Approvals and tasks

Before you start

• The workflow designer

An Approval task asks a person to say yes or no before a workflowWorkflowAn automation: trigger plus steps, run per module; also called "flow" on the home page.Open glossary ↗ goes on. The workflow stops at the step, a task appears for the people you chose, and when one of them decides, the workflow carries on along the Approved or the Rejected path.

1. Approval task step
2. Task reaches people
3. Someone decides
4. Approved or Rejected path

What does the Approval task ask for?

Click the step in the designer. Its settings are in sections.

○ ○ ○Beezr

×

Title people will see and Description are what the approver reads in the inbox.
Priority is High, Medium or Low.
Overdue after counts whole days from when the task is created.
Who decides? offers People, A role, A field on the record and Smart Script.
While it waits shows where the Approved and Rejected paths lead.

The step’s full settings are in Approval task. The ideas matter more than the fields, so here they are.

Who can decide?

Choice	Who gets the task	Who completes it
People	Every person you add	The first one to decide completes it for all
A role	Everyone with the role	Any one member. The first decision counts
A field on the record	Whoever is in a User field when the task is created	That person
Smart Script	The users whose email addresses your script returns	The first to decide

A Smart Script must return email addresses, separated by commas, and each must belong to a user. A field on the record is read once, when the task is created.

Where does the task appear?

In App space, click Tasks in the top bar. The page is Task space.

○ ○ ○Beezr

×

The counters filter the list. Your Delayed Tasks shows overdue ones.
My tasks and Show my team inbox. The team inbox is for administrators.
Priority and Due come from the step’s settings.
Go to request opens the record that the task is about.

An approver can decide in two places.

• On the record. The record shows a banner with the task title, and the buttons Approve, Reject and Request Clarification. Send Back appears when the step lets the approver return it to an earlier approval. Reject asks for a reason.
• In the inbox. Tick one or more tasks, then click Approve or Reject. A rejection needs a reason. Tasks that have a validation workflow attached open on their record page, where you decide them.

A task assigned to a role shows a Claim button. Claiming it locks it to you until you choose Release. Reassign hands a task to another user. Other pages cover these, starting with Approve or reject a task.

What happens after someone decides?

The workflow resumes on the chosen path, with a fresh copy of the record. Anything that changed while it waited is there.

An Approval task records the decision. Put a Record manager step on each path to set the status, and a Send email step where someone should be told. A path with no step ends there.

Watch out

Load lists below the Approval task. The workflow resumes with a fresh copy of the record, so a step after the approval should load the data it needs.

How do I remind or escalate?

• Use Overdue after for visibility. The inbox marks a task overdue, so approvers see it in Your Delayed Tasks.
• Build a nudge as its own workflow. A scheduled workflow can load the records still waiting and email the approver. See Run a workflow on a schedule.
• Set the stage when the task starts. The optional Set a stage on the record setting writes a value as the task is created, so it works as “waiting for approval”. For a stage on approval or rejection, add a Record manager on that path.
• Copy the rejection reason to the record. Switch on Add the rejection reason to the record and choose the field. The requester also sees the reason on the record.
• Write-backs go to the record that started the workflow, including when the task is about a different record.