--- schema_version: "1" id: 8f684cc08fbf2e08ae554b5012331b522f65f0195863c024cf518b5ff3dc1d20 title: Classic Approval Processes collection: admin version: current locale: en-us portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/admin/current/en-us/platform/264-0-0/what_are_approvals.md canonical_url: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.what_are_approvals.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 source_site: help.salesforce.com content_type: documentation content_hash: 9a1ad517fb6af4cf098aa92bbd3f4d7f819bfcefd88a4751f7928a7bbacd2535 description: It’s likely that you’re familiar with process automation in the form of workflow rules. Approval processes take automation one step further, letting you specify a sequence of steps that are required to approve a record. products: - Flow Builder - Salesforce Platform release: "264" --- # Classic Approval Processes It’s likely that you’re familiar with process automation in the form of workflow rules. Approval processes take automation one step further, letting you specify a sequence of steps that are required to approve a record. ### Required Editions
Available in: both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience
Available in: Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions
![Important](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-platform-platform_automation-264-0-0-production-enus/60568438-ec7e-4665-acd1-7c80dcbe60d5/images/icon_important.png) Important Try [Flow Approval Processes](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.automate_automated_approvals.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5 "As your company grows, so does the complexity of your approvals, often requiring input from multiple people in different departments across different time zones. This complexity can mean that you spend more time waiting for each person to complete their review in the right order. Flow Approval Processes helps you coordinate multistep reviews that involve users, systems, and conditional paths."), a modern alternative to Classic Approval Processes. This new feature provides a more flexible, user-friendly flow-based interface, and it can trigger on record changes, supporting Apex extensibility and detailed logging for compliance and audit trails. It supports dynamic routing based on data and business rules, unlike Classic Approval Processes, which are tied to specific objects and offer limited support for processes by using conditions. With Flow Approval Processes, you can monitor submitted records and quickly identify bottlenecks, giving you unprecedented visibility into approval workflows. And, like Classic Approval Processes, Flow Approval Processes don’t consume automation credits or orchestration runs. A classic approval process automates how records are approved in Salesforce. A classic approval process specifies each step of approval, including from whom to request approval and what to do at each point of the process. ![Example](https://sf-zdocs-cdn-prod.zoominsoftware.com/tdta-platform-platform_automation-264-0-0-production-enus/60568438-ec7e-4665-acd1-7c80dcbe60d5/images/icon_example.png) Example Your org has a three-tier process for approving expenses. This classic approval process automatically assigns each request to right person in your org, based on the amount requested. If an expense record is submitted for approval, lock the record so that users can’t edit it and change the status to Submitted. If the amount is $50 or less, approve the request. If the amount is greater than $50, send an approval request to the direct manager. If the amount is greater than $5,000 and the first approval request is approved, send an approval request to the vice president. If all approval requests are approved, change the status to Approved and unlock the record. If any approval requests are rejected, change the status to Rejected and unlock the record. - **[Set Up a Classic Approval Process](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.approvals_getting_started.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** If classic Approval Processes is the right automation tool for your business process, follow these high-level steps to create one for your org. - **[Prepare Your Org for Classic Approval Processes](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.approvals_prep_org.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Make sure that your users can submit their records for approval using classic approval processes, and consider how you can make it easy for approvers to respond to approval requests. - **[Limits and Considerations for Classic Approval Processes](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.approvals_considerations.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Before you automate something with a classic approval process, be aware of the limits and considerations. - **[Sample Classic Approval Processes](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.approvals_useful_approval_processes.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Review samples of common classic approval processes to help you get started creating your own. - **[Classic Approval Process History Reports](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.approval_history_reports.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** If you create a custom report type for classic approval process instances, users can view the historical details of completed and in-progress classic approval processes and their individual steps. - **[Manage Multiple Approval Requests for Classic Approval Processes](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.data_approval_requests.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Transfer multiple approval requests from one user to another or remove multiple approval requests from the classic approval process. - **[Approval Requests from Classic Approval Processes for Users](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.approvals_users.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Your admin can set up classic approval processes that let you and other users submit records for approval, which results in approval requests. - **[Classic Approval Processes Terminology](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=platform.approvals_terminology.htm&release=264.0.0&type=5)** Salesforce uses this terminology for classic approval processes.