1. Specify the rule criteria, such as the conditions or requirements that need to be met for a record to be submitted for approval.
   
2. Select who should approve the records i.e, those responsible for reviewing and approving or rejecting the request.
   
3. Add actions or tasks that must be performed when the request is approved.
   
4. Add actions or tasks that must be performed when the request is rejected.
   
5. Choose what fields of a record can be edited while they wait for approval or if the record is in a rejected state.
   
6. Select process admins who can take over the requests from other approvers and review them by them by approving, rejecting, or delegating them to another approver.
   

Steps to add an approval process 

Add approval process 

1. Go to Setup > Process Management > Approval Processes. Click Add Approval Process.
   
2. In the New Approval Process page, do the following:
   - Select the Module to which you want to apply the approval process.
   - Specify a Name and Description for the approval process.
    
   - Select the option(s) based on which the approval process will be executed.
   - Record Creation - The approval process will be triggered when a record is created.
   - Record Edit - The approval process will be triggered when a record is edited.
3. Click Add Rule to this Process.
   

Specify Rule Criteria

Specify the criteria. Approval process will be applicable to the records that meet the criteria. Adding criteria is mandatory. You can edit the criteria pattern manually, if required.

Who should approve 

Select who can approve the records. You can choose from Users, Roles, Groups, Levels, or Record Owner from the drop-down list.

1. Users : Select any user or multiple users from your organization to approve records in an approval process.
   
2. Roles : Select users with specific roles from your organization to approve records in an approval process.
   
3. Levels : They are listed based on the number of levels defined in your organization's hierarchy. When you select levels, the approving authority is applied for the record based on its owner's level in the hierarchy.
   
4. Manager : Select users who are managers from your organization to approve records in an approval process.
   
5. Record Owner : Select the record owner to approve records in an approval process. 

Role or Group Approval Flexibility 

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   

 

Hierarchical Approval Options

Note

1. If the record owner is chosen as the approver, then, they will receive a notification when the record is modified or edited by anyone.
   
2. If the record owner's CRM account is inactive or deleted, then the record will be automatically approved.
   
3. 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's owner approval.
   

Click the Add icon to include more users who need to approve. On adding more than one entry for approval, you will get the following options:

1. Anyone : Select this option if you want any one of the members to approve.
   
2. Everyone : Select this if you want all the members to approve. You can either set the multiple approvals to be parallel or sequential.
   -- Sequential : All the users need to approve in a sequence. Only after the first user approves will the second user be able to approve. The user mentioned first, on the top of the list, will be the first person to approve the record, followed by the next user and so on.
   
   -- Parallel : All the users need to approve. They can approve simultaneously. There is no sequence in which they need to approve.
   

Click Assign Task to create or associate a task to be assigned to the approver while sending for approval.

 Action(s) on Approval  

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.

 Action(s) upon Rejection 

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. You can choose to allow which fields of a record to be edited. Select All Fields, Specific Fields, or No Fields from the drop-down. You can select up to 25 specific fields that can be modified in a record.

Case 1 : Anyone can approve the records
Here, there will be only one stage in which the records can be modified by those who can approve the records because any one approver can approve the record.

Case 2 : Everyone must approve the records in Sequential order
Here, the number of stages in which the records can be modified will depend on the number of approvers involved in the process because the records must be approved one by one sequentially by all the approvers

Case 3 : Everyone must approve the records in Parallel order
Here, there will be only one stage in which the records can be modified by those who can approve the records because anyone can approve the records at the same time; however, all approvers must approve the records.

Note : Automations triggered by the field update action when records are edited will work as usual with no changes.

Process Admin Settings 

When a record has been taken over by the process admins, you can select how to notify the approvers chosen in the second step. You can choose to send them an email or notify them via In App. Click Done.

Note :

1. When a process 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. The takeover option will be available in the record detail view as shown in the screenshot below.
4. When there are records waiting for approval, and the approval process rule is modified where new process admins are added, then the new process admins can view, respond to, or take over those records waiting for approval.
   

Note

1. You can create multiple rule entries for an approval process. Make sure you reorder the rule entries based on their priority. The first rule entry that matches the record will be applied to the record.
   
2. For each module, a maximum of 10 approval processes can be active. In each approval process, you can add up to 5 rule entries.
   
3. Under Who should Approve, you can select 10 entries. You can either select users, roles, groups, or levels. If you select a role with no users associated to it, the record will be automatically marked as approved in that particular level.
   
4. When a role is chosen as the approval authority, the record can be approved by any user belonging to that role. The same applies to Groups, where any user from the group must approve the record.
   
5. When the reporting hierarchy is chosen for an org, you can select the reporting manager as an approver. In cases where a reporting manager is not available, the record can be approved by the first user in a higher role/ CEO/ admin, based on the option chosen in the hierarchy preference tab.
   
6. When the role hierarchy is chosen, you can choose the manager as an approver. This refers to the first user in the immediate higher role.
   
7. Users with the Administrator profile can view all the records that are waiting for approval in the organization. Administrator can also approve, reject, or takeover the records at any time. However, if process admins are selected for records in the approval process, only they can take over records.
   
8. When a record is waiting for approval, the Convert and Delete options are disabled. The record will be marked as Waiting for approval, and an option to Respond (Approve, Delegate, or Reject) will be available on the record's details page.
   
9. The user will receive an email and a notification regarding the approval process.
    
10. You can view the locked records in the list view.
    
11. When there are records waiting for approval, and the approval process rule is modified, the changes made to the rule along with its actions will not be applicable to those records that are already waiting for approval.
    
12. When there are records waiting for approval, and the approval process rule is modified where new process admins are added, then the new process admins can view, respond to, or take over those records waiting for approval.
    
13. You can delete a process whenever required. The records waiting for approval will then be unlocked, allowing you to proceed with deleting the process.
    
14. If a record meets more than one rule entry, it will be submitted for approval based on the first rule entry that it matches in the given approval process.
    
15. Records that are rejected can be submitted again for approval from the record details page.