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Approval Policies

Approval Policies define who approves requests in your organization. Each policy contains steps, approvers, and rules that determine how approval requests are routed and processed.

Accessing Approval Policies​

Finding Approval Policies in Salesforce​

Use the App Launcher (🔍) to search for "Approval Policies".

Use the App Launcher to look for Approval Policies

Viewing All Policies​

Change the List View from "Recently Viewed" to "All" to see all available approval policies in your organization.

Change the List View to All

Default Approval Policies​

flair automatically creates default approval policies for each supported feature area. These policies:

  • Are created automatically when you install or upgrade flair
  • Cannot be deleted (to ensure approvals continue working)
  • Can be disabled if you want to use custom policies instead
  • Are marked as "Default" and have view-only forms
info

You can either create a new Approval Policy or modify the behavior by creating custom policies and disabling the defaults.

Default Absence Policy​

Routes absence requests to the employee's direct manager. This policy:

  • Targets all employees
  • Has one approval step assigned to the employee's manager
  • Applies to all absence types by default

Default Document Policy​

Routes employee-uploaded documents to HR managers when the document visibility is set to "HR Manager and Employee". This policy:

  • Only applies to self-uploaded documents
  • Filters for documents with "Pending" approval status
  • Requires HR manager review before approval

Creating and Managing Policies​

Selecting a Policy to Configure​

Click on any approval policy name to view or modify it.

Click on a policy name

Enabling and Disabling Policies​

You can enable or disable any policy (except defaults which start enabled):

  1. Open the policy you want to enable/disable
  2. Look for the Enable/Disable button
  3. Click to toggle the policy state

Why disable a policy?

  • Test a new policy without deleting the old one
  • Temporarily bypass certain approval requirements
  • Switch between different approval workflows for different periods
Multiple Active Policies

If you enable multiple policies for the same object, flair uses the matching priority to determine which policy applies. The policy with the lowest matching priority number takes precedence.

Understanding Matching Priority​

When multiple approval policies could apply to the same request, the Matching Priority field determines which one is used:

  • Lower numbers = higher priority (Priority 1 beats Priority 2)
  • Use this to create fallback policies
  • Example: Priority 1 for management team, Priority 2 for everyone else

Configuring Approval Steps​

Accessing Steps​

Click on the Steps tab to view and configure approval steps for a policy.

Click on Steps

Modifying Step Details​

Each approval step has:

  • Name - Descriptive label for the step (e.g., "First Approval", "Department Head Review")
  • Type - The nature of this approval step
  • Order - Steps are processed in sequence
Change step Name and Type

Configuring Approver Types​

You can configure different types of approvers for each step:

Configure Approver type

Available Approver Types:

  • Manager - The employee's direct manager
  • Additional Managers - Employees with additional manager responsibilities
  • Defined by Segments - Specific employees, positions, or departments selected via segments
  • Custom Field - Approver determined by a lookup field on the record

Defining Approvers with Segments​

Segments allow you to select specific approvers based on organizational criteria.

Using Segment-Based Approvers​

Click "Defined by segments" to select specific employees, positions, departments, or other criteria.

Click on Defined by segments

Editing Segments​

Click Edit Segment to open the segment configuration interface.

Click on Edit Segment

Filtering for Specific Approvers​

Use filters to narrow down your search and find the right approvers.

Use filters to narrow down your search

You can filter by:

  • Department
  • Position
  • Location
  • Custom employee fields
  • Employment status

Applying Filters​

Define your search criteria and click Apply filter.

Define your search and click Apply filter

Selecting Approvers​

Choose the employees who should approve this step, then click Save.

Choose the employees and click Save

Adding Multiple Approvers​

Multiple Approvers per Step​

A single approval step can have multiple approvers. This is useful when:

  • Any one of several people should be able to approve
  • All approvers must approve (depending on step configuration)
  • You want backup approvers in case someone is unavailable

Click Add Approver to add additional approvers to the same step.

Add another Approver

Example scenarios:

  • Manager + HR Business Partner both need to approve
  • Any regional manager can approve (first one to respond)
  • Department head + Finance approval for budget-related requests

Policy Assignments​

Viewing Where Policies Apply​

Click the Assignments tab to see where this approval policy is applied and what objects it covers.

Click on Assignments

Assignment Configuration​

The Assignments tab shows:

  • Target Object - Which Salesforce object this policy applies to (Absences, Employee Documents, etc.)
  • Employee Field - Which field identifies the employee who submitted the request
  • Approval Status Field - Which field tracks the approval status
  • SOQL Filter - Optional filter to limit when this policy applies

Example SOQL Filters:

-- Only for pending absences
Approval_Status__c = 'Pending'

-- Only for vacation requests
Absence_Category__r.Name = 'Vacation'

-- Only for documents visible to HR
Visibility__c = 'HR Manager and Employee' AND Self_Uploaded__c = true

Manager Transfer Handling​

When an employee's manager changes, the Approval Framework automatically handles pending approval requests:

What happens:

  1. Any pending approval requests assigned to the old manager are skipped
  2. New approval requests are created for the new manager
  3. The new manager receives notifications about transferred requests
  4. The approval path history shows the transfer

Why this matters:

  • Ensures approvals don't get stuck when organizational changes happen
  • Maintains approval continuity during manager transitions
  • Provides clear audit trail of who was responsible when
Best Practice

Review pending approval requests after manager changes to ensure smooth transitions. The approval path visualization makes it easy to see what was transferred.

Testing Your Policies​

After configuring approval policies:

  1. Submit test requests - Have employees create sample absences or documents
  2. Verify routing - Check that approvals go to the right people
  3. Test notifications - Ensure approvers receive email, Slack, and Hub notifications
  4. Check approval paths - Use the approval path visualization to verify the flow
  5. Test edge cases - What happens with multiple managers, segments, etc.?

Troubleshooting​

Approvals not routing correctly?

  • Check the policy is enabled
  • Verify the SOQL filter matches your requests
  • Review matching priority if multiple policies exist
  • Ensure approvers are in the correct segment

Multiple people receiving approvals?

  • Check if you have Additional Managers configured
  • Review if multiple approvers are set for the same step
  • Verify you don't have overlapping policies with the same priority

Default policy can't be edited?

  • Default policies are view-only
  • Create a custom policy instead
  • Disable the default policy if you don't want to use it

View interactive walkthrough