Manage Approvals like Never Before: More Control and Flexibility in your Approval Processes

Manage Approvals like Never Before: More Control and Flexibility in your Approval Processes

Hello Everyone,

We hope you are doing well!

We are here with exciting enhancements to the approval process of Zoho CRM. The updates provide greater flexibility, transparency, and control over record approvals, empowering you to ensure the right data enters your CRM system.

Here's what's new :
  • Editable Records in Approval : You can now edit records that are pending approval, ensuring their accuracy and up-to-date information before finalizing. Furthermore, you can choose Process Admins to approve records now, adding an extra layer of oversight.

  • Role or Group Approval Flexibility : Selecting roles or groups to approve records now provides the option to grant approval from any user in a group or from all users in the group. When set to Anyone, any user from the group can approve records, and when set to Everyone, approval will be required from every user in the group.

  • Hierarchical Approval Options : When the "Reporting To" hierarchy is selected for your organization, you can now specify whether Anyone or Everyone at higher levels can approve records if the user does not have a reporting manager in your approval processes. This flexible setting lets you align approval flows more precisely with your organization’s hierarchy.
Let's take a look at each of these enhancements in more detail.

Edit records waiting for approval and grant process admins privileges to approve records

Previously, you could not edit any records that's been submitted for approval in the approval process.

Now, you can edit the records that are waiting for approval. This ensures data accuracy can be maintained during the approval process. Updating key details, correcting errors, or adding new information – this enhancement enables you to keep records current before final approval, ensuring the final record reflects the most accurate and up-to-date data. This feature enables teams to work more smoothly, reducing issues caused by locked records. This helps ensure quality and completeness without restarting the approval process.

You can also assign process admins to oversee and approve records in your approval processes, providing a higher level of oversight and control. This capability is especially beneficial for larger teams or complex processes, reducing dependency on specific individuals and enhancing team flexibility, ensuring that approvals are not delayed due to limited access. These process admins can also edit records that are waiting for approval if needed.

If process admin settings are not configured, then any user with the Administrator profile will be able to take over records submitted for approval; however, if process admin settings are configured, only those users selected as process admins can take over a record submitted for approval.

Role or group approval flexibility

You can choose users of different roles or from groups from your organization to approve records in an approval process. Previously, if you select users from Roles or Groups to approve records, then ANYONE can approve the record and it is moved to the next stage.

Now, however, we have introduced an additional option where EVERYONE in the group or with the same role can approve records when the need arises.

For example, in the Zylker Tech organization, there is one CEO, five managers, and 10 executives. Additionally, there is a group of users from various roles. When selecting roles and groups to approve records, and you set the overall approval method as Everyone, you have two options:
  • Choose Anyone from your organization to approve records and move them to the next stage, such as adding new leads from a specific website would require any user's approval.
  • Choose Everyone from a group or with the same role in your organization to approve records, ensuring the entire team's approval is required for the record to move to the next stage, such as a quality check.

Configuring the approval process so that everyone in a group or role must approve a record before it progresses to the next stage helps ensure quality, compliance, and accountability.

Align your records approvals to your organization's hierarchy

You can choose to have either role hierarchy or reporting hierarchy for your organization from Company Settings in your Setup menu. This choice will also have an effect on your approval processes. This means, all existing and new approval processes will adhere to the selected organization's hierarchy.

When your organization follows the 'Reporting' hierarchy, the approval process will also follow the same hierarchy. This means, when you select levels to approve records, the system will choose users from the reporting hierarchy to approve the records.

For example, if your organization has two levels of reporting, and you choose 1st Level, then the user's immediate reporting manager or CEO and Administrators will have to approve the records. However, if you choose the 2nd Level, the user's immediate reporting manager's manager will have to approve the records.

In case you have two or more levels for approvals and you set the overall approval method as Everyone, then for users who do not have a reporting manager, you can choose to select Anyone or Everyone higher up in the hierarchy to approve records or select Anyone or Everyone from the CEO and Administrators to approve records.

Similarly, when your organization follows the 'Role' hierarchy, the approval process will also follow the same hierarchy. This means, when you select levels to approve records, the system will choose users from the role hierarchy to approve the records.

That's it for today, folks! We hope these enhancements provide you with greater control and transparency in managing approvals, simplifying the maintenance of accuracy and accountability across your CRM workflows.

Explore these new features today, and elevate your approval processes to new heights. Read more on how to add approval processes to your workflows from here.

Please feel free to comment below your queries, and we will get back to you at the earliest.

Info
Availability : This enhancement is available for all users in all DCs.



    Access your files securely from anywhere

        All-in-one knowledge management and training platform for your employees and customers.







                              Zoho Developer Community




                                                    • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                    • Digest


                                                    • Functions


                                                    • Meetups


                                                    • Kbase


                                                    • Resources


                                                    • Glossary


                                                    • Desk Marketplace


                                                    • MVP Corner


                                                    • Word of the Day


                                                    • Ask the Experts





                                                              Manage your brands on social media



                                                                    Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                        Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                          Zoho Books Resources


                                                                            Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                              Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                                Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                  Qntrl Resources


                                                                                    Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                        Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                        • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                          CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                        • Kaizen

                                                                                          Kaizen

                                                                                        • Functions

                                                                                          Functions

                                                                                        • Meetups

                                                                                          Meetups

                                                                                        • Kbase

                                                                                          Kbase

                                                                                        • Resources

                                                                                          Resources

                                                                                        • Digest

                                                                                          Digest

                                                                                        • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                          CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        • MVP Corner

                                                                                          MVP Corner









                                                                                            Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                            Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                            Get Started Now


                                                                                              Zoho Show Resources

                                                                                                Zoho Writer

                                                                                                Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                                Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                  Zoho CRM コンテンツ




                                                                                                    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                        ご検討中の方




                                                                                                                • Recent Topics

                                                                                                                • Zoho Expense Import Reports Won't Work Because Default Accounts Already Exist

                                                                                                                  Im trying to import reports from another Zoho expense account to mine and im getting errors that won't allow the import to happen The account name that you've entered 'Ground Transportation' already exists. Enter another name for the account and try again.z
                                                                                                                • Inactive License for free account.

                                                                                                                  I recently upgraded my Cliq subscription not my team (on the free version), are unable to login to their accounts. The error message received is Inactive License Looks like you have not been covered under the current free plan of users. Please contact
                                                                                                                • Syncing zoho books into zoho crm

                                                                                                                  I was wondering how I can use zoho books in crm as I have been using them separately and would like to sync the two. Is this possible and if so, how? Thanks
                                                                                                                • Announcing new features in Trident for Mac (1.34.0)

                                                                                                                  Hello everyone! We’re excited to introduce the latest updates to Trident, which are designed to take workplace communication to the next level. Let’s take a quick look at what’s new. Connect with customers using Zoho Voice integration. You can now easily
                                                                                                                • The Social Wall: January 2026

                                                                                                                  Hello everyone, We’re back with the first edition of The Social Wall of 2026. There’s a lot planned for the year ahead, and we’re starting with a few useful features and improvements released in January to help you get started. Create a GBP in Social
                                                                                                                • How to block whole domain?

                                                                                                                  I am getting at least 50-75sometimes over 100 spams emails a day. I see a lot of the spam is coming from .eu domains. I would like to block /reject all email coming for the .eu domain. I do not have any need for email from .EU domains. Why won't the BlackList
                                                                                                                • How Zoho Contracts Makes Negotiations Clear, Secure, and Transparent

                                                                                                                  Negotiation is one of the most critical—and often most chaotic—stages of the contract lifecycle. Multiple stakeholders review the same document, propose changes, debate terms, and exchange feedback. Without the right tools, this collaborative process
                                                                                                                • Error: Invalid Element tax_override_preference

                                                                                                                  In both Books and Inventory, we're getting the following error whenever we try to enter any Bill: I think this is a bug. Even cloning an old bill (that obviously was entered just fine), this error occurs.
                                                                                                                • Assign Income to Project Without Invoice

                                                                                                                  Hello, Fairly new user here so apologies if there is a really obvious solution here that I am just missing... I have hundreds of small deposits into a bank account that I want to assign to a project but do not want to have to create an invoice every time
                                                                                                                • How to Print the Data Model Zoho CRM

                                                                                                                  I have created the data model in Zoho CRM and I want the ability to Print this. How do we do this please? I want the diagram exported to a PDF. There doesnt appear to be an option to do this. Thanks Andrew
                                                                                                                • our customers have difficult to understand the Statements

                                                                                                                  our costumers have big problems to understand Zohos Statements. we need a text box after the payment number to explain what the payments are for. Is it possible to develop a version of the Statement with that kind of box and if so whu can do it
                                                                                                                • How to track a list of ALL the items that ONE customer bought?

                                                                                                                  Hello, I am interested in getting a list of all the items that only ONE of my customers bought, and the invoices are what show up instead. It's very tedious to go through every single invoice when we sell a lot of items to this customer. Surely there
                                                                                                                • Exchange Rate Updates

                                                                                                                  Hi, It would be great that when you work with multiple currencies, the exchange rate updates automagically every day (as seen on Zoho Books) or at least that when you create/update an opportunity the exchange rate could be manually updated, or maybe both!
                                                                                                                • Locked Out of Super Admin Account

                                                                                                                  I'm locked out of my Super Admin account and the external e-mail is no longer associated with it. There seems to be a problem during set up, the system ought to ask to assign a new password instead of using Google accounts. Please help me get back access.
                                                                                                                • Emails are going to notification folder and not in inbox

                                                                                                                  emails are going to notification folder and not into inbox
                                                                                                                • 550 5.4.6 Unusual sending activity detected. Please try after sometime

                                                                                                                  Hi, I am receiving this error message when trying to send my emails. The only reason I can think why this is happening is my previous two emails were bounced back to me due to a non working mailbox error. I have followed the online links for unblocking
                                                                                                                • Projects Home Customization

                                                                                                                  Hello! We've been in Zoho One since July of last year, and my team has started providing feedback on what they'd like to do. Their latest wish is that they could have more control over the Projects Home content. For example, they want a card that shows
                                                                                                                • IMAP search support

                                                                                                                  Does Zoho Mail support IMAP search? https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9051.html#name-search-command TEXT <string> Messages that contain the specified string in the header (including MIME header fields) or body of the message. Servers are allowed to implement
                                                                                                                • Performance is degrading

                                                                                                                  We have used Mail and Cliq for about three years now. I used to use both on the browser. Both have, over the past 6 months, had a severe degradation in performance. I switched to desktop email, which appeared to improve things somewhat, although initial
                                                                                                                • Cannot reorder fields in Page Layout in Expenses and Purchase Requests

                                                                                                                  It is very inconvenient that the custom fields in Page Layout cannot be re-ordered. The only way is to remove the fields and re-create them; however, it is impractical. This would affect the reports and dashboards we are having. Not able to re-order the
                                                                                                                • bouncing emails

                                                                                                                  My recurring invoices have bounced back
                                                                                                                • Probable Scam / Phising attempt from email pretending to be Zoho

                                                                                                                  I think this is a scam email right? It says "zohCworkplace.com". I'm on the Mail Free plan The link in the CTA button seems to go to a redirect. Just wanted to bring it up to the security team.
                                                                                                                • Feature Request: Ability to set Default Custom Filters and apply them via URL/Deluge

                                                                                                                  I've discovered a significant gap in how Zoho Creator handles Custom Filters for reports, and I'm hoping the Zoho team can address this in a future update. This limitation has been raised before and continues to be requested, but remains unresolved. The
                                                                                                                • Email Address Search in "To" Field Search is broken, Zoho refuses to fix it

                                                                                                                  Typing a part of the email address string other than the beginning of the string does NOT work, I kindly urge Zoho to fix this. Let's say you remember writing an email so someone called "smith" from company "corp.com", but can't remember their first name,
                                                                                                                • Emails not being received by @hotmail.com, @outlook.com and a few others

                                                                                                                  When I try to send emails from zoho mail to people with email addresses ending @outlook.com and @hotmail.com (and a few others), I get a 'delayed' automatic email and then a few hours later, an 'undelivered' automatic email. This has started a few months
                                                                                                                • scroll bar for far left of screen

                                                                                                                  I am unable to even see the scroll bar to the right of "inbox" etc on the left; it is stuck at "streams" and I can't get to inbox or anything else. It would help if it could be made a lighter color as the black or dark grey can't bee seen.
                                                                                                                • OUt of office every friday

                                                                                                                  Hi, I tryed to configure my out of office, because i'm not working or emailing on fridays. But when i select only friday as unavailable day, the out of office still sets for the whole week. What am I doing wrong?
                                                                                                                • Signature line

                                                                                                                  How do I set signature line in email
                                                                                                                • Zoho email

                                                                                                                  I cannot send email to mail.ru
                                                                                                                • 【参加無料】東京 Zoho ユーザ交流会 NEXUS ー CRMで始めるマーケティング事例 / AI活用法(Zia Agents)

                                                                                                                  ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 3月27日(金)に東京、新橋で東京 Zoho ユーザー交流会 NEXUS を開催します! 昨年度までより、さらにパワーアップして戻ってきました! ユーザー活用事例は、2人のユーザーさんからお話しいただきます。Zoho サービスの活用の幅を広げたい方や、他のユーザーの利用法を気軽に知りたい方など、多くの方にとって学びのあるセッションになること間違いなしです✨ また今年は、これまで以上に、AI機能にも焦点を当てて行く予定です。 初回として、Zoho社員からZoho
                                                                                                                • Issue Exporting Data – CSRF Token Invalid Error

                                                                                                                  Dear Zoho Team, We are experiencing an issue when exporting data from our Analytics workspace. Whenever we attempt to export data from our analytical pool, the system displays the following alert message: Alert Message: The CSRF token is invalid. It could
                                                                                                                • Deluge Learning Series – Client functions in Deluge | January 2026

                                                                                                                  We’re excited to kick-start the first session of the 2026 Deluge Learning Series (DLS) with Client functions in Deluge. For those who are new to DLS, here’s a quick overview of what the series is all about: The Deluge Learning Series takes place on the
                                                                                                                • Zoho Mail 505 error I can not send email

                                                                                                                  Hi, I’m having issues sending emails from my custom domain email address. When I send emails to Outlook addresses, I receive an “Undeliverable 505” error. However, emails send and receive correctly when I use Gmail. This is important for my business,
                                                                                                                • Multiple MFA Methods

                                                                                                                  With SMS-based MFA methods being discontinued, there is now no way to have mutliple MFA methods. I'd like to add my zoho account on two seperate phones using the Google Authenticator app. In the https://accounts.zoho.com/home#multiTFA/modes you can only
                                                                                                                • Reuse Standalone Function

                                                                                                                  I noticed that there's a missing information in documentation to reuse a standalone function and it is because the parameters require an argument. Here is my code and it is working. response = invokeurl [ url: "https://people.zoho.com/api/v3/function/sample/execute"
                                                                                                                • Domain renewals

                                                                                                                  Need to know how hoe to renew the domain
                                                                                                                • MX shopify problem

                                                                                                                  hello, i added all MX values in my shopify DNS - it shows those values on the shopify panel + your toolkit. I tried to send some email and it works, however on my gmail it says they cant verify this email. When i try to answer into my domain's email -
                                                                                                                • Best Way to Manage Email Notifications While Running a Strategy Website

                                                                                                                  I am currently managing a content-based website, and I use Zoho Mail for handling contact forms, user queries, and collaboration emails. One challenge I am facing is organizing incoming emails efficiently, especially when messages come from different
                                                                                                                • What is the maximum email domains ?

                                                                                                                  I help manage about 20 associations and I'm looking for a way to centralize them in one place. Does Zoho Mail pro or enterprise support 20-30 domains for 3-5 users each?
                                                                                                                • Add to Workdrive filter

                                                                                                                  I'm trying to create a filter that will upload attachments in emails and the e-mail body to a folder in workdrive. I am able to do one or the other (attachment, or e-mail content), but not both. I first tried it using the "Email (EML) + attachment" option.
                                                                                                                • Next Page