Action Permissions

As an Approvals administrator, you can assign security permissions for users so that the application actions are accessible to only certain user profiles.

There are two categories of actions related to approvals:

Submitter actions
Approver actions

Submitter Actions

Submitter actions are performed by the user who is trying to submit an object for approval. These actions include:

Preview approvals
Submit for approvals
Cancel/recall approvals
View approvals history/comments

The following users can perform submitter actions:

Internal user (a user with direct Salesforce org access)
Community user (external users who are authorized to take approval actions)

Approver Actions

Approver actions are performed by the user who is part of the approval chain for a given object. These actions include:

Approve
Reject
Reassign
Add an ad hoc approver
Take ownership of queue/role requests
Add comment
Email approval
Email rejection

The following users can perform approval actions:

Internal user (a user with direct Salesforce org access)
Community user (external users who are authorized to take approval actions)

Other Approval users are:

Backup user
Delegate user
System admin
Backup admin

Users need the following permissions to perform any approval actions:

Read/Write access to the context objects on which the approval is required (primary object and child objects). Read/Write access is needed as the system updates certain fields on these objects, such as Approval Status, Approval Preview Status, Status, when user performs various approvals actions using the user credentials.
Read/Write access to Approval Request, Approval Request history, and Approval Process instance as the system creates and updates records in these objects when the user performs various approvals actions using the user credentials.
Read access on other approval objects, such as Approval Process, Approval Rule, Approval Rule Entry, Approval Rule Assignee, Approval Rule Dimension, and Approval Matrix, to access the approval process and rule details.

Approvals Object	OWD (Org Wide Default) Settings	Sharing Rules	Approve/Reject Actions	Reassign Approver	Add Ad Hoc Approver
Approval request object	Public read only	None	Only my steps. Not for anyone else	Can reassign My Approval request Cannot reassign others' approval requests	Cannot add an ad hoc approver at any step.
	Private	None	Only my steps. Not for anyone else	Can reassign My Approval request Cannot reassign others' approval requests	Cannot add an ad hoc approver at any step.
	Public read/write	None	Only my steps. Not for anyone else	Can reassign approval request at any step	Can add an ad hoc approver at any step.
(Preferred setting)	Public read/write	Public read only	Only my steps. Not for anyone else	Can reassign My Approval request Cannot reassign others' approval requests	Can add an ad hoc approver at any step.

The following table describes the permissions required by different user profiles:

Approval Object	Description	Submitter	Approver	Backup Admin	Backup Approver	Delegate Approver	Approval Admin
Approval Request	Tracks the approvals needed from a given user on a given object	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write
Approval Request History	Stores history of the approval requests	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write
Approval Process	Stores the definition of the approvals needed for a given object. This include General information Step and step dependencies Initial and final submission actions Email notification templates	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read Write
Approval Process Instance	Represents an instance of a single end-to-end approval process that is generated during approval execution	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write
Approval Rule	Similar to approval process. Also represents a sub-process / child process linked to a given step in the primary approval process.	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read Write
Approval Rule Assignee	Similar to approval process.	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read Write
Approval Rule Dimension	Represents an approval rule dimension.	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read Write
Approval Rule Entry	Represents a single entry in an approval rule.	Read	Read	Read Write	Read	Read	Read Write
Approval Matrix	Specifies user approval levels and authorized discount percentages.	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read	Read Write
Context Object	Represents the approval context object.	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write	Read Write

Visibility of Approvals Data

Approval data, such as approval requests and approval request history, is available to any user with read access to the approval context objects or to the objects used for approvals.