Some form templates hold their submissions as Pending until somebody reviews them. This walkthrough filters the queue down to those, reads the answers, approves one, and goes back to it to see the record the decision left behind.

Two things about the decision are worth knowing before you make one. Your comment is shared with the person who submitted the form and is written into the response's history — it is not a private note. And where a comment is required depends on which surface you decide on: the full review page requires one for Request Updates and Reject Form but not for an approval, while the Quick Review panel in the quick view requires one for either of its two decisions unless you take its quick-approve path.

The decision is also not only approve. Request Updates sends the response back as Update Required so the submitter can correct it and send it again — the right answer when the evidence is thin, rather than approving something you are unsure of. On the full review page Reject Form is there too.

You need review permission on form responses.

Step 1
Open Form Responses
Go to Forms, then Management, and select the Form Responses tab. Every submitted form lands there, whatever its status.
Step 2
Filter down to what is waiting
Open Filters. Every status except Draft is ticked to begin with, so the queue mixes decided and undecided work — turn off Approved, Update Required and Rejected and what is left is what still needs someone.
Step 3
Read the answers
Open a response. The quick view shows who submitted it, when, and every answer read-only. Check the answers, and any attachment, against what this form asks for. If you need another record to decide, open that record before you refer to it in your comment.
Step 4
Record your decision
Full Review opens the response's own page, where the Approval Decision card holds the comment box and the three outcomes. Write what you actually inspected, then Approve Form. The comment goes to the submitter and is kept in the response's history, so write the reason rather than "ok".
Step 5
Or send it back
Request Updates returns the response as Update Required so it can be corrected and resubmitted; Reject Form records a rejection. Both of those require a comment telling the submitter what is wrong. They are alternatives to approving, not extra steps after it.
Step 6
Find it again
Approving sends you back to the queue, and the response is no longer in it — a Pending-only list drops anything that has been decided. Reopen Filters, turn Approved on and Pending off, and it is back in the list.
Step 7
Check what the decision left behind
Open it again and read Status History: the new Approved entry carries who decided it, the time, and the comment they wrote. Approved responses are locked from office edits — where you are authorised, Revert Form Status puts one back to Pending so it can be amended.
Step 8
Why the comment matters even when it is optional
A status on its own says what was decided and nothing about why. Months later — an audit, a complaint, a handover — the history is where someone looks, and the comment is the part of it that says what was looked at. The full review page will let you approve without one; that is a convenience, not an invitation.