When an author has the item drafted — basics in place, sponsors added, documents generated, attachments uploaded — the next step is Submit For Review. This is the moment the item leaves Draft status and enters the workflow: reviewers are notified, the workflow's first step begins, and the item starts moving through approval.

This article walks through the Submit For Review experience from the author's perspective: how to submit, the validation dialog that catches missing required fields with clickable links to fix them, what happens immediately after submission, how to watch the workflow progress, and what to do if the item comes back rejected.

The reviewer's perspective on the same workflow is covered in Reviewing Items Assigned to You.

On any Draft item, you'll see a primary Submit For Review button in the item header on the item display page.

[IMAGE: An item display page in Draft status with the Submit For Review button highlighted]

The button is hidden in other statuses (Review, Deliberation, etc.) — once an item is in workflow or past it, you can't re-submit. To get back to a state where you can submit again, you'd need to be sent back by a reviewer (see "When the item comes back rejected" below).

Clicking the button opens the Submit Item For Review dialog. What you see next depends on whether the item has any unfilled required fields.

If the item has required fields (configured fields, custom fields, required Document Types, required Attachment Types) that haven't been filled in, the dialog shows them as a list:

[IMAGE: The Submit For Review dialog showing missing required fields as clickable links]

The dialog title: "Submit Item For Review" Description: "The following fields must be completed before submitting for review."

Below the description, a panel lists each missing required field — name, label, and (when you're on the edit page) a clickable link.

Here's the part that makes the dialog actually useful: on the item edit page, each missing field is clickable. Click a field name and Govinity:

[IMAGE: The form with a missing field's label highlighted in red after clicking from the dialog]

The highlight animation runs for ~3 seconds, drawing your eye to the field. Fill it in, then return to the top and click Submit For Review again.

This pattern works for required fields embedded deep in a long form — no scrolling, no guessing where the field is.

At the bottom of the dialog:

If the validation passes, the dialog shows a confirmation prompt instead of the missing fields list:

[IMAGE: The Submit For Review dialog showing the confirmation prompt without missing fields]

"Are you sure you want to submit this item for review? This will notify the appropriate staff and start the review process."

Click Submit For Review to confirm.

When Submit For Review confirms:

The item is now "in flight" and you're waiting for reviewers to act.

Once submitted, your main view into what's happening is the Workflow sidebar — the right-side panel on the item display, with three tabs (Workflow / Audit / Comments).

[IMAGE: The Workflow sidebar showing each step of the workflow with its status]

Lists every step of the workflow in order. For each step, you see:

Steps execute in order. When one step completes (all required approvals given), the next step opens. You can watch this progression in real time.

A timeline of every workflow event — submission, step advancement, approval, rejection, comment, status change. Use this to see when and by whom each action happened.

Chat-like comment thread where you and reviewers can discuss the item. Comments are sequential, newest at the bottom. Both authors and reviewers can post.

For full coverage of the sidebar, see The Item Workflow Sidebar (Workflow, Audit, Comments).

Workflows can have rejection policies: when a reviewer rejects an item, what should happen? Two common patterns:

The item returns to Draft status. You (the author) can edit it freely and re-submit. The workflow restarts (or resumes from the rejected step, depending on configuration).

This is the typical pattern for substantive reviews — Legal Review identifies a constitutional issue with your draft resolution, you fix it, re-submit.

The item moves to Closed - Rejected status. The workflow halts. The author can't edit or re-submit.

When this happens, a danger-styled alert appears at the top of the item display:

[IMAGE: The Item Rejected alert showing the rejecting user and step name]

Item Rejected This item was rejected by [Name] at the "[Step Name]" step and is closed.

This is for terminal rejections — the item is dead. To pursue the same content, you'd create a new item.

A similar alert appears for Cancelled items: Item Cancelled. Cancellation usually happens via Change Status (admin) — see Copying, Restoring, and Changing an Item's Status.

For send-back rejections (item returns to Draft):

The workflow restarts from whatever the configuration specifies — often the beginning, sometimes from the rejected step.

While the item is in Review, you can still:

Field-level permissions vary by workflow step. See Why Your Form Looks Different Right Now (Workflow Permissions) for the full system.

A few patterns that come up:

"I want to submit this item for review." Open the item. Click Submit For Review. If missing fields appear, click each link to scroll to the field, fill it in, return. Once the dialog shows the confirmation prompt, click Submit For Review to confirm.

"I clicked Submit and a bunch of required fields appeared. Let me fix them quickly." Click each missing field in the dialog. The form scrolls to the field with a red highlight. Fill the field. Repeat for each. Once all are filled, click Submit For Review again.

"My item was rejected and sent back. What do I do?" Read the Comments tab for context. Edit the item to address the feedback. Re-submit.

"My item was rejected with the kill policy. Now what?" The item is closed. If you want to pursue the same content, create a new item (with the lessons learned applied). See Creating an Item: Picking an Item Type.

"I want to know which reviewers have already acted on my item." Look at the Workflow sidebar. Steps with assignees show each reviewer's individual status.

Can I submit for review before I've added documents and attachments? Yes — Submit For Review validates required fields, but Document Types and Attachment Types may or may not be configured as required. If they are required, missing ones surface in the validation. If they aren't, you can submit without them.

What if I forgot to add a sponsor and the item went to Review? Sponsors aren't typically required by the validation. You can usually still edit the Sponsors block while the item is in Review (field-level permissions allowing). Make the edit and add a comment explaining the change.

Can I cancel an item that's mid-workflow? Yes, but only via Change Status (typically admin only). See Copying, Restoring, and Changing an Item's Status.

Will reviewers get notified by email? Typically yes — workflow step assignments fire notification emails based on the configured email templates. See Managing Email Templates in the admin docs for the email configuration.

Can I undo a submission? No. Once you click Submit For Review, the workflow starts. To return the item to Draft, a reviewer would have to formally reject (send-back policy) or an admin would have to change status.

Can multiple authors edit a Draft simultaneously? Govinity doesn't lock items for single-editor access. Last save wins. Coordinate with collaborators to avoid losing work.

What if my workflow has a step that isn't required? Workflow steps that aren't required will auto-skip when the workflow reaches them. The Audit tab shows "skipped" entries for these. The item progresses without those reviewers needing to act.

If you can't click Submit For Review (button disabled or missing), check the item's status — only Draft items can be submitted. If the missing-fields list shows fields you don't recognize, they may be required custom fields configured on the item type. For anything else, reach out to Govinity support.