A request — one line or twenty — becomes a strategy your team can review, edit, approve and send out as a deck. Most teams run that themselves; some hand the work to an agency that delivers it. Start with the door that sounds like you.
If your organization uses single sign-on, just choose "Sign in with…" on the login page — you'll get your own workspace to draft, refine, and export briefs, no invite needed.
To join a specific team workspace, you're invited by one of its approvers or by your agency contact; agency teammates are invited by their agency admin. The invite arrives by email with an 8-digit access code and a link to activate your account.
You can also ask to join. If your work email is on a workspace's approved domain list, it appears when you sign in with a "Request to join" button — an approver there confirms before you're added.
One email is one identity. Access is per workspace and per role, tied to the exact address used — a work email and a personal email each open only their own workspaces.
First five minutes
Activate your account
Three screens between the invite email and your workspace. Signing in with single sign-on instead? You get a personal workspace straight away — raise a brief, combine the plan the AI writes, export the deck. No invite, no approvals.
Open your invite email
It contains your 8-digit access code. Select the button in the email to open the activation screen.
Step 1 of 2: Activate access
Enter the email address the invite was sent to, plus the 8-digit code from the email.
Set your password
Choose a password and select Activate account. You're signed in and land straight in your workspace — next time, sign in with that email and password.
Orientation
Find your way around
You only ever see the workspace your account belongs to, and the left sidebar tells you instantly which one you're in. Working on your own? A personal workspace gives you the whole loop — brief in, plan out, deck ready — with no approvals in between.
Submitter portal
Teammates who raise work and build the plans.
You see a + New Brief button and a My Briefs list.
Approver portal
The people who decide — they approve plans and sign off work.
You see an Approval Queue of briefs waiting on you.
Agency portal
An agency team delivering work for the brands it serves.
You see an Agency Queue spanning every brand you serve.
Personal workspace
One person, working alone.
You raise briefs and build plans in the same place, with no approval step.
Notifications: The bell in the top bar mirrors the same events as email — brief submitted, review needed, agency action needed, brief updates, invite accepted. Select any item to jump straight to that brief, and tune each category's Email and In-app setting under Settings → Notifications.
Using more than one email? Read this.
Access is tied to the exact email that was invited, per workspace and per role. A personal and a work email are two separate identities — each opens only the workspaces it was invited to.
If a page says "This workspace isn't available to this account", it names the email you're signed in with and the access it needs (for example, approver access to MTN). Select Switch account, then sign in with the email that has that access.
Door 2
I was invited
Someone added you to a workspace. You raise briefs and build the plans that come back — everything you need in about four minutes.
Get in
Open the invitation email and follow the link. If your company uses Plaqad sign-in, that's one click; otherwise you set a password once. Already signed in with the same email? The invite just adds the new workspace, and your existing work is untouched.
Say what you want — one line is enough
Select + New Brief and describe your ask. “Own the conversation around our December launch in Lagos” is a complete brief; so is three paragraphs. The platform's job is to take whatever you give it and work out the rest.
Optional: select Refine with AI
It rewrites your draft into a fuller brief before you submit. Unlocks at a 3-character title, a department, and a 10-character description. Optional — it changes nothing about what happens next.
Read the plans that come back
A minute or two after you submit, three plan options appear on the brief's Plans tab — different angles on the same ask. Pick the two or three you like and select Combine. That combined plan is what your team works on.
Make it yours, then send it on
Edit with a prompt tells the AI what to change (“tighten the timeline, add radio”), or edit any section by hand. Changes shows what moved since it was last sent; Clean shows it as it reads now. Send it when it says what you mean.
Follow it without asking anyone
The tracker on your brief always shows the step it's on and who it's with. If it comes back to you it says exactly what's needed, and it moves the moment you answer.
Needs Input
What you'll be notified about: Email and bell updates when your plan options are ready, when your brief is reviewed or moves on, when the plan is approved, and whenever something needs your input.
If something's off
Needs Input is not a rejection — the approver wants changes or context. Edit the brief and resend it.
Plans take one to two minutes after you submit. You can close the tab; nothing is lost.
Want to change a brief after sending? Ask your approver to send it back, then edit and resubmit. Nothing is lost in between.
If your workspace works with an agency
Your brief goes to the agency instead, and their work comes back for sign-off — you won't build the plan yourself. Everything else on this page works the same way.
Door 1
I'm setting up for my team
From an empty workspace to your first approved deck. About fifteen minutes, most of it waiting for the AI to write your first plan.
Pick how your workspace works
Internal means your team raises briefs and approves the plans yourselves — nothing leaves the workspace. External means you'll invite an agency to do the work. Most teams pick internal; you can switch later, and switching moves nothing, it only shows or hides the agency step.
Get your team in
Invite people by email, one at a time or as a pasted list, and set each person's role as you go: submitters raise briefs and work on plans, approvers do that too and can approve. One person can be both. You can also add your work email domain so colleagues can ask to join — you approve every request, so nobody joins on their own.
Raise a brief — one line is enough
A brief is your ask, in your words. One sentence is a complete brief; so is three paragraphs. Wait for a teammate to raise the first one, or raise it yourself.
Read the plans, then make one yours
Three plan options appear on the brief's Plans tab a minute or two after it's submitted. Combine the two or three you like, refine the result with a prompt or by hand, and the plan is ready for a decision. Plans come out in your workspace's format — set one, and every plan follows those sections.
Work the queue
Each card says what it needs before you open it, and the plan chip tells you what state the plan is in — options ready, combined, needs a refresh, approved.
Awaiting your reviewDecide next route
Approve the plan
When the plan is right, select Approve plan. That is the decision the whole workflow exists for: it concludes the brief and unlocks the exports. If it isn't right, send it back with a note saying what's missing, and the person who raised it picks it straight up.
Approved
Send it out
An approved plan exports as a PowerPoint deck, a Word document, or a PDF. Upload a client's own template and the deck comes out in their branding, ready to present.
What you'll be notified about: Email and bell updates when a brief needs review, when a plan is shared or approved, when invites are accepted, and — for anything marked critical — an urgent alert to every approver if it waits more than 24 hours.
If something's off
No plans on a brief? They arrive one to two minutes after submission. Nothing waits on uploads — plans are written from the brief, and PR Brain only makes them sharper.
Can't approve? Check you hold the approver role on that workspace; Settings → People shows who holds what, and you can change it there.
Queue looks empty but work exists? Check the tab you're on — the empty state names where the rest is and links straight to it.
Working with an agency instead?
Your approvers route briefs to the agency rather than approving a plan, and sign off the work when it comes back. The Who delivers setting in Settings decides which agency receives them.
Role guide
For agency teams
You deliver the work — for every brand you serve, from one queue.
Open the Agency Queue
One queue across all your brands. Cards show New work or Waiting on client, plus urgency and an AI readiness score (like AI 82).
New workWaiting on clientHigh
Accept the brief
Open it and accept to start execution.
Run the Execution tab
Create tasks with a title, owner, and due date, then track each task's status as the work moves.
Upload to the Performance tab
Add result documents and a synthesis — the brand approver sees exactly what you upload here.
Select Return for review
Sends the finished work back to the approver for sign-off.
What you'll be notified about: Email and bell updates when new work is routed to the agency and when the client responds or a brief changes.
If something's off
Waiting on client means the next move is the brand's — you'll be notified when it comes back to you.
Results belong in the Performance tab, not in email — that upload is what the approver reviews at sign-off.
The spine of the product
The journey of every brief
Every brief shows which step it's on and a plain-English status, so nobody has to ask where things stand. This is the journey on an internal workspace — your team raises the brief, builds the plan, and approves it. If your workspace hands work to an agency, three extra steps sit between the decision and sign-off; they're listed underneath.
1SubmittedSomeone raises the brief — a line or a page.
2Plan draftedThe AI writes three plan options from the brief. Anyone on the workspace can combine and refine them into one plan.
3Plan in reviewThe plan goes to an approver, who can edit it, approve it, or send it back with a note saying what's missing.
4Plan approvedSelecting Approve plan concludes the brief and unlocks the deck, document and PDF exports.
5PerformanceResults are uploaded against the brief; the approver reviews the outcome.
6DoneThe brief is archived with its full history intact.
Working with an agency? Three more steps
Instead of approving a plan, the approver routes the brief to the agency. It then travels: → Agency (the agency accepts and runs execution) → Feedback (finished work returns for comments) → Sign-off (the approver reviews the final version), before joining the same Approved → Performance → Done ending.
When something looks wrong
Troubleshooting
The five snags people actually hit, each with its fix.
"This workspace isn't available to this account"
You're signed in with an email that doesn't have access here. The screen names the signed-in email and the access it needs (for example, approver access to MTN). Select Switch account, then sign in with the email that has that access.
I don't have an invite
If your organization uses single sign-on, choose "Sign in with…" on the login page — you'll get your own workspace, no invite needed. To join a specific brand or team, ask its workspace admin or your agency contact to invite you; the invite arrives by email with an 8-digit access code.
"That code isn't right or has expired"
Codes are single-use and expire. Ask whoever invited you to send a fresh invite, then use the code from the newest email.
I clicked an email link and had to sign in
That's expected when you're signed out. Sign in and you'll land exactly where the link pointed — no need to find the page again.
The AI plans are taking a while
Plans generate in about 1–2 minutes after a brief is submitted. Open the brief's AI Plans tab a couple of minutes later and they'll be there.