How does Approval Process work in Salesforce?
Approval processes enforce multi-step review workflows, for example, discount approvals on opportunities, expense report sign-offs, or contract reviews that require legal and finance sign-off in sequence. Each process defines entry criteria (which records qualify), approval steps (who approves and in what order), and actions that fire on submission, approval, rejection, or recall. Approvers can respond via email, Salesforce, or the Salesforce mobile app.
Salesforce supports both unanimous and first-response approval logic per step, dynamic approvers based on related-user fields or queues, and delegated approvers for out-of-office scenarios. Approval processes integrate with Flow via the Submit for Approval action and with Apex via the Approval.process method. While Salesforce has not deprecated approval processes, Flow Orchestration is emerging as a more flexible alternative for complex multi-step, multi-user processes that span days or weeks.