1. For each rule, set the approval criteria such as the conditions or requirements that need to be met for a record to be submitted for approval.
2. Add approval stages and approvers for each stage.
3. For each stage, you can optionally add update field action on approval or assign task for approvers.
4. Choose what fields of a pending/rejected record can be edited.
5. Set actions on overall approval and rejection for that rule.
6. Select rule admins who can take action on any pending approval records.
   

Steps to add an approval process 

Approval process creation 

1. Navigate to Setup > Process Management > Approval Processes. Click Create Approval Process.
2. Name your approval process and optionally add a description
3. Select the module to which you want to apply the approval process.
4. Select the options based on which the approval process will be executed.
1. Create Record - The approval process will be triggered when a record is created.
2. Edit Record - The approval process will be triggered when a record is edited.
3. Create or Edit Record - The approval process will be triggered when a record is either created or edited
   
5. Click Next.

Approval criteria for rule

Approval stages and approvers  

1. User: Any user or multiple users from your organization can approve records in an approval process.
2. Role: Users with specific roles from your organization can approve records in an approval process.
3. Group: Groups from your organization can approve records in an approval process.
4. Levels: They are listed based on the number of levels defined in your organization's hierarchy. When you choose levels, the approving authority is applied for the record based on its owner's level in the hierarchy.
5. Record Owner's Manager: Choose users who are managers of record owners to approve records in an approval process.
6. Record Owner: Choose the record owner to approve records in an approval process. 
7. User Lookup Field: You can choose a user lookup field to send approvals to, but only a single field can be chosen in an approval stage.
   

Note: User Lookup Field support is still in the Early Access phase. We will notify once this is made available to all.

Role or Group Approval Flexibility 

 

Hierarchical Level Approval Options

Note

1. If the rule has a single stage or if the overall approval flow is "Anyone," then, by default, anyone can approve the record except those from the role or group.
2. If the record owner is chosen as the approver, then they will receive a notification when the record is modified or edited by anyone.
   
3. If the record owner's CRM account is inactive or deleted, then the record will be automatically approved.
   
4. If the record is edited by anyone other than the record owner, such that it satisfies the approval criteria, the record will be locked for the record owner's approval.

Stage setup

1. Name the stage
   
2. Choose who should approve the stage in the next field against the approver type.
   
3. Click Assign Task for Approvers to create or associate a task that should be assigned to the approver when the record is submitted for approval.
4. If you want to update a field for that stage as an action of approval, click Update Fields.
5. Choose the module and create or associate field updates. Click Associate.
   
6. Update the Record Modification Settings.

Record modifications settings 

1. Configure what actions need to be performed during a rejection :
   Either choose to reject all stages of approval if there are multiple approvers or if sequential approvals are chosen, choose to reject only the current stage or choose to reject and let the approver decide the stage of the approval.
   
   
2. Configure what actions need to be performed after a rejection :
   You can notify all previous approvers through email or in app bell notifications. Then choose to update fields, send email alerts to record owners, call webhooks, or configure function

Record Modification 

You can allow records to be edited while they are waiting for an approval or while they are in the rejected state. 

1. While records are waiting for approval, you can define the fields that can be edited by the approver. Hence, before approving or rejecting the records, the approver can edit the fields and then take the necessary action. 
2. For a rejected record, you can define the fields that can be edited by users, so that they can edit those fields and resubmit the record for approval.
3. You can choose to allow which fields of a record to be edited by approvers and users. Check the Allow approvers to edit pending approval records and Allow users to edit rejected records checkboxes if you want to enable them. Select All Fields or Selected Fields from the drop-down and select the required fields.
   
   

Note

1. The default record modification settings disables allowing approvers to edit pending approval records and enables allowing users to edit all fields of a rejected record. You can modify these settings as per your preferences.
    
2. You can select up to 25 specific fields that can be modified in a record.
   

Your first stage is now set up. 

1. At least one stage is approved: This option will end the rule by approving the record when any one of the stages of the rule is approved. In that stage where the records are approved, the records can be modified by the approver.
2. All stages are approved: This option will end the rule only when all the stages get approved. Choose between Parallel and Sequential orders of stage approval.
   
3. Parallel: All the users can approve simultaneously. The stage sequence need not be followed.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Sequential: All the users need to approve in the stage sequence. Only after the first stage is approved will the record move to the second stage for approval.
   

The overall approval flow is included and placed beneath all the existing stages.

Overall Record Modification Settings

After choosing your preference of the overall approval flow, a popup appears asking to choose what to do with the overall record modification settings. 

1. Move to Overall Record Modification Settings Level: Apply the record modification settings to all subsequent stages as Overall Record Modification Settings.
2. Discard: Discard the current settings to reset them in line with the overall approval flow afterward.
   

Choose your preference and click Save. 

Note

1. Automations triggered by the field update action when records are edited will work as usual with no changes.
2. If rule admins are defined for approval process, the, when records are rejected, by default, users with Administrator profile will have edit permissions for all fields irrespective of record modification settings, i.e, even if selected fields/no fields are selected from the dropdown.
3. However, if rule admins are defined for an approval process, then only they will have the permissions to edit the records irrespective of record modification settings, i.e, even if selected fields/no fields are selected from the dropdown.
   

Overall Approval Flow

After adding all the stages, if you want to make changes to the overall approval flow, you can modify it accordingly.

If you want a record to be approved when all stages are approved in parallel order, or when at least one stage is approved, it means all stages share a common set of record modification settings.

From either of these settings, if you change the order of approval to Sequential, it means you might prefer different set of record modification settings for each stage. A pop-up will appear asking you if you want to discard the common settings or copy them to all or any of your stages.

1. Copy to All Stages: The settings will be applied to all other stages.
2. Copy to a specific stages: The settings will be applied to a particular chosen stage.
3. Discard: The settings will be discarded and the default settings will apply to all stages.
   

If you change the order of approval from Sequential to Parallel or any one of the stages is approved, it means you might prefer a common record modification settings for all stages. A pop-up will appear asking you how to handle each stage-specific settings.

1. Move stage specific Record Modification Settings to Overall Record Modification: You can choose which stage-specific record modification settings you want to have as overall settings.
2. Discard all existing Record Modifications defined on stage levels: You can discard all the stage-specific modification settings to create the overall settings.
   

If your overall approval flow is All stages are approved, then you can add actions on each approval.

Actions on Approval and Rejection

Select what action needs to be performed if a record is approved. You can choose to assign a task or send email alerts to the record owner, update fields, call webhooks and functions.

Approval

Configure what actions need to be performed after a record approval such as assigning tasks, updating fields, sending email notifications, calling webhooks, or configuring functions.

Rejection

Specify when a record is considered rejected by default and what actions need to be performed on rejection

1. Under By default a rejection should, choose one of the following options:
1. Reject all previous stages of approval if there are multiple approvers or if sequential approvals are chosen
2. Reject only the current stage if the other stages should be considered for approval
3. Reject and let the approver decide the stage if the approver needs to manually choose the stage that has to be rejected.
   
2. Action on Rejection
   Configure what actions need to be performed after a rejection such as updating fields, sending email alerts to record owners, calling webhooks, or configuring function.
3. Notify all previous approvers
   You can notify all previous approvers through email or in app bell notifications by checking the checkbox.
   

Rule Admin Settings 

Users with the Administrator profile can view all the records that are waiting for approval in the organization. Administrator can also approve, reject, or take over the records at any time. However, only the rule admins assigned in the approval process rule can take over records.

1. Click Assign Admin, select the users as rule admins.
   In the Rule Admin Settings pop-over, you can choose only users as rule admins in an approval process. You can select up to 15 users who can be rule admins. You can also choose to allow rule admins to edit pending approval records.
2. Next, choose whether they can edit All fields or the Fields specified in the Record Modification section for the records they approve, reject, or take over.
3. When a record has been taken over by the rule admins, you can select how to notify actual approvers when rule admins respond to their records. You can choose to send them an email or notify them via In App.
   
4. Click Save.
   
   
5. Click Save to activate the approval process rule.
   

Note :

1. Approval rule admins can view and edit pending approval records only with read-write access.
2. When a rule admin edits a record that is waiting for approval, he must respond to the record before editing the record again. However, a record that is rejected can be edited multiple times.
3. If rule admin settings are not configured, then any user with the Administrator profile will be able to take over records submitted for approval; however, if rule admin settings are configured, only those users selected as rule admins can take over a record submitted for approval.
4. The Takeover option will be available in the record detail view as shown in the screenshot below.
   
    
5. When there are records waiting for approval, and the approval process rule is modified where new rule admins are added, then the new rule admins can view, respond to, or take over those records waiting for approval.
6. If rule admin settings are not configured, then any user with the Administrator profile will be able to take over records submitted for approval; however, if rule admin settings are configured, only those users selected as rule admins can take over a record submitted for approval.
   
7. You can create multiple rules for an approval process. Reorder the rules based on their priority, as a record that matches multiple rules will follow the first matching rule in the list.
   Learn more on limits for Approval Processes.
8. Each approval process rule can have up to 10 stages. For each stage, you can select approvers based on users, roles, groups, levels, and other supported approver types.
   
9. If a selected role has no users associated with it, the record is automatically approved at that level, and the associated approval actions are executed.
10. When a role is selected as the approval authority, any user assigned to that role can approve the record. The same applies to groups, where any member of the group can approve the record.
    
11. When the reporting hierarchy is enabled, you can select Record Owner's Manager (Reporting) as an approver. If a reporting manager is unavailable, the record can be approved by the first eligible user in a higher role, CEO, or administrator, based on the option selected in the hierarchy preference.
12. Users with the Administrator profile can view all records waiting for approval and can approve, reject, or take over these records at any time. However, if specific rule admins are configured, only those admins can take over the records.When a record is waiting for approval, the Convert and Delete options are disabled.
13. While a record is waiting for approval, the Convert and Delete options are disabled. The record is marked as Waiting for approval, and the Respond option lets the approver approve, delegate, or reject the record from its details page.
    
14. Approvers receive an email notification when a record is submitted for approval.
15. Changes made to an approval process rule do not affect records that were already waiting for approval when the rule was modified. This includes changes to the rule's actions.
16. If new rule admins are added to a modified approval process rule, they can view, respond to, and take over records that were already waiting for approval.
17. When there are records waiting for approval, and the approval process rule is modified where new rule admins are added, then the new rule admins can view, respond to, or take over those records waiting for approval.
18. You can delete an approval process whenever required. When a process is deleted, records that were waiting for approval are unlocked, and the associated Approve and Reject actions are not executed.
19. When a record is rejected, the Resubmit option remains available for 180 days. After this period, the record can no longer be resubmitted. View Reason shows the rejection details of the record.