Approve Records from a Chatter Feed

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Enable approval requests in Chatter.
Create a template for approval posts.
Create a simple approval process using the Jump Start Wizard.

Accessibility

This unit requires some additional instructions for screen reader users. To access a detailed screen reader version of this unit, click the link below:

Open Trailhead screen reader instructions.

Introduction to Approvals in Chatter

An approval process maps the route that a record takes through the people who are aligned to provide approval. The approval process can send an approval request as a Chatter post. You can create a template for that post to ensure that the same type of data is posted with every request.

Because Approvals in Chatter rely on both Chatter and Approvals, setting up Approvals in Chatter involves more than just enabling the feature. To be sure that everything works correctly and your users see their approval requests as Chatter posts, we recommend that you follow these steps.

Enable approval requests in Chatter.
Create an approval post template.
Create an approval process.
Enable feed tracking for any object that an approval process is based on. For example, when you want the creation of an account to kick off an approval process, enable feed tracking for the Account object.
Follow steps 2–4 for each object that you want to send through an approval process.

Through their personal Chatter settings, users can opt out of receiving approval requests as posts in their Chatter feeds. They continue to get notified through email. Users who don’t opt out get both a Chatter post and an email notification.

Approval request posts appear:

In the assigned approver’s Chatter feed
On the submitter's profile, but not in their Chatter feed unless they’re following the approval record
In the Chatter feed of the approval record
In the Chatter feed of anyone following the approval record

Enable Approval Requests in Chatter

To enable Approval requests in Chatter:

From Setup, enter Chatter Settings in the Quick Find box, and then click Chatter Settings.
Click Edit.
In the Approval Posts section, select Allow Approvals.

Approval posts

4. Click Save.

If any of your users opt out of receiving approval request posts, those users don’t see the posts in their own feed. Whether they opt out, anyone with access to the record that’s being approved can see approval posts in the record feed.

If you don’t see the Approval Posts section in Chatter Settings, it could be that your license doesn’t support it. Talk with your Salesforce representative.

Next, set up a template for the Chatter approval post.

Create a Post Template

You’d like the approval posts that appear in Chatter to be standardized. There’s a little advance work you can do to make it so. First, you can set up a post template. In the template, you can identify the record data that you want to appear in the post. Later, when you define the approval process, you can associate your template with it.

Creating a Chatter post template requires the “Customize Application” permission.

From Setup, enter Post Templates in the Quick Find box, and then click Post Templates.
Click New Template.
These approvals are for accounts, so select Account and click Next.
Enter the name Account Approval Post Template, and describe it as A template for account approval request posts.
To make this template the default for all account approval request posts, select Default.
For Post Template Fields, move Account Number, Account Owner, and Description to the right column. If Account Name isn’t already in the Selected Fields column on the right, move it there, too. Tip: Put text-heavy fields, like Comments or Description, at the bottom.
Click Save.

Now you’re ready to define your approval process for accounts.

Create an Approval Process

Let’s create a simple approval process for accounts.

Let’s say that you want someone to approve all new accounts and changes to existing accounts that they don’t own. Here’s a simple approval process for this scenario.

From Setup, enter Approval Processes in the Quick Find box, and then click Approval Processes.
For Manage Approval Processes For, select Account.
Click Create New Approval Process, and choose Use Jump Start Wizard.
In the Approval Process Information section:

For Name, enter: Account Approval Process
To get a unique name for this process to use in the API, click the Unique Name field.
Leave Approval Assignment Email Template blank to use the default email template.
For Approval Post Template, click the search icon and select Account Approval Post Template. We created this template in the last section. For information about the Use Approval Field of Account Owner setting, see Choose an Automated Approver Throughout an Approval Process in Salesforce Help.
To update all the page layouts for this object, select Add the Submit for Approval button and Approval History related list to all Account page layouts. Selecting this option gives users a way to submit approval requests and to track them through the approval process.

In the Specify Entry Criteria section, set up the criteria to kick off this approval process. Let’s use a user that already exists in the org. If we want Integration User (not the best name, we know) to approve any accounts that they don’t own, we enter these criteria on the first line:

Field: Account: Account Owner
Operator: not equal to
Value: Integration User

In the Select Approver section, assign all approval requests to Integration User.

Select Automatically assign to approver(s).
Select User, and, in the second field, select Integration User.
Under When multiple approvers are selected, select Approve or reject based on the FIRST response. If you want all selected approvers to approve, select Require UNANIMOUS approval from all selected approvers.

Click Save, and then click OK.
Click View Approval Process Detail Page.
On the Account: Account Approval Process page, click Activate to activate the approval process, and then click OK.

Our simple approval process is now set up. When someone other than Integration User creates an account or changes the owner on an account and submits the account for approval, Integration User is notified. They receive an approval request post in their feed and an email requesting approval.

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