Approve changes to supporters, leads and accounts
Hold changes to chosen fields, and merges, until the right people approve them.
Some details matter enough that a second person should agree before they change: a major donor's name, a household's receipt preference, a merge of two supporters. Supporters, leads and accounts can hold changes to the fields you choose for approval, and supporters and accounts can also hold merges.
Approvals are off until you set one up: edits save straight away.
Before you start: setting up approvals needs permission to edit Objects & Fields and to manage approvals. Approvers need permission to view the object and must be able to see the record; being named on a step is what lets them decide it.
Set up approval
Open the object
Go to Settings > Objects & Fields, open Supporters, Leads or Accounts, and select the Approvals tab.
Choose what needs approval
Under Field changes, turn on Require approval and pick the Fields that need approval. For supporters and accounts, turn on Merges to hold every merge a process covers. You can use either, or both.
Add processes and steps
Each process covers the people it Applies to (roles, groups or people). Add its steps and who approves each one, as for form approvals.
Save
Select Save. Changes and merges from now on wait for approval.
Contact preferences and consent (email and text opt-outs, do not call, do not mail) can't be put under approval: they always save straight away.
What happens while a change waits
- The record keeps its current values. The proposed values show on the record for the people deciding it, and the fields under approval are locked; other fields save straight away.
- The person who proposed it, and administrators, can still edit those fields, which starts the approval again.
- Everyone who approves the current step gets a notification that opens the record, where Approve, Request changes and Reject are highlighted at the top.
- Add Approval status as a column or filter on the list to see what waits.
Merges
A held merge doesn't merge anything yet: both records stay as they are, and the record being kept shows the merge waiting with the values it would take from the other record. When it's approved, the merge runs. If either record changes, is archived or is erased before then, the merge is withdrawn and has to be done again.
Changes from elsewhere
- Imports and forms filled in by your team follow the same approvals: a field under approval is held, and a row that would change a field a change is already waiting on is reported as failed.
- Flows follow them too, as changes by the person who last published the Flow. Someone who can manage approvals can turn on Skip approvals in an Update Field step; anyone else can't turn it on or publish a Flow that uses it.
- A supporter's own changes in the supporter portal always save, and replace a waiting change to the same field.
- Salesforce sync changes are never held for approval, so the sync never falls behind. If a change or merge is waiting on the record, the sync still updates it, and the request shows Updated in Salesforce since it was sent for approval with the fields that changed, so approvers can check the current values before deciding. Approving still applies the proposed change, which is then sent back to Salesforce.
- Archiving, deleting or erasing the record withdraws anything waiting on it.
Requests don't expire: a change or merge waits until someone decides or withdraws it.
Still stuck?
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