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Approval Steps
Approval steps require user interaction and create approval actions that assigned approvers or delegates can complete asynchronously. Approvers can complete reviews without running the associated flow, so include only actions directly relevant to the approval work item. Use a background step after the approval step to update related records or send other notifications.
Required Editions
| View supported editions for Flow Approval Processes. |
When to Start the Step
To control when an approval step starts, select a condition.
| Step Condition | Requires |
|---|---|
| When the stage starts, the step starts | — |
| When another step is marked Completed, the step starts | The name of the step that must be completed before the step can start |
| When the specified requirements are met, the step starts | Up to 10 requirements that determine whether the step can start |
| When the specified evaluation flow returns True, the step starts | The name of the active evaluation flow that determines whether the step can start |
Select an Action to Run
Each approval step is associated with an active screen flow. A flow approval process requires that all screen flows called by approval steps contain one output variable with the specified name and data type. If the required output variable is missing or contains an invalid value, the associated flow approval process fails.
| Name | Required | Description | Used For |
|---|---|---|---|
| approvalDecision | Yes | A text variable that stores the result of the review. Valid values are
Approve or Reject. |
Use the step's approvalDecision output in conditions in other flow approval process elements to determine if a step was approved or rejected. |
| approvalComments | No | A text variable that stores the approver's comments about the review. | The Comments field of the associated approval work item is set to the value in this output variable. |
When to Complete the Step
To control when an approval step completes, select a condition.
| Step Condition | Requires |
|---|---|
| When the assigned user has completed the screen flow, the step is marked Completed | — |
| When the specified requirements are met, the step is marked Completed | Up to 10 requirements that determine whether the step can be completed |
| When the specified evaluation flow returns True, the step is marked Completed | The name of the evaluation flow that determines whether the step can be completed |
Approval Step Assignment Types
When you design a flow approval process, assign an approval step to a user, group, or queue.
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| User |
|
| Group |
|
| Queue |
|
| Resource | The API name of a resource that contains one of these items at run time:
|
Without unanimous approval, the orchestration run approves or rejects the step after any member completes the approval work item.
When you assign an approval step to a group, you can require that all group members approve the step. With unanimous approval, the orchestration run creates and assigns an approval work item to each group member. It also creates a single parent approval work item assigned to the group.
When all group members approve their work items, the orchestration run sets the parent work item status to Approved. Then it sets the status of the approval step to Approved. If any group member or delegate rejects their child work item, the orchestration run immediately sets all pending child approval work item statuses to Withdrawn. It then sets the approval step status to Rejected.
Default Notifications by Recipient Type
At run time, when the orchestration run creates or reassigns an approval work item, all assigned approvers receive notification emails. If assigned approvers have delegates, then their delegates also receive email notifications.
| Notification Recipient | DEFAULT Notification |
|---|---|
| Assigned internal user | Personalized email notification with a link to the internal record page of the record to be reviewed |
| Assigned credentialed Experience Cloud site visitor | Personalized email notification with a link to the record page of the record to be reviewed of the oldest live Experience Cloud site that they're a member of |
| Assigned group or queue of internal users (without unanimous approval) | General email notification with a link to the internal record page of the record to be reviewed |
| Assigned group of internal users (with unanimous approval) | Personalized email notification with a link to the internal record page of the record to be reviewed |
| Assigned group or queue of credentialed Aura or LWR site visitors who are all members of the same live site (without unanimous approval) | General email notification with a link to the record page of the record to be reviewed of the live Experience Cloud site that they're all members of |
| Assigned group or queue of credentialed Aura or LWR site visitors who are all members of the same live site (with unanimous approval) | Personalized email notification with a link to the record page of the record to be reviewed of the live Experience Cloud site that they're all members of |
| Assigned group or queue of credentialed Aura or LWR site visitors who are all members of one or more common, live sites (without unanimous approval) | General email notification with a link to the record page of the record to be reviewed of the oldest live Experience Cloud site that they're all members of |
| Assigned group of credentialed Aura or LWR site visitors who are all members of one or more common, live sites (with unanimous approval) | Personalized email notification with a link to the record page of the record to be reviewed of the oldest live Experience Cloud site that they're all members of |
| Assigned group or queue of credentialed Aura or LWR site visitors who have no live site in common (without unanimous approval) | General email notification with a link to the internal record page of the record to be reviewed The link is invalid for Experience Cloud site visitors, because they don't have access to internal pages. They can use the Approval Work Item Object List page to view and access their assigned work items from an Experience Cloud site that they're a member of. |
| Assigned group of credentialed Aura or LWR site visitors who have no live site in common (with unanimous approval) | Personalized email notification with a link to the internal record page of the record to be reviewed The link is invalid for Experience Cloud site visitors, because they don't have access to internal pages. They can use the Approval Work Item Object List page to view and access their assigned work items from an Experience Cloud site that they're a member of. |
| Assigned group or queue of internal users and credentialed Aura or LWR site visitors (without unanimous approval) | General email notification with a link to the internal record page of the record to be reviewed The link is invalid for Experience Cloud site visitors, because they don't have access to internal pages. They can use the Approval Work Item Object List page to view and access their assigned work items from an Experience Cloud site that they're a member of. |
| Assigned group of internal users and credentialed Aura or LWR site visitors (with unanimous approval) | Personalized email notification with a link to the internal record page of the record to be reviewed The link is invalid for Experience Cloud site visitors, because they don't have access to internal pages. They can use the Approval Work Item Object List page to view and access their assigned work items from an Experience Cloud site that they're a member of. |
| Delegated internal user | Personalized email notification with a link to the internal record page of the record to be reviewed and a link to the approval work item |
Flow approval processes send email notifications from the Automated Process User Email Address specified in Process Automation Settings. If you don't specify this setting, Salesforce looks for an organization-wide email address with a purpose of Default No-Reply Address. If that doesn't exist, Salesforce uses any verified organization-wide email address. If no organization-wide email address exists, Salesforce uses the email address of the user running the flow approval process. If the orchestration run associated with the flow approval process runs in system context without a user, Salesforce doesn't send the email. See Set Up an Org-Wide Email Address for Flow Approval Processes.
Approval Email Notification Customization
You can customize the approver email notification. When you create a custom email for an approval step, it's sent to approvers and their delegates when the work item is created. For more information on customizing notification emails, see Approver and Delegate Emails.
If you reassign an approval work item, default notifications go to the new approver and their delegates. Default notifications are sent even when the approval step has a custom email notification.
Disable Approval Email Notifications
You can disable all email notifications to approvers and their delegates. To manage email settings for flow approval processes, see Manage Approval Email Notifications. You can also disable all email notification to approvers and their delegates for a specific flow approval process. To stop sending emails for a specific flow approval process, see Control Approver Emails for a Flow Approval Process.
Where to Complete the Step
Approvers and their delegates can complete their assigned work items in multiple ways. How approvers and their delegates complete approval work items depends on the selected settings.
| Availability | How to Complete Approval Work Items |
|---|---|
| Always available (default) |
|
| When Enable email approval response in Process Automation Settings is selected | From email, by replying to the email notification with specified keywords. |
Email notifications inform approvers, delegates, and group or queue members about assigned work items.
A delegate of an assigned approver always receives an email notification, but the notification itself can vary. The notification type depends on the approval step's email configuration and whether the work item is assigned or reassigned.
The Enable email approval response Process Automation setting also controls notifications to group and queue members. The notification type depends on the approval step's email configuration and whether the associated approval work item is being assigned or reassigned.
You can't reassign approval work items from approval steps that require unanimous approval. With unanimous approval, each group member assigned to the approval step receives a personalized notification. For unanimous approval notification behavior, see Approval Work Items and Orchestration Work Items.
| Configuration | Email Field | Assignment Status | Notification Received |
|---|---|---|---|
|
To | Assigned | Each member receives their own version of the default approver email notification. |
| Reassigned | Each member receives their own version of the default approver email notification. | ||
|
To | Assigned | Each member receives their own version of the approval step's approver email notification. |
| Reassigned | Each member receives their own version of the default approver email notification. | ||
|
BCC | Assigned | Each member receives a copy of the default approver email notification. |
| Reassigned | Each member receives a copy of the default approver email notification. | ||
|
BCC | Assigned | Each member receives a copy of the approval step's custom email notification. |
| Reassigned | Each member receives a copy of the default approver email notification. |
Running Context of an Action Called by an Approval Step
An active screen flow called by an approval step runs in the context of the person who’s completing it.
