Force.com Platform Fundamentals

Preface
Introducing the Force.com Platform
About the Sample Recruiting App
Reviewing Database Concepts
Building a Simple App
Enhancing the Simple App with Advanced Fields, Data Validation, and Page Layouts
Expanding the Simple App Using Relationships
Securing and Sharing Data
Collaborating with Chatter
Automating Business Processes
Introducing Process Builder
Process Builder: A Closer Look
Automating Our Recruiting App
Creating a Process That Assigns Tasks
Creating a Process That Updates Field Values
Adding an Action That Sends Email Alerts
Introducing Approvals
Planning for Approval Processes
Try It Out: Create an Email Template for Approvals
Try It Out: Create an Approval Process
Try It Out: Create Approval Steps
Try It Out: Create Approval Actions
Try It Out: Activate Our Approval Process
Look At What We've Done
Summing Up
Analyzing Data with Reports and Dashboards
Moving Beyond Point-and-Click App Development
Learning More
Glossary
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Introducing Approvals

Now that we've automated parts of our business using processes, let's take a look at another business logic tool that the platform provides: approval processes.

Approval processes let you specify a sequence of steps that are required to approve a record. Each step allows one or more designated approvers to accept or reject a record. The steps can apply to all records for the object associated with the process, or just to records that meet certain requirements. Like processes you create in Process Builder, approval processes also let you specify actions—like sending an email alert, updating a field value, or assigning a task—that should occur whenever a record is approved, rejected, first submitted for approval, or recalled.

Approval Processes Consist of Steps and Actions Approval Process Steps
Suppose your organization has a three-tier process for approving expenses. With an approval process, you specify how to automatically handle each request and who in your organization must review the expense, based on the amount requested.
  • If an expense record is submitted for approval, lock the record so that users cannot edit it and change the status to “Submitted.”
  • If the amount is $50 or less, automatically approve the request.
  • If the amount is greater than $50, send an approval request to the direct manager.
  • If the amount is greater than $5,000 and the first approval request is approved, send an approval request to the Vice President.
  • If all approval requests are approved, change the status to “Approved” and unlock the record.
  • If any approval requests are rejected, change the status to “Rejected” and unlock the record.

For our recruiting app, we're going to define a similar approval process to submit new positions for approval. We want to make sure that a manager approves any position that his or her employee creates, and that any position with a minimum salary of more than $150,000 is approved by the CEO. Let's get started.