Document Approval Workflow 
This process describes how documents are approved when you activate the related workflow.
You have done the following:
Checked the document approval workflow and the related tasks and starting conditions using transaction Workflow Builder (SWDD). Also, check whether the starting conditions are active.
Checked whether you have activated the workflow in the Customizing for Document Builder Content Management under and under .

The document approval workflow proceeds as follows:
An author creates a document; the document status is set to New.
The author edits the document; the document status is set to Held.
The author releases the document to submit it to a manager for approval; the document status is set to In approval.
The manager can either approve or reject the document in the Universal Worklist (UWL). If approved, the document status is set to Released.