You can set up tracking and approvals workflows in Salesforce. A system administrator can enable and configure this feature of your Salesforce-Conga Collaborate integration.

Enable Chatter Approvals

Log into Salesforce, and then follow these steps to enable Chatter Approvals:

  1. Go to Setup
  2. In the Quick Find menu on the left, use the drop-down arrows to go to Build > Customize > Chatter > Chatter Settings
  3. Click Edit
  4. Check Allow Approvals
  5. Click SaveEnable Feed Tracking for Custom Objects
  6. Go to Setup
  7. In the Quick Find menu on the left, use the drop-down arrows to go to Build > Customize > Chatter > Feed Tracking
  8. Choose Conga Collaborate Document from the Object panel on the left. If you became a customer in 2015 or later, you should be using Conga Collaborate Documents. Contact Global Support if you’re unsure of which object to use.
  9. Check Enable Feed Tracking (there are default fields in the approval process already checked, if your approval depends on other fields, make sure those are checked)
  10. Click SaveCreate a Chatter Post Template
  11. Go to Setup
  12. In the Quick Find menu on the left, use the drop-down arrows to go to Build > Create > Workflow & Approvals > Post Templates
  13. Click New Template
  14. Select the object you want to post for approval. If you became a customer in 2015 or later, you should be using Conga Collaborate Documents. Contact Global Support if you’re unsure of which object to use.
  15. Click Next
  16. Give the Template a Name and, if you like, a description
  17. (Optional) Check Default if you want to use this Template for all related posts
  18. Select up to four fields you want to include on the Chatter post (an example preview can be seen by clicking the box to the right)
  19. Click SaveCreate an Approval Process
  20. Go to Setup
  21. In the Quick Find menu on the left, use the drop-down arrows to go to Build > Create > Workflow & Approvals > Approval Processes
  22. From the drop-down menu next to “Manage Approval Processes For”, select the Object for which you want to manage approvals. If you became a customer in 2015 or later, you should be using Conga Collaborate Documents. Contact Global Support if you’re unsure of which object to use.
  23. Click Create New Approval Process
  24. Select either Jump Start Wizard or Standard Setup Wizard. The Jump Start Wizard allows you to fill in basic information quickly.
  25. Under Approval Process Information, give the Approval Process a Name, and assign an Email and/or Post Template to be used for notifications
  26. Under Specify Entry Criteria, set the following criteria:
    • Field: Conga Collaborate Document: Status
    • Operator: equal
    • Value: Pending ApprovalYou can use additional criteria, but Conga Collaborate depends on the Pending Approval status
  27. Under Select Approver, choose one of the following Conga Collaborate-supported options:
    • Automatically assign an approver using a standard or custom hierarchy field
    • Automatically assign to queue
    • Automatically assign to approver(s)
  28. Click Save.

You can use additional criteria, but Conga Collaborate depends on the Pending Approval status. The Approver options supported by Conga Collaborate are the “Automatically assign” options. There is not a way to choose the approver through the Conga Collaborate interface at this time.

Further Configuration Options

The above sections get you going, but on the Approval Process edit page you can follow these steps to further configure your approval options:

  1. Click the Edit drop-down
  2. Enter Name and Description
  3. Specify Entry Criteria
  4. Select Approver Field and choose the desired Automated Approval Routing
  5. Record Editability Properties. You may want to allow the assign approver to edit records during the process.
  6. Choose Notifications Templates. Choose to notify approvers via email and/or chatter. Choosing a template enables this feature.
  7. Set Approval Page Layout. The Post Template (created in the previous section) is for Chatter only. This Page Layout is for the full Approval Page displayed when the Approver logs into Salesforce.com
  8. Select Initial Submitters (a good default Submitter is the Opportunity Owner that the Conga Collaborate Proposal is attached to)

Salesforce Outbound Messages

In order to send messages to Conga Collaborate when an Approve, Reject, or Recall action is performed, configure the actions in Salesforce. You do this in Outbound Messages.

Follow these steps to configure this feature:

  1. Go to Setup
  2. In the Quick Find menu on the left, use the drop-down arrows to go to Build > Create > Workflow & Approvals > Outbound Messages
  3. Click New Outbound Message
  4. Select the Object you want to use in the Approval Process

If you became a customer in 2015 or later, you should be using Conga Collaborate Documents. Contact Global Support if you’re unsure which object to use.

Approve Publish Outbound Message

  1. Enter a Name and optionally a Description
  2. Enter the Endpoint URL as client Conga Collaborate domain + /salesforce + /approve (e.g., https://example.Conga Collaborate.com/salesforce/approve)
  3. Select a Salesforce SysAdmin user to receive the messages to avoid permission-related issues. The only required field to send is tinderbox__TinderBoxId__c.
  4. Click Save


Reject Publish Outbound Message

  1. Click the Clone button on the Approval Outbound Message to create the Reject message
  2. Change all instances of Approve to Reject and select the same fields to send
  3. Click Save

Recall Publish Outbound Message

  1. Click the Clone button on the Reject Outbound Message to create the Recall message
  2. Change all instances of Reject to Recall and select the same fields to send
  3. Click Save

Assign Outbound Messages to Approval Process

  1. Go to Setup
  2. In the Quick Find menu on the left, use the drop-down arrows to go to Build > Create > Workflow & Approvals > Approval Processes
  3. Select the Approval Process you created earlier to assign actions to it. From this screen you can specify Initial Submission Actions, Approval Steps, and Final Approval, Final Rejection, and Recall Actions. You may include any actions of your own in any of the phases but the Conga Collaborate outbound messages must be assigned to the appropriate action.
  4. For each of the Final Approval, Final Rejection, and Recall Actions:
    • Click Add Existing.
    • Select Outbound Message as the search option.
    • Select the appropriate message from the list.

Optional Email Approval

If you’re using an Email Notification, you can also enable email responses to be processed and APPROVE or REJECT the requested approval.

Steps in Conga Collaborate

Your last step is to adjust user permissions in Conga Collaborate.

Conga Collaborate administrator can follow these steps to adjust the user permissions:

  1. From the user drop-down in the upper-right corner, go to Administration > Roles and Permissions
  2. Select the role that contains your approvals users. Only custom permissions roles can be edited. If you haven’t created a custom role yet, select Create New Role in the upper-right corner
  3. Click Permissions
  4. Enter Publish into the search bar
  5. Disable the permission “Publish proposal”
  6. Enable the permission “Request approval to publish”
  7. Click Save