An Approval Process is an automated process your organization can use to approve records in Salesforce. An approval process specifies the steps necessary for a record to be approved and who must approve it at each step. A step can apply to all records included in the process, or just records that have certain attributes. An approval process also specifies the actions to take when a record is approved, rejected, recalled, or first submitted for approval.
Creating an Approval Process
Navigate to Setup | Quick Find: Approval Processes
Launching the Approval Process Wizard
- Choose the object for the New Approval Process.
- Click Create New Approval Process and choose Use Standard Setup Wizard from the drop-down button. Alternatively, click Use Jump Start Wizard if you want to create a basic approval process with default settings, for more information, see the Force.com help in the application.
Name & Describe the New Approval Process
- Specify the Name, Unique Name, and Description
- Select Next
Specify Criteria for Entering Process
Select criteria are met and set the filter criteria a record must meet to enter this step. For example, if this step should only apply to records submitted by employees from headquarters, enter the following filter criteria: Current User: Office Location Equals Headquarters.
Select formula evaluates to true and enter a formula that returns a value of “True” or “False.” Records enter this step only if the formula returns“True.” For example, use the following formula to require a record to enter this approval step when the record's discount percentage is greater than the most recent approver's discount threshold:
(Discount_Percentage__c > $User.Discount_Threshold__c)
For more information, see on force.com help
Activate the Approval Process
Activate the process after you have created at least one approval step for the approval process.
Specify Approver Field & Record Editability
- Select the Next Automated Approver Determined By picklist, select a user field to automatically assign approval requests to an approver based on the value in the user field.
- Select Administrators ONLY... if you want only users with the “Modify All” object-level permission for the given object, or the “Modify All Data” permission, to be able to edit records that are pending approval. Select Administrators OR... if you want the assigned approver to be able to edit the records too.
- Select Next
Select Email Notification Template
- Select Email Template from Lookup
- Select Next
Configure Approval Request Page Layout
Specify Initial Submitters
- Specify which users are allowed to submit records for approval.
- Select a Submitter Type, enter a search term, and click Find.
- Select from the list of available submitters and click Add.
- Optionally, select Allow submitters to recall approval requests to give submitters the option to withdraw their approval requests.
- Select Next
Activate the Approval Process
Activate the process after you have created at least one approval step for the approval process.