Introduction to the Approval Process in Salesforce / Blogs / Perficient

Introduction:

In Salesforce, the approval process is a powerful feature that allows you to automate and streamline the process of approving records, such as opportunities, leads, or custom objects. It helps to enforce business rules and ensures that the right people review and approve important records before they progress to the next stage.

Here’s an overview of how the approval process works in Salesforce:

1. Defining the Approval Process:

1. Identify the record or object for which you want to create an approval process.
2. Determine the criteria that trigger the approval process, such as the record’s field values.
3. Define the steps and actions required for approval, including who approves and what happens at each step.

2. Submitting the Record for Approval:

Once the approval process is defined, a user can submit a record for approval by initiating the approval process manually or by meeting the predefined criteria.

3. Initial Submission Actions:

1. In Salesforce’s approval process, the initial submission action refers to what happens when a user submits a record for approval.
2. It determines the actions and behaviors that occur at the beginning of the approval process.
3. It is provided with additional actions, such as updating fields, sending notifications/email alerts as so on.

4. Approval Steps:

1. In Salesforce’s approval process, approval steps define the sequence of actions and approvers involved in reviewing and approving a record.
2. Here, one can define specific entry criteria for records as well as create a complex business logic for records for their approvals.
3. In approval steps, you assign different approvers, set up email alerts, and specify approval actions and field updates as well.

5. Final Approval Actions:

1. In Salesforce’s approval process, final approval actions refer to the actions that occur when a record reaches its final approval status.
2. These actions are triggered once the record has successfully passed through all the defined approval steps and has received the necessary approvals.
3. Once the record is fully approved, organizations can define additional actions, such as updating fields, sending notifications, or triggering other workflows.

6. Final Rejection Actions:

1. In Salesforce’s approval process, final rejection actions refer to the actions that occur when a record is ultimately rejected and does not receive the necessary approvals to move forward.
2. These actions are triggered once the record reaches its final rejection status.

Some common final rejection actions in Salesforce are Field updates, Email Notifications/Alerts or Outbound Messages as well.

To Start with Approval Process, Follow the Given Steps:

1. Go to the Setup.
2. Enter “Approval Process” into the Quick Find Box.
3. Click on Approval Processes.
4. From Manage Approval Processes drop-down menu, select Object for which you have to create an approval process.

In this way, you can navigate to the approval process page and create it.

Here, for e.g., you select an Account object for Approval Process, then you need to select one to the two ways by which you can create Approval Process. It is as shown below.

In Salesforce, there are two ways by which you can create an approval process. Let’s first discuss briefly what are those ways.

1. Jump Start Wizard:

• The Jump Start Wizard is useful when you need to set up a simple approval process without complex criteria or multiple approval steps.
• It provides a simplified, guided process that is suitable for straightforward approval requirements.

• It allows you to specify the basic details of the approval process, such as the approval steps, approvers, and final approval actions.

2. Standard Setup Wizard:

• The Standard Setup Wizard offers more flexibility and customization options compared to the Jump Start Wizard.
• It provides a comprehensive step-by-step process for configuring the approval process with advanced options and criteria.
• It allows you to define multiple approval steps with different criteria, assign different approvers, set up email notifications, and specify approval actions and field updates.
• The Standard Setup Wizard is suitable when you have more complex approval requirements, such as different approval paths based on record attributes or specific conditions for each approval step.

Conclusion:

Salesforce provides a flexible and customizable approval process framework to meet the specific needs of different businesses. The process can be tailored to include multiple steps (approval steps), complex criteria, escalations, and even integration with external systems if required.

We will learn how to create an approval process with the step-by-step guide in the next part of this blog.

Until then, Stay Tuned….

Happy Learning.

References:

Approval Process Article