Article Review
Article Review is the controlled step where a Salesforce Knowledge Article moves from author-finished Draft into reviewer evaluation before publication.
Definition
Article Review is the controlled step where a Salesforce Knowledge Article moves from author-finished Draft into reviewer evaluation before publication. Most production Knowledge programs gate publishing on at least one review, so an editor, subject-matter expert, or compliance officer reads the draft, checks accuracy and tone, validates categorisation and channel choices, and either approves it for publication, rejects it back to the author, or leaves comments asking for revision. Salesforce supports the workflow through the standard Approval Process feature plus Knowledge-specific automation, although smaller teams sometimes implement review as a manual handoff with status updates.
Article Review matters because Knowledge articles become operational truth the moment they publish. An incorrect step in a how-to article wastes an agent's time on every case that pulls it up. A misleading FAQ surfaces to thousands of customers per quarter through self-service. The review step is the chokepoint that keeps low-quality content out of the customer-facing surface. Mature Knowledge programs measure review SLAs (time from submit to approve), reviewer load (articles per reviewer per week), and rejection rate (signals over- or under-eager authors). The review step is also where compliance and brand voice get enforced consistently across hundreds of articles a year.
How Article Review works in a Salesforce Knowledge program
The review step in the Knowledge lifecycle
Drafts move through Author Finished, Pending Review, Approved or Rejected, then Online. The review stage sits between Author Finished and the publish action. Reviewers see drafts in their Pending Review list, open them inline, and submit a decision. The decision drives the next state.
Approval Process integration
Salesforce's standard Approval Process feature can be configured on the Knowledge object to route Pending Review drafts. Each step assigns reviewers, sets criteria for which articles need which reviewers, and optionally fires actions on approval or rejection. A Final Approval Action of Publish Article ties the approval to actual publication.
Reviewer assignment patterns
Three patterns dominate. Round-robin assigns drafts to reviewers in rotation. Topic-based routes by Data Category (Product reviews go to the product team, Legal goes to compliance). Author-based routes by who wrote the article (senior authors skip the most senior review step). Most programs combine all three.
What reviewers actually check
Effective reviewers check several things: factual accuracy, tone and voice alignment with brand guidelines, correct Data Category and channel assignments, sensitive-content removal, link integrity, and overlap with existing articles. A standard review checklist makes the process repeatable; without one, each reviewer applies their own bar.
Rejection and revision flow
Rejection sends the draft back to the author with comments. The author revises and resubmits; the cycle repeats until approved. Most mature programs limit cycles to two or three; beyond that, the article usually needs a discussion outside of comments, not another round of edits.
SLAs and reviewer workload
Healthy review programs publish articles within days of submission, not weeks. SLA dashboards measure submit-to-approve latency and flag reviewers whose queue is backing up. Reviewers with persistent backlog need either more capacity or stricter author quality gates (so fewer drafts hit them).
Automating parts of the review
Lint-style automation catches obvious issues before human review: empty body fields, missing Data Categories, broken links, forbidden words. Flows can run pre-checks on submit and block drafts that fail. The remaining human review focuses on judgement calls that automation cannot make.
Reporting on review activity
Standard Approval Process reports cover Pending Reviews by Reviewer, Average Time to Approve, Rejection Rate, and Active Reviewers. Knowledge teams track these alongside content metrics (publish rate, archive rate). The combination reveals whether the review step is the bottleneck, the author backlog is the bottleneck, or both.
How to design an Article Review workflow
The technical mechanics use standard Approval Process plus Knowledge actions. The harder work is choosing reviewers, defining the review checklist, and setting realistic SLAs.
- Define the review checklist
Document what reviewers should check: accuracy, tone, categorisation, channels, link integrity, brand voice. The checklist is the reviewer's contract.
- Configure an Approval Process on the Knowledge object
Setup, Approval Processes. Build a process with entry criteria for Draft articles, one or more steps for review, and a Final Approval Action that calls Publish.
- Assign reviewers by category, author, or rotation
Use Approval Step criteria to route articles to the right reviewer based on Data Category, author role, or round-robin queue.
- Add automation to catch obvious issues
Build a Flow that fires on submit to reject articles with missing Data Categories, broken links, or empty body fields. Reviewers focus only on judgement calls.
- Monitor SLAs and rejection rates
Build dashboards for submit-to-approve latency, pending count per reviewer, and rejection rate. Use the data to rebalance load or invest in author training.
- Without a written checklist, every reviewer applies their own bar. Inconsistent reviews frustrate authors more than strict ones.
- Reviewer backlog is the most common Knowledge bottleneck. Track SLAs and rebalance load before the queue becomes invisible.
- Auto-rejection rules that fire too aggressively block legitimate drafts. Tune them carefully and let reviewers override.
- Final Approval Actions must include the Publish action; otherwise approval succeeds but the article stays in Pending Publish.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Knowledge Admin OverviewSalesforce Help
- Approval ProcessesSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Article Review.
- Publish Knowledge ArticlesSalesforce Help
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is Article Review?
Q2. What can a reviewer do with an article in review?
Q3. Why is it important to balance review rigor with publication speed?
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