Preview and Submit

Though Conga Approvals' primary function is to provide clear approval flows for initiated processes, users can also modify and shape the flow in advance by previewing the approval process before submitting the triggering request for approval. With Conga Approvals, Advantage Platform users can preview records to be approved and see who the record's specified approvers will be. With this understanding, they can adjust their record to submit it to desired approvers. For example, a salesperson might adjust a product's discount by reviewing the required approvers at a given discount level: if a 50% discount requires approval from the CFO, but a 49% discount rises only to the VP of Sales, the salesperson can adjust the sales discount to meet the review level most likely to succeed. From the institutional perspective, this ensures approval rules and flows can be both firm and transparent.

Because the Approvals tool is modularized for the Conga Platform, approvals can be previewed and submitted for several business use cases, among them sales, pricing, and contract lifecycle management. How you access this flow depends on the tool Approvals is integrated with.

With Conga Approvals, a user can:

Preview all required approvals before submitting them for approval.
View the number of approval requests generated when you submit a record.
View the assignees for each approval request based on the current record values.
Preview required approvals and edit the record to adjust the number of approval requests.
Create an ad-hoc approval process at runtime. The Create Adhoc Process button appears only when at least one ad hoc flow is active.
Add attachments to the record you submit for approval.
Submit submission comments either at the process level or at the step level.

Access the Preview and Submit Feature

When criteria are satisfied in a request under development, the user is prompted in the host application (Conga CPQ, for example) to preview the request before submitting it. The preview is tailored to the particulars of the request's approval criteria, set by the administrator. These criteria may include such parameters as discount, total value, quality of service, duration, or others. As configured by the administrator, these approvals can be satisfied by one or more approvers in one or more approval steps.

On the Preview screen, the main steps of the approval flow are listed in the left column. For each step, the relevant customer and deal information, along with the required approvals, are displayed. Approvers are shown as stacked tiles. The right panel displays detailed approval information for the selected step.

Note: Approval details such as Sequence, Sub-sequence, Delegate Approver, Approval Details, and Approval Dependency fields are visible only when the Display a Simpler View of Request Detail custom configuration setting is turned off.

Creating an Ad Hoc approval Process at Runtime

This topic describes creating an ad hoc approval process.

An active Ad Hoc Approval Flow must exist for the specific object. For more details, see the Ad Hoc Approval Flow.

An Ad Hoc Approval Process allows you to manually configure approvers at runtime, rather than using predefined fixed rule-based approval workflows or routing logic. This is helpful when approval paths vary based on real-time business needs or stakeholder availability. By adding ad hoc approvers, you can fast track approvals for risk scenarios that do not have predefined automated controls and approval policies for risk mitigation.

Use Case: Global Contract with Regional Approvals

Your company is finalizing a Software License Agreement involving stakeholders in the USA, Germany, and India. The standard approval flow is not sufficient for this contract, as it requires input from specific regional teams not normally included.

Instead of modifying the main approval workflow—which continues to handle other contracts—you can use Ad Hoc Approval Process to override it for this particular case. This allows you to configure a one-time approval path based on your immediate needs, without disrupting the existing setup.

The legal team in the USA initiates the ad hoc approval process and dynamically assigns approvers: the Legal Head in the USA, the Data Privacy Officer in Germany for GDPR compliance, the Finance Head in India for pricing and currency review, and finally, the Global General Counsel for final sign-off.

This flexible, one-time process ensures region-specific compliance without modifying existing approval workflows.

To create an ad hoc approval process at runtime

From the Agreement or Quote record, click the Preview & Submit button. The Preview and Submit Approvals page appears.
Click Create Adhoc Process. This button appears only when at least one ad hoc flow is active.

A confirmation popup appears with the message: "This will discard the current rule-based process and create a new ad hoc process. Are you sure you want to proceed?" Click Yes. The Ad Hoc Approval Step window opens.
In the Adhoc Step Details section:
1. Enter a unique name for the step in the Name field to identify it within the steps.
2. In the Number field, enter the number of the step that this step depends on. If this is the first step, leave the Number field blank.
From Assignees, select an Assignee Type.The available assignee types are:
- User: Assigns the approval request step directly to a user.
- Queue: Assigns the approval request to a group, where any member can take ownership and approve or reject it.
- User Role: Assigns the approval request to a role, allowing any user with that role to take ownership and approve or reject it.
See Standard-Step Options for more details on these approver types.
Search and select an Assignee.
Click Add. A selected assignee appears under the Approvers list.
- In the Depends On field, enter the dependency information to define the order in which the review request is sent to the approver. You can add multiple dependencies by entering the step numbers, separated by commas. For example, if Step Three depends on Step One and Step Two, enter: 1,2. This ensures that the review for Step Three is triggered only after Step One and Step Two are completed.
- In the Settings field, select how you want to notify the approver. You can choose to send an email, automatically approve the request, or simply notify the approver, or select all three options.
To add more approvers to the group, search for the assignee type (as described in step four), then click Add.
Click Create. A created ad hoc process step appears under the Steps section. Click the Details tab to view the process name and the associated business object for the ad hoc approval process.
To add multiple steps, click the Plus icon and repeat steps Three through Seven for each additional step.
To edit a step, click its name and make the necessary changes. To remove a step from the list, click the Delete icon located at the right end of the step name.
Click Save.

The updated list of approvers defined in the ad hoc approval process appears in the left panel of the Preview and Submit page.

You can modify an ad hoc process by clicking the Edit Ad Hoc Process button. Once finalized, submit it for review.

Attachment Upload Process

Clicking the Attachments tab opens an interface that enables you to upload attachments to the approvals flow. This optional step is useful for providing additional relevant information for approvers. You can drag and drop files or upload them from your file system by clicking the Browse Files link. When you select or drop the correct file, it is uploaded. Approvers receive all attached documents directly in the approval email for quick access.

Behavior on the Preview & Submit page for Cart Approvals

On the Preview & Submit page for Cart Approvals, you can view all documents attached to the cart and quote, select existing files while submitting for approval, and eliminate the need to download and re-upload files. If needed, you can also upload additional documents within the submission workflow.

Submitting an Approval Request with Comments

After reviewing the approval request, you can submit it to the approvers listed in the preview flow. This section explains how to submit an approval request with comments to the reviewers in the approval process.

There must be an active approval flow with submission comments enabled.

When an object record meets the entry criteria for an approval process with submission comments, you will see fields to enter comments. There may be one comment field for the entire process or up to three fields for specific approval steps.

Form the object record (such as a Contract), click Preview & Submit
Enter submission comment from the Preview page:
- Step Level Comment: Depending on the approval step configuration, you may see one to three comment fields. Some steps may have comment fields, while others may not. Enter your comments in the available fields and click Submit.
- Process Level Comment: Click Submit to open a prompt where you can enter submission notes.
Note:
Once you submit an approval request, you cannot resubmit it. If a request has been recalled or canceled, the submission process is complete, and you cannot submit or resubmit it.

The submission comments appear on the My Approval page. If email notifications are enabled, the approver receives an email with either process-level or step-level comments.

Conga Product Documentation

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Preview and Submit

Access the Preview and Submit Feature

Creating an Ad Hoc approval Process at Runtime

Attachment Upload Process

Submitting an Approval Request with Comments

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