Ask someone to approve before the automation continues
The Ask for approval step pauses the run until one of the approvers approves or rejects, then continues down the Approved or Not approved path. It suits discounts and big deals.
Before you start · for owners and managersPermission to edit workflows
- You need: Permission to edit workflows
Steps
How it works
Every approver gets a notification in the app, and answers from the Approvals page.
The first answer decides. If another approver tries to answer after that, they’re told the request was already decided.
The person who rejects can write a reason.
Without a Not approved path, the run ends when the request is rejected.
If the time limit ends with no answer, the run stops with the reason “Nobody answered the approval in time, so the run stopped.”
The approver sees the request message and the record’s name, even if they aren’t allowed to see the record.
You can’t turn off an approval step, because the decision belongs to a person.
The approval follows the version the run started on, even if you publish a change.
When the goal is reached, a pending approval no longer needs an answer.
If something goes wrong
A real example
Big discounts were given without the manager knowing.
- A field changes on the discount, with the condition greater than 10.
- Ask for approval from the sales manager, with a 24-hour time limit.
- Approved: notify the assignee to go ahead. Not approved: notify them to change the discount.
Every big discount goes through the manager, and the salesperson knows the decision right away.