticked step to see who approved it.
Click a document's name under Primary documents or Attachments to open it beside the review. The primary documents are what you are signing off; the attachments are there for context.
If the author has uploaded revisions, the document carries a versions count. Clicking its name opens the newest version. Click the arrow at the start of the row to list the earlier ones under Document versions, and click one to open it, for example to compare with the draft you saw last time.
The activity log beside the review shows every step taken so far, with the comments that came with it.
Approve your step
Write what your approval rests on in Comment: what you checked, and anything the next reviewer should know. If the approval rests on a document, such as a signed resolution or the client's confirmation, drag it onto Evidence of approval or click there to browse, instead of or as well as the comment.
Click Approve Documents. Until there is a comment or a document, the button stays unavailable and Approval blocked says what is missing.
Your name goes on the step as the approver, the comment goes into the activity log, and the screening moves to the next reviewer. When you are the last reviewer, your approval completes the screening.
Send it back
Click Send back.
Write the reason in Comment. It is required, and it is what the person who gets the work back reads first, so say exactly what has to change.
Choose how far back the work goes, under How far back?. Every approval after the step you choose is withdrawn either way.
- Back to and the name of the reviewer before you: their step reopens and the approvals before it stand. Choose this when the reviewer before you can fix it, such as a missing cross-reference they should have caught.
- Back to the start: the work goes back to the person who uploaded it, and the review runs again from the beginning. Choose this when the document itself has to change.
If you are the first reviewer there is only one place to send it, so the window is called Send back and offers Back to the start.
When the work comes back to you after a send back, the documents behind the approvals that were withdrawn are marked Expired under Evidence of approval. They stay readable as the record of the earlier round, but they no longer count, so attach fresh evidence or write a new comment before you approve again.
Which to choose
| The situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| The document is right and you have checked what you were asked to check | Approve Documents with a comment saying what you checked |
| You relied on a document the screening does not hold, such as the client's sign-off email | Attach it under Evidence of approval, then approve |
| A point the reviewer before you should have caught | Send back, Back to that reviewer |
| The drafting or the facts have to change | Send back, Back to the start |
Tips from practice
- Write the reason as an instruction. "Clause 4.2: the notice period is 30 days in the board minutes, 60 in the agreement. Align with the minutes." gets a revision back faster than "Inconsistent notice periods."
- Sending back to the start costs everyone a review. Every approval after the start is withdrawn, so each reviewer before you has to approve again. Use Back to the previous reviewer when the fix is theirs to make.
- Open the newest version. If a document has been revised during the review, check that the version you read is the one you are approving.
- Your comment is the record. It stays with the step after the screening is complete, so write it for the reader who opens the file in a year.
The author's side of a send back is in Revise and resubmit after changes are requested. If a reviewer is away and has approved by email, see Approve on behalf of an absent reviewer. To set up a review, start with Send a document for four-eyes review.