Salesforce CPQ Advanced Approvals

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll dive into the essentials of Salesforce Advanced Approvals, a pivotal tool for enhancing your business’s approval workflows. Through this exploration, you’ll gain insights into:

• Learn who approvers are, their role within the Salesforce ecosystem, and how to effectively manage approval groups for streamlined processes.
• Discover how Advanced Approvals go beyond standard Salesforce functionality to support complex, customizable workflows for both serial and parallel approval processes.
• Uncover the mechanics of setting up automated, tailored approval workflows that cater to your unique business needs, enhancing efficiency and decision-making.
• Get acquainted with the practical aspects of implementing Advanced Approvals, including setup, object enablement, creating buttons, configuring page layouts, and managing email services for a seamless approval management system.

Let’s get started!

Approvers

Approvers are the users who receive approval request emails and can approve or reject an approval request within the Salesforce Advanced Approvals package. An approver group can be created to send an approval request to all the members of a group.

Advanced Approvals

Advanced Approvals expands the standard Salesforce approval process by letting businesses set up complex approval workflows while providing their sales reps with an easy approval management system that allows serial (sequential) and parallel (simultaneous) approvals.

Working of Advanced Approvals

• The approval process can be automated and customized with the Advanced Approvals package for Salesforce CPQ.
• Approval rules determine when the approval process fires, which approvers receive an approval request, and the email template used to send the approvals requests.
• Advanced Approval is enabled for opportunities by default and can be configured for quotes and other Salesforce CP objects.
• Advanced Approval looks at the active approval rules for the object on which it is configured when a record is submitted for approval and then tests their conditions against the same values on the record. The approval request is sent to the rule’s approver if the conditions are met.
• Approvers are the users or groups with approval permissions that can approve or reject an approval request.
• Approval requests can be sent to a series of approvers in a sequence called approval chains. The record is not approved until all the approvers in the chain approve the request.
• The approval process can be reviewed by clicking “Preview Approval”, which shows a simplified Visualforce flowchart of the approval rules’ conditions and the approvers.
• An approval record is created for each approver who receives an approval request when an approval rule runs.
• The approval status field on the submitted record and the corresponding approvals allow the users to track their position in the approval process.

Setting up Advanced Approvals

Install or Upgrade Advanced Approvals

• Click “Continue” from the package installation link.
• Specify the security level to grant users upon installation, then click “Install” or “Upgrade”.
• If you want to install for a specific set of users, click “Install for Specific Profiles” and set the Standard User profile to Full Access.
• Assign the permission set licenses to the users who need access to the advanced approval functionality.

Enable an Object for Advanced Approvals

Advanced approvals are enabled for opportunities by default. However, it can be enabled for any Salesforce CPQ object by configuring the object to work with Advanced Approvals.

Create Advanced Approvals Buttons 

Buttons can be created that let sales reps submit a record for approval and can be added to the object’s page layout that is enabled for approval.

Set Up Page Layouts for Advanced Approvals

• On the enabled approval object’s page layout, add “Submit for Approval”, “Recall Approval”, and “Preview Approval” buttons.
• Add the “Approval” related list on the object’s page layout.
• Add the “Approve” and “Reject” buttons on the Approvals page layout.
• Add the object’s API name as a value in these locations:

1. Approval Chain field: Target Object
2. Approval Rule field: Target Object
3. Approval Variable field: Target Object

Set Up Email Services for Advanced Approvals

• Select “Deliverability” in the Email Administration from Setup.
• Ensure “All email” is selected in the Access picklist.
• Define an “Email Service”
• Define an email address to use with the email service.
• Connect the defined email service to Advanced Approvals.

Approval Rules

• The approval rule defines an approver and one or more conditions to evaluate for a record. If the record submitted for approval meets the rule’s conditions, the rule fires, and an approval request email is sent to the approver or group of approvers by Salesforce CPQ.
• For example, a sales rep submits a quote with a net total of over $200,000. The approval rule sends approval request emails to the designated approvers.

Approval Conditions

An approver receives an approval request when a record is submitted for approval that meets the approval conditions relative to the rule’s Conditions Met field. At least one condition is required on every rule. The approval conditions fields create a logical statement for the Advanced Approvals to evaluate.

Key Fields

• Filter Field: Specify the lookup to a field against which the conditions evaluate its tested field or variable.
• Filter Type: Specify the type of filter the condition tests against.
• Filter Value: Specify a text value against which the condition evaluates its tested field or variable.
• Filter Variable: Specify a lookup to an approval variable against which the condition evaluates its tested field or variable.
• Index: If several conditions are to be evaluated in a logical statement, provide a value for referencing each condition.
• Operator: Specify the operator used to compare the condition’s tested field or variable against the filter value or field.
• Tested Field: This field is evaluated against the condition’s filter field, filter value, or filter Variable.
• Tested Variable: This approval variable is evaluated against the condition’s filter field, filter value, or filter variable.

Advanced Conditions

If there are multiple conditions in the approval rule, reference them in the rule’s Advanced Condition field to create conditional logic for the rule. Each condition can be referenced by its index value. Advanced Approvals sends a record for approval if its Advanced Condition logic evaluates to True during approval rule evaluation.

Approval Variables

Approval variables aggregate data from child records for evaluation in an approval condition and are evaluated in real-time along with the approval condition. Compared to roll-up summary fields or Apex Triggers, approval conditions quickly aggregate data and send it to a field on the object evaluated for approval.

Key Fields

• Aggregate Field: The approval variable field performs the aggregate function’s action on this field.
• Aggregate Function: Specify the math function to perform on the aggregate field.
• Filter Field: To filter your target object based on a certain value, pick a field.
• Filter Value: Choose a value if filtering the target object.
• Operator: Specify the operator to use with your filter.
• Target Object: Choose the child object that this variable aggregates.
• Type: Select between Summary or Discount Approval Variables. Discount approval variables evaluate a list price and a net price, while Summary approval variables evaluate several fields.

Tracked Fields

The Tracked Field object on the approval rule tracks changes to a field on a record submitted for approval by a sales rep. Advanced Approvals stores information about the change in a Tracked Value record when the approval rule runs. Tracked values can be reviewed to see what changes were made at various stages of the approval process by the approvers. A new tracked field record can be created from the Tracked fields related list.

Key Fields

• Tracked Object: Specify the object containing the field you want to track. To track a field on an object other than an opportunity (default), add the object’s value and API name to this field.
• Tracked Field: A field on the tracked object monitored for changes.
• Tracking Type: Defines when Advanced Approvals create a tracked value record.

Use Case

Cosmo Property wants to introduce an approval workflow to check the discount offered to a customer on selected products when a sales rep is creating a quote. The approval process would include several sequential and parallel approvals with different approvers approving a request. A conditional logic also needs to be defined to cover different scenarios. What should be configured by the CPQ Specialist to meet this requirement?

Solution: Configure “Advanced Approvals”

Reason: Advanced Approvals can be set up to manage complex approval workflows while providing sales reps with an easy approval management system that allows serial (sequential) and parallel (simultaneous) approvals. Approval rules determine when the approval process fires. Advanced Condition logic can be created and evaluated if there are multiple conditions in the approval rule.

Conclusion

In wrapping up, Salesforce Advanced Approvals stand as a linchpin for businesses aiming to refine their approval workflows, offering the flexibility to automate and customize processes to their precise needs. By leveraging the insights and strategies discussed, organizations can significantly enhance efficiency and decision-making within their Salesforce environment.

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