Create A New Approval Process

Introduction to Approval Process

An approval process is an automated process and your organization where you can use this to approve records in Salesforce. An approval process defines the steps for a record to be approved and user must approve it at each and every step. A step can apply to all records for that object or just record that meet certain defined criteria. An approval process also defines the actions to take when a record is approved, rejected, recalled, or first submitted for approval.

Before you start, determine which wizard you want to use. See Choosing an Approval Process Wizard. To create an approval process:

• Launch the Approval Process Wizard.
• Specify Name, Unique Name, and Description.
• Specify Criteria for Entering Process.
• Specify Approver Field and Record Editability.
• Select Email or Chatter Post Notification Template.
• Configure Approval Request Page Layout.
• Specify Initial Submitters.
• Activate the Approval Process.
• Launch the Approval Process Wizard.

How to create an Approval Process

Step 1. From Setup, then click Create > Workflow & Approvals > Approval Processes.
i) Choose the object for the new approval process.
ii) Click Create New Approval Process and choose Use Standard Setup Wizard from the selected drop-down button.
Alternatively, you can click Use Jump Start Wizard if you want to create a basic approval process with default settings.

Step 2. Define Name, Unique Name, and Description and Click Next If you are editing an existing approval process and do not want to make further changes, click Save to store your changes.
i) Enter a name for the new approval process.
ii) Enter a unique name, which will be used to refer to this approval process in the Force.com API.
iii) Optionally, enter a description.

Step 3. Now specify Criteria for Entering Process

If you want only certain types of records should enter this approval process, do one of the following:
i) Select criteria are met if you want to set a filter criteria based on the requirement that a record must meet to enter into this approval process.
For example- in our case, if Merchandise stock is greater than 5000, take an approval for this stock.
ii) Enter filter criteria for records that you want included in this approval process. Leave this filter blank if you want all records should be submitted to be included in the approval process.

Step 4. Specify Approver Field and Record Editability

When you specify approval steps, you can assign approval requests to different persons. One option is to use a user field to route these requests automatically. The user field can be any defined custom hierarchical relationship field such as Account Manager or Manager standard user field on User Object. To see some instances of specifying a user field as an approver field, see Examples of Approval Processes.
When a record is in the approval process, make sure it is always locked, only an administrator can edit it if required. However, you can also allow to edit the record who is currently-assigned as approver. You can still add Line Item members to Merchandise locked for approval.

Step 5. Select Email or Chatter Post Notification Template
Whenever an approval assigns an approval request to a person, Salesforce automatically sends the person an approval email request. That email contains a link to the approval page in Salesforce, from where the person can reject or approve the request based on the requirement and add comments as well. If an email approval response is enabled, the person can alternatively reply to that email by typing approved, approve, yes, rejected, reject, no, and nope in the first line of the email body as per need, and adding comments in the second line. This option is especially useful for persons who might receive approval requests on a mobile.

Note: Please make sure approvers must have the “API Enabled” permission to reject or approve the approval requests via email.

If your org has Approvals in Chatter enabled, you can also select to send your approver a notification via Chatter.

Note: Chatter post approval notifications are only exclusively available for approval processes associated with an object that has been enabled for its feed tracking.
If the assigned approver has opted to receive approval requests as Chatter posts, they will see a post on their Chatter feed in addition to getting the approval request email.
Click on Next. If you are editing an existing approval process and do not want to make any further changes, click Save to store your changes..

Step 6. Configure Approval Request Page Layout
The approval page is basically where an approver approves or rejects a request as per requirement.
Select those fields which you want to display on the approval request page and then click Add.
If you are enabling notifications in Salesforce1, please always remember that approvers may view this list of fields on a mobile. Select only those fields which are necessary for users to decide whether to approve or reject records.
You can also sort the fields by selecting them and clicking Up or Down as per need.

Choose a security setting:

• Allow approvers for accessing the approval page only from within the app.
• Users must need log in to Salesforce to view the approval page.
• Allow approvers for accessing the approval page only from within the app or externally from enabled wireless mobile phone.
• Users can access an external version of this approval page from any browser, including those on mobile too, where user do not need to logging in to Salesforce. If you select this option, in this case you cannot add approval steps that let users manually choose the next approver as per need.

Click on Next. If you are editing an existing approval process and do not want to make further changes, click Save to store these changes.

Specify Initial Submitters
select which users are allowed to submit records for approval.

Click Save.
Activate the Approval Process

Activate the approval process after you have created at least one approval step for this approval process. See Creating Approval Steps.

To activate a process:

Click on Next. If you are editing an existing approval and do not want to make any further changes, click on Save to store your changes.

Click on Activate next to the process.

Note : Select a current user field basically if you want to filter based on the person submitting an approval request.

Click on Next. If you are editing an existing approval process and do not want to make any further changes, click on Save to store your changes.