Required Roles: Quality user or administrator
Required Permissions: Access to Quality Activities
Prerequisites
Bulk approval is available when all of the following are true:
You are in standard mode (not Manager Mode). The Approve action is not available in Manager Mode.
The Bulk Approve feature is enabled for your workspace. If you do not see Approve in the Action dropdown, contact your Workspace Manager to confirm the feature is turned on.
You are selecting documents, not folders. Selecting only folders will not show the Approve option.
Step 1: Select Your Documents
You can select documents for bulk approval from the folder view or the table view. Both lead to the same Bulk Actions panel.
From the Folder View
Use keyboard modifiers to select multiple items without leaving the folder tree:
Shift + click — selects a range of items between the first and last clicked item.
Cmd + click (Mac) or Ctrl + click (Windows) — adds or removes individual items from the selection.
As soon as you have more than one item selected, the Bulk Actions panel opens automatically in the right drawer. All selected items must be in the same folder. You cannot bulk approve documents across different parent folders from the tree view.
From the Table View
Navigate to the table view for the folder or cabinet you want to work in.
Check the boxes next to the documents you want to approve. Use Shift + click on checkboxes to select a range, or use the checkbox in the column header to select all visible documents.
Click Bulk Actions in the toolbar above the table.
Step 2: Choose the Approve Action
In the Bulk Actions panel, open the Action dropdown and select Approve.
Step 3: Review the Preflight Check
Kivo immediately runs a preflight check on your selected documents to determine which are eligible for approval. Each document in the list shows a status:
Ready — the document is eligible and is checked by default.
A disqualifying status (for example, already approved, locked, or in an incompatible workflow state). The document is grayed out and its checkbox is disabled. The status column explains why.
Review the list and uncheck any eligible documents you want to exclude from this batch.
Step 4: Provide a Reason (If Required)
If your workspace has approval reasons configured, a Reason for Approval dropdown appears above the submit button. Select the reason that applies, or choose Other to type a custom reason. The Approve button stays disabled until a reason is selected.
The same reason applies to all documents approved in this batch. If different documents require different reasons, approve them in separate batches.
Step 5: Confirm and Review Results
Click Approve Documents. The button label shows the count of documents that will be approved.
Kivo processes the approvals as a background job. When complete, each row updates with a result:
Green checkmark — approved successfully.
Red X — the approval failed for this document. The status column shows the reason.
Verify It Worked
Each successfully approved document transitions to the Approved state, exactly as if it had been approved individually. The document's audit trail records the approval with the approver's name, timestamp, and reason (if one was required). The folder view refreshes automatically once the bulk action completes.
Common Issues
Approve is not in the Action dropdown. You are either in Manager Mode or the Bulk Approve feature is not enabled for your workspace. Switch to standard mode, or ask your Workspace Manager to enable the feature.
All documents show as ineligible. Check each document's status in the list. Documents that are already approved, locked, or in an active workflow step cannot be bulk approved and must be handled individually.
The Approve button is disabled. Your workspace requires an approval reason. Select a reason from the dropdown to enable the button.
Limits and Considerations
Large selections: Kivo processes bulk approvals in batches internally and handles large selections automatically. You do not need to split large queues manually.
Ineligible documents are not skipped silently: The preflight check shows you exactly which documents cannot be approved and why before you confirm. Only checked, eligible documents are processed.
Folders in a mixed selection: If your selection includes folders alongside documents, the folders appear in the panel but cannot be selected for approval. Only documents participate in bulk approval.