STEP 1 Customize How Records Get Approved

 Define an approval process, and list its key components.

 Plan the automation of a business process using an approval process.

Get Started with Approvals

An approval process automates how Salesforce records are approved in your org. In an approval process,
you specify:

 The steps necessary for a record to be approved and who approves it at each step. For example,
when an employee creates a time-off request, have Salesforce automatically send an approval
request to the employee’s manager.

 The actions to take based on what happens during the approval process. For example, if a time-
off request is approved, update fields on the employee’s record. But if the request is rejected,
send a notification to the employee.
When a user first requests approval for a new position, initial submission actions occur.

The default initial submission action locks the record.

This action ensures that other users (except for approvers and admins) can’t change the record while it's
pending approval.

Other possible submission actions include sending an email alert, updating a field on a record, creating a
task, and sending an outbound message.

Approval steps assign approval requests to various users and define the chain of approval for a particular
approval process. In this example, the first step assigns the approval request to the submitter's direct
manager.
If the direct manager rejects the request, the final rejection actions are executed, setting the position’s
approval status to Rejected.

If the direct manager approves the request, the record moves to the next step—approval from the CEO.
If the CEO rejects the position, the same final rejection actions occur.

If the CEO approves the position, final approval actions are executed. They set the approval status
to Approved, unlock the record for future updates, and notify the employee who requested the new
position.

Final approval actions occur only when a record is approved and there are no further approval steps.

Build an Approval Process

Now that you’ve seen the basic outline of an approval process, let’s get your hands
dirty. You need to make sure that a manager approves opportunities that are
discounted more than 40%. The opportunity should reflect its approval status:
Approved or Not Approved.
Plan out your business process before you try to automate it. Doing so makes it
much easier to configure when using one of our automation tools.
Preplanning

Before we dive in, let’s come up with a plan.

In Order to... We Need...

Track each opportunity’s discount percent Custom field (Opportunity)

Track each opportunity’s approval status Custom field (Opportunity)

Request approval from managers when an opportunity discount is more Approval process
than 40% (Opportunity)

Notify managers when an opportunity discount needs approval Email template

When managers respond, update the opportunity’s approval status Approval actions (Field
Update)
STEP .2 Build an Approval Process
 Set up an approval process that emails the initial approvers.

 Set up an approval process that allows users to approve or reject opportunity records.

Create an Email Template

First create your email template to notify the record owner’s manager that an opportunity has been
discounted more than 40%.

1. From Setup, enter Templates in the Quick Find box, and then select Classic Email Templates.

2. Click New Template.

3. Select Text as the template type, and click Next.

4. Configure the email template.

 Folder: Unfiled Public Classic Email Templates

 Available for Use: selected

 Email Template Name: Approve Opportunity Discount

 Encoding: General US & Western Europe

 Subject: Please approve this discounted opportunity

 Email Body: {!User.Manager}, the {!Opportunity.Name} has been discounted. Please

approve this discount. Thank you.

Including the merge field {!Opportunity.Name} helps the approver by providing a link to the opportunity
record. This allows them to review the record before responding to the request.

5. Click Save.

Add Custom Fields

Now let’s create custom fields so that we can track the discount percentage and approval status for each
opportunity.

1. From Setup, enter Object Manager in the Quick Find box, and then select Object Manager.

2. Click Opportunity.

3. Select Fields & Relationships and click New.

4. In the Data Type column, select Percent and then click Next.
 5. Configure the Percent field with these values.

 Field Label: Discount Percent

 Length: leave as default

 Decimal Places: leave as default

 Required: selected

6. Click Next.

7. Click Next.

8. Click Save & New.

9. In the Data Type column, select Picklist and then click Next.

10. Configure the Picklist field with these values.

 Field Label: Discount Percent Status

 Values: Enter values, with each value separated by a new line

 Picklist Values:

 Approved

 Not Approved

11. Click Next.

12. Click Next.

13. Click Save.

Great! You’ve created an email template to notify approvers and you’ve set up an object with the required
fields to support your approval process.

Create an Approval Process

Now that our org is ready, let’s create the approval process.

1. From Setup, enter Approval in the Quick Find box, and then select Approval Processes.

2. In Manage Approval Processes For, select Opportunity.

3. Click Create New Approval Process | Use Jump Start Wizard. The Jump Start Wizard helps you
create a simple approval process by making some decisions for you.
 4. Configure the approval process.

 Name: Approve Opportunity Discount

 Approval Assignment Email Template: Approve Opportunity Discount

 Specify Entry Criteria:

 Field: Opportunity: Discount Percent

 Operator: greater than

 Value: 0.4
When Percent fields store their values, they divide the entered value by 100. For
example, if a user enters a value of 40 in a Percent field, it’s stored as 0.4. So this
entry criteria is looking for a discount percentage greater than 40%.

 Select Approver: Let the submitter choose the approver manually

5. Save the approval process.

6. Click View Approval Process Detail Page.

7. Under Final Approval Actions, click Add New | Field Update, and configure it with these values.

 Name: Approved

 Field to Update: Discount Percent Status

 A specific value: Approved

8. Click Save.

9. Under Final Rejection Actions, click Add New | Field Update, and configure it with these values.

 Name: Not Approved

 Field to Update: Discount Percent Status

 A specific value: Not Approved

10. Click Save.

To start evaluating discounted opportunities, simply activate the approval

process.
Make Sure That Records Are Submitted

You've done a bunch of work to automate what happens when a record gets submitted for approval.
Now let's add a button to the page layout that allows users to kick off the approval process.
1. From Setup, click the Object Manager tab.

2. Click Opportunity.

3. Click Page Layouts.

4. Select Opportunity Layout.

5. In the layout editor's header bar, select Buttons.

6. Drag the Submit for Approval button to the Standard Buttons section in the page layout.

7. Click Save.