Most client review goes wrong in the same place: the notes and the file drift apart. The cut lives in one place, the feedback lives in an email thread, and the approval lives in somebody's memory. A workflow that holds up keeps all three attached to the same object.
Here is one, worked through on a concrete job.
The example
An agency has cut a 60-second brand film. There are two reviewers on the client side: a marketing manager who gives the notes, and a brand lead who signs off. The job is booked for two rounds.
Stage 1 — Set the project up
Create a project named for the job, not the file: Northwind — Brand Film. Upload the V1 export to the Assets tab.
If the job also carries stills, a cutdown and a PDF storyboard, put them in the same project in folders. A share link can be scoped to one folder, so the client reviewing the film never has to wade through the rest.
Stage 2 — Send V1
Open the share dialog with the film selected. Leave Allow comments on. Leave Allow downloads off — this is a review, not a handover. Create the link and send it, with a message that says what you want: "Notes on structure and pacing by Thursday. Music is temp."
Both reviewers can use the same link, or you can create one each. One link each is worth the extra minute: each person's approvals and comments then sit under their own name from the start.
Stage 3 — Collect the notes
The client watches in the browser and leaves notes pinned to timecodes: "0:12 — logo holds too long", "0:41 — this shot again?". They can circle the thing they mean on the paused frame.
Your job at this stage is to read, not to fix. Reply once under any note that is ambiguous and get the answer in writing, on the note, where it will still be next month. Anything your team says to each other is Internal by default and stays off the client's link.
When you are satisfied you have the whole picture, close the round in your own head: the notes are the brief for V2.
Stage 4 — Cut V2 and re-share
Upload the new export as a new version of the same file, not as a second file. V1 and its comments stay readable, and the numbering stays honest.
Work the list, resolving each comment as you handle it. Resolve is the useful signal here: an unresolved note is a note you have not answered yet.
Then share again and say what changed. A one-line change list — "logo trimmed, 0:41 shot replaced, grade warmer" — turns round two into a check rather than a fresh review.
Stage 5 — Approval
The brand lead opens the link and presses Approve. It is recorded against them, against V2 specifically. An approval on V1 never carries forward, which is the point: every new cut needs its own sign-off. The details are in a simple video approval process.
Stage 6 — Delivery
With the link fully approved, choose Deliver. The client's link becomes a delivery page holding the approved originals, ready to download, at the same address they have been using all along. Nothing new to send, nothing new to explain.
Afterwards the project still holds the whole record: two versions, both comment threads, and a named approval against a specific cut.
The checklist
Copy this into your own project template:
- [ ] Project created and named for the job
- [ ] V1 uploaded, filename the client will recognise
- [ ] Share scope checked (whole project, folder, or this file only)
- [ ] Comments on; downloads off for review-only
- [ ] Passphrase and expiry set if the work is sensitive
- [ ] One link per reviewer, sent with a clear ask and a deadline
- [ ] Notes read; ambiguous ones queried in a reply on the note itself
- [ ] V2 uploaded as a new version of the same file
- [ ] Every note resolved or answered
- [ ] Change list sent with round two
- [ ] Approval recorded against a named person and the current version
- [ ] Link delivered; approved originals downloadable
Two rules worth keeping
One round, one ask. Open-ended requests produce open-ended rounds. Name what you want judged and what is not up for discussion yet.
Never restart the file. A revision is a new version of the existing file. The moment you upload "final_v2" as a separate item, the history splits and the record stops being useful. Managing revisions covers this in full.