When you run a campaign in either the Test or Live environments, you can optionally download and preview a sample of records from the campaign output file using the Requires Manual Approval check box found within the Delivery step.
By applying manual approval, you are prompted by PeopleStage to check the delivery file. Once checked, you can approve or reject the proposed output file - as required.
To set Requires Manual Delivery, in Plan mode:
- Select the box within the Delivery channel
- Set the required schedule on the Audience step
When the campaign publishes and reaches the delivery, an amber exclamation in the top-left of the Message step indicates that you need to approve the delivery.
- Click on the amber exclamation mark to open the Message History View – Alert Report
The history of activity for the message is displayed including any pending approvals.
- Click on the bell icon to access the Awaiting Approvals display
- Select the required check boxes to access the Reject… and Approve… buttons at the bottom of the display
For each row you can choose to Download Sample…the sample file is the file that will be your output. By default 1000 rows will download, but this can be adjusted:
- Check that your sample is accurate and contains all required fields, in the correct order, etc.
As PeopleStage finalises the output file, each record has a Communication Key appended to enable the recording of the Communication History and any subsequent tracking of campaign responses.
Once checked, you have the option to either approve or reject the delivery using the buttons at the bottom of the Awaiting Approvals window:
- Approve - the delivery proceeds, uploads the output file according to the channel definition(s) and records the information in the Communications History
- Reject - moves people back to the previous pool and allows you to make any changes necessary before republishing the campaign
In the Live environment, the Requires Manual Approval warning on a message is also escalated up to the associated campaign and area levels, making it very easy to identify where attention is required.
Use the Show options in the Diagram Explorer to filter and only show campaigns where approval is pending.
It is possible to schedule an Alert Report to notify yourself and/or others that a message is awaiting manual approval:
- Click on Show Alert Report Schedule at the bottom of Message History View
- Select the Schedule Alert Report check box to activate the window and amend the default report description if you wish
At the bottom of the panel, there are 2 further tabs:
- Schedule - set a schedule for the report to run – see Schedule and Automate a Campaign
- Distribution - enter the email addresses for those to be notified, together with the associated email Subject and message content
- Click Apply to confirm
Warnings can be cleared from the display by clicking on the Acknowledge Alerts button 
in the bottom right corner of the History View window: