A policy is modified as a draft accessible only to admins. That draft must be released before the latest version reaches your audience - just like publishing documents. This lets you make edits in private and launch when they're ready.

Policies reach your audience via the documents they're embedded in, or via direct distribution as a standalone page. Once a policy is released and distributed, future updates push everywhere it lives.

Initial launch of a policy

Note: If the policy was created via conversion from a text section, skip to Step 3. Policies converted from text sections are automatically embedded in the document right where the text section was and, if the text section was previously published, it's converted in a post-release state that doesn't require you to release/publish it for the first time.

The typical workflow for the initial launch of a policy:

Steps 1 & 2 (complete in any order)

When you're done (or close to done) editing a policy, embed it in the draft(s) of the document(s) you want it to appear in.

When your policy is ready for your audience to view and sign, release it. Releasing a policy changes its status to "Clean" - meaning the draft version in the policy library exactly matches the latest version released or published. Note: If a policy has completed an approval workflow, it moves from "Approved" to "Clean" rather than "Drafting" to "Clean."

Note: Both of the above actions can be done in bulk, so you don't have to do this for every individual policy.

Step 3

When you're ready for your audience to view and sign an embedded and released policy, publish the document it's embedded in.

Note for text sections converted to policies: If you converted an existing document's text sections into policies, publish the document before managing policies inside the policy library. Publish as you normally would. If you haven't changed your policies, this version will be identical to the previous one as far as document viewers are concerned.

Once you've done this, future policy maintenance is much simpler - see below.

Changing a policy

Once a policy and the document it's embedded in are released, published, and live, the workflow is straightforward.

When you publish a policy, it's updated everywhere - in all draft and live documents where it's embedded. You can also publish policies in bulk.

For policies embedded in at least one live document, the terminology changes from Release to Publish. This distinguishes an update that changes what your audience sees (Publish) from one only visible to policy admins (Release).

The release process

When you click Release (or Publish), a two-step flow walks you through the process. You can release one policy at a time or many in bulk.

Step 1 - Release details

For each policy, fill in the release details. In a bulk release, you can apply the same values to all selected policies or set them individually:

Release Name - a label for this release (e.g., "Q2 2026 Update").
Release type - choose Major Version or Minor Version to indicate the significance of the change.
Release Notes - describe what changed. These appear in the policy's history and are visible to admins and collaborators.
- AI-Generate Release Notes - Blissbook can draft release notes for you based on what changed in each policy. Use the AI icon button next to a policy's Release Notes field to generate notes for that policy, or generate notes for all selected policies at once.

Step 2 - What will happen?

Before anything goes live, this step shows you exactly how each selected policy will be distributed, grouped by method:

Draft documents - policies will be accessible to audience members when the document is launched.
Live documents - policies will be updated immediately for audience members.
Direct distribution - policies will be updated immediately on their standalone page.
Non-distributed - policies are not currently distributed to audience members.

Each group shows a count of affected policies. Review the breakdown, then click the Release (or Publish) button to confirm.

Note: Audience members will not receive notifications when you release or publish. To notify your audience of changes, use annotations or notification emails.

Policy Sharing - Share policies with collaborators and your audience, including direct distribution.
Annotations - Highlight changes and notify audience members when a policy is updated.
Policy Library Notifications - How notifications work for policy admins and collaborators.

Still have questions? Contact our support team!

Publishing and Releasing Policies in the Policy Library