Proof Statuses Explained
Every Proofed order and artwork status — Pending Design, Awaiting Approval, Revision Requested, Approved, Archived — and exactly how they change.
Proofed tracks status at two levels: each artwork (an individual design on a line item) has its own status, and the order status is derived automatically from its artworks. Understanding this makes the dashboard, tags, and emails completely predictable.
Order statuses#
| Status | Shopify tag (default) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Pending Design | Proof: Pending | No proofs have been sent yet — you're still designing. |
| Awaiting Approval | Proof: Sent | Proofs are with the customer, waiting for their decision. |
| Revision Requested | Proof: Revision | At least one artwork needs changes — the customer left feedback. |
| Approved | Proof: Approved | Every artwork is approved. Ready for production. |
| Archived | Proof: Archived | You manually archived the order to clear it from the active workflow. |
All five tags are renameable in Settings — see Shopify Integration.
Artwork statuses#
Each artwork is one of:
- Pending — no decision yet (also the state after you upload a new version)
- Approved — the customer approved this artwork
- Revision Requested — the customer asked for changes
How the order status is derived#
You never set the order status directly (except Archive). Proofed recalculates it whenever anything changes, using these rules in order:
- Archived? Stays archived — it's a manual override.
- Any artwork with a revision request? → Revision Requested
- All artworks approved? → Approved
- Proofs sent, still waiting? → Awaiting Approval
- Otherwise → Pending Design
A few practical consequences:
- One revision request among ten approved artworks makes the whole order Revision Requested — so nothing slips into production half-approved.
- Uploading a new proof version resets that artwork to Pending, and resending moves the order back to Awaiting Approval. The revision loop can repeat as many times as needed.
- An order only ever reaches Approved when every artwork is signed off.
The dashboard shows live counts per status, and each status maps to its own colour-coded tag on the Shopify order — your team can triage from either side.
Version history#
Every artwork keeps its complete proof history. Each upload increments the version number (v1, v2, v3…), and comments stay attached to the version they were made on — so you always know which feedback applied to which round.
Archiving#
Archive an order from its detail page when you want it out of the active list without it being approved — cancelled orders, test orders, or jobs handled outside Proofed. Archived orders are hidden from the dashboard by default; toggle Show archived to see them.
Related guides#
- How Proofed Works — the animated lifecycle
- Dashboard, Kanban & Archiving — filtering and managing orders by status
- Shopify Integration — customising the status tags
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