Approval Record Check

Nine questions about how you record a client approval, and a plain description of what your current process would and would not be able to show. Free, no account, and nothing you tick is sent to Stria, saved, or shared — the evaluation runs in your browser. The tool never asks about a client, a project, a document, or a dispute.

The nine questions

The first four are weighted: a workflow can capture five of the others and still be unable to say who accepted which version.

  1. The record names the person who approved. A named individual rather than a company, a shared inbox, or an anonymous session on a forwarded link
  2. The approval says it is an approval, in words. Language that accepts the work, rather than praise that could have been encouragement mid-draft
  3. It is tied to one specific version of one deliverable. A version number or a dated revision, named in the approval itself — the fact most arguments actually turn on
  4. The time comes from a system, not the approver’s device. A server-recorded time rather than a clock the approver controls or a date typed in afterwards
  5. You know that person could approve on the client’s behalf. Agreed at the start rather than assumed at the end
  6. The record says how the approver was reached or checked. The step itself, described. What it establishes is a separate question from whether it happened
  7. Earlier versions and events are still retrievable in order. The last file is not a history
  8. You could export and read it without the tool that made it. Something you would still hold after you stopped paying for the software
  9. You have decided in advance what happens if it is contested. A stated window, a route, and an outcome written down as a new entry rather than as an edit

What the result says

Three plain descriptions, never a legal conclusion: more complete record, some important context missing, or informal approval record. All four weighted properties plus at least three others gives the first; fewer than two of the four, or three or fewer in total, gives the third; everything in between is the second. The rule is printed on the page rather than hidden, and the result names the items you left unticked so it is actionable.

What this checklist is not

It is not a legal assessment, not a compliance check, and not weighted by evidence law. It describes how complete a record is, not what that record would achieve — which depends on your jurisdiction, your contract, the type of transaction and the facts, none of which are asked about here. The four weighted properties are the ones disputes most often turn on in practice; that is an editorial judgement about arguments, not a ranking anyone has ruled on.

Where the reasoning comes from

Each of the nine is argued, with primary sources, in the article this tool accompanies. Where Stria’s own signing model sits against the ESIGN, UETA and eIDAS frameworks — including what it does not claim — is documented separately, as is the position on SOC 2, which is readiness rather than certification.

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