Approval Submission Comments

Approval submission comments enable you to add personalized comments when you submit an approval request. You can have a single comment at the process level or up to three comments at the step level.

Providing comments at the process level enables you to add general instructions to all of the approvers, while adding comments at the step level enables you to tailor a specific message for each individual approver. The comments can be text only, up to 4096 characters.

Process Level comments could be used when a quote requires approval from one group and the same justification holds true for all approvers. Step Level comments could be used when quote needs approval from Finance, Legal, and Pricing and you want to send a separate justification for each approver group.

These comments can be viewed on:

Approval Request Record
Approval Request History Record
Approval Summary Page
Approval Email Notifications

Configuring Approval Comments

Custom labels are available for the comments and submission comments are enabled for an approval process at either the process or step level.

To create comment custom labels

Go to Build > Create > Custom Labelsand click New Custom Label.
Enter values for the mandatory fields. Name is the text you must enter in the approval process when you are selecting the label to use with the submission comments. Value is the label that is displayed on the approval request itself, where the submission comments will be entered.

The label is now available for use with submission comments.

With the labels available, you can create approval processes that use submission comments.You can create more labels as required. If the Translation Workbench is enabled in your org, you can also translate labels into multiple languages.

To configure approval comments for steps

You must have created labels.

Go to theApproval Processestab.
Select an existing process or create a new one and proceed to the Step 7: Specify Submission Comment Settings page.
Click Submission Comments Enabled to display the submission comments options.
For Submission Comments Type, select Step and for Submission Comments Per Step, select 1, 2, or3.

Note:
If you define submission comments at the step level, ensure that you have defined them for all the steps in the process to avoid running into SOQL error.
For each Submission Comment Label, enter the value from the label's Name field you want to use.
You must be sure you enter the correct value for the labels, as there is no validation you have entered a valid label.
Click Save.
Go to the approval steps for the process and configure them as normal, and proceed to the Step 6: Enable Step Level Comments page.
Click Step Submission Comments Enabled, if you want to be able to enter submission comments for that specific step. Select which of the comments you want to use. If Submission Comments Type is Process, that overrides this setting and comments will only be available at the process level and not the step level.
Click Save.

Complete the remaining configuration for the approval process and ensure that it is active.

When the entry criteria for this approval process is met when someone submits a record for approval, they will be able to enter submission comments at the step level.

To configure approval comments for a process

You have created labels.

Go to the Approval Processes tab.
Select an existing process or create a new one and proceed to the Step 6: Specify Submission Comment Settings page.
Click Submission Comments Enabled to display the submission comments options.
ForSubmission Comments Type, select Process and for Submission Comment 1 Label, enter the value from the label's Name field you want to use.
You must be sure you enter the correct value for the label, as there is no validation you have entered a valid label.
ClickSave.

Complete the remaining configuration for the approval process and ensure that it is active.

When the entry criteria for this approval process is met when someone submits a record for approval, they will be able to enter submission comments at the process level.

Submitting Comments

When an object record meets the entry criteria upon clicking Submit Approval, for an approval process using submission comments, the fields will be available to enter comments in.Either submission comments will be available as a single field for the entire process or 1 to 3 comment fields will be available for specific approval steps.

To submit comments

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

From the object record (such as a Quote/Proposal record), click Submit Approvals from the Approval Requests related list.
From the Submit page enter comments:
1. For submission comments at the approval process level there will be a single comment field.
2. For submission comments at the approval step level there will be between one and three comment fields. It will also depend on how the steps were configured, whether the fields will be available for some steps or all steps. In the example below the submission comments are available for each step.
3. Click Submit and the approval request process starts.
  The submission comments are captured on the Approval Request object and the Approval Summary Page.
  
  If the approval process is cancelled and a new process is started, the submission comments will be included in the Approval Request History.

Use Case: Submission Comments and Attachments for Agreement Approvals

Business Context

Regulated industries and enterprise procurement require approvers to understand the justification behind each approval decision. Conga Approvals lets a process prompt for either a single submission comment that applies to the whole process, or up to three separate comment labels that are defined once on the process and then selectively turned on for individual steps. Submitters can also attach supporting files using the Submit with Attachment option. This use case demonstrates how to configure step-specific submission comments together with Submit with Attachment to create a compliance-ready audit trail.

Overview

This use case shows how to configure step-level submission comments and submit approval requests with attachments for a multi-stage Agreement approval process.

Persona

Field	Details
Name	Anita Bhatt
Role	Agreement Administrator, TechNova Solutions
Goal	Require submitters to provide a business justification at each approval stage and attach the relevant supporting documents, so the full audit trail is captured in the approval history.

Scenario

TechNova Solutions processes Agreement approvals that must satisfy internal audit requirements. Agreements over USD 200,000 require sequential sign-off from Finance, Legal, and Executive stakeholders. Each approval stage requires a tailored justification comment. Anita configures step-level submission comments so that the submitter provides context for each stage.

Create one approval rule per approval stage to identify who reviews the Agreement at that stage. For more information on rules, see Creating Approval Rules.

Log in to your Salesforce org as an administrator.
Click the App Launcher and select Conga Approvals Setup.
Click the Approval Rules tab and click New.
Select Agreement as the Business Object and click Next.

Create three rules in sequence, one per stage, using the sample data below. Click Save after each rule:


Rule Name	Business Object	Rule Type	Approval Policy	Sequence	Active
Finance Review Rule	Agreement	Condition	Unanimous	1	Selected
Legal Review Rule	Agreement	Condition	Unanimous	1	Selected
Executive Approval Rule	Agreement	Condition	Unanimous	1	Selected

Because Rule Type is set to Condition, each rule requires at least one Rule Criteria condition. Add the condition below to each rule before saving:

Rule Name	Field	Operator	Value
Finance Review Rule	Total Agreement Value	Greater Than or Equal To	200000
Legal Review Rule	Total Agreement Value	Greater Than or Equal To	200000
Executive Approval Rule	Total Agreement Value	Greater Than or Equal To	200000

Add one rule entry per rule to identify the approver for that stage. For more information, see Configuring Assignees in an Approval Rule.

From the Approval Rules tab, click Finance Review Rule, then click Entries (0) and Manage Entries.

For SEQ 1, enter the Label. Under the Condition column, click New, add the Filter Criteria condition shown below, and click Ok. Under Assignees, set Type, look up the Approver, select the radio button next to their name, click Select, confirm Send Email is selected, and click Save:

Rule	Label	Condition	Approver Type	Approver	Send Email
Finance Review Rule	Finance Manager Review	Total Agreement Value ≥ 200000	User	Daniel Moore (Finance Manager)	Selected
Legal Review Rule	Legal Team Review	Total Agreement Value ≥ 200000	Queue	Agreement Review Committee	Selected
Executive Approval Rule	Executive Sign-Off	Total Agreement Value ≥ 200000	User	Sophia Grant (VP Agreements)	Selected

Repeat the previous substep for Legal Review Rule and Executive Approval Rule using the values in the table above.

Create the approval process. For more information, see Creating an Approval Process.

From the App Launcher, select Conga Approvals Setup, then click the Approval Processes tab.
In the Manage Approval Processes for dropdown, select Agreement, then click Create New Approval Process.
Verify Rule Driven Process is selected.
Enter the process details below and click Next:
Field Value
Process Name High-Value Agreement Approval
Description Sequential Finance, Legal, and Executive sign-off for Agreements of $200,000 or more.
Object Type Agreement
Process Type Rule Driven
On the Entry Criteria page, add the condition below and click Next:
Field Operator Value
Total Agreement Value Greater Than 200000
On the Approval Consolidation Settings page, leave the defaults and click Next.
Note: Select Consolidate Approvals and Consolidate Notifications only if the same person could be assigned to more than one step in this process, so they receive a single combined email instead of one per step. In this use case each stage has a distinct approver, so the defaults are appropriate.
On the Custom Notification Templates page, add the Custom Notification Email Templates at the process level if you did not add them in Custom Settings. Then click Next.
On the Select Custom Pages page, leave Custom Approval Summary Page and Custom My Approvals Page blank to use the default pages, then click Next.
On the Specify Backup Admin User Settings page, add the Backup Admin at the process level if you did not add one in Custom Settings. Then click Next.

Field	Value
Process Name	High-Value Agreement Approval
Description	Sequential Finance, Legal, and Executive sign-off for Agreements of $200,000 or more.
Object Type	Agreement
Process Type	Rule Driven

Field	Operator	Value
Total Agreement Value	Greater Than	200000

On the Comment Settings page, configure the fields below and click Save. This is the last page of the process wizard for a Rule Driven process:

Field	Value
Submission Comments Enabled	Selected
Submission Comments Type	Step
Submission Comments Per Step	3
Submission Comment 1 Label	Finance Justification
Submission Comment 2 Label	Legal Justification
Submission Comment 3 Label	Executive Justification
Approval Comments Mandatory	Selected
Rejection Comments Mandatory	Selected

Note: Submission Comment 1, 2, and 3 Label are defined once here, at the process level, and are available to every step in the process. A step does not define its own label text — in the next task, each step's Enable Step Level Comments page lets you choose which of these three labels to prompt for on that specific step.

On the What Would You Like To Do Now page, keep Yes, I'd like to create an approval step now selected and click Go.

Create one approval step per stage, in sequence, linking each step to its corresponding approval rule.

On the Step Information page or in the Approval Steps section on the Process Definition Detail page, enter the details below for Finance Review and click Next:
Field Value
Step Name Finance Review
Step Type Subprocess
Approval Rule Finance Review Rule
Step Description Finance sign-off on pricing and discount exceptions.
On the Specify Step Entry Criteria page, leave the fields blank (the process-level Entry Criteria already restricts the process to Agreements of $200,000 or more) and click Next.
On the Select Step Dependencies page, set Depends On using the value below for this step and click Next:
Step Name Depends On
Finance Review None (runs first)
Legal Review Finance Review
Executive Approval Legal Review

Field	Value
Step Name	Finance Review
Step Type	Subprocess
Approval Rule	Finance Review Rule
Step Description	Finance sign-off on pricing and discount exceptions.

Step Name	Depends On
Finance Review	None (runs first)
Legal Review	Finance Review
Executive Approval	Legal Review

On the Enable Step Level Comments page, select Step Submission Comments Enabled, then select only the checkbox for the one comment that applies to this step (per the table below), and click Next:

Step Name	Step Submission Comments Enabled	Comment 1: Finance Justification	Comment 2: Legal Justification	Comment 3: Executive Justification
Finance Review	Selected	Selected	–	–
Legal Review	Selected	–	Selected	–
Executive Approval	Selected	–	–	Selected

Note: Only one comment checkbox is selected per step in this use case, so each submitter sees a single, stage-specific justification prompt. Submission Comments Per Step allows up to three comments on one step; this use case does not use that option.

On the Select Display Fields page and Carbon Copy Assignees page, leave fields blank and click Save.
Repeat the previous five substeps for the Legal Review step (Legal Review Rule, depends on Finance Review, Legal Justification comment) and the Executive Approval step (Executive Approval Rule, depends on Legal Review, Executive Justification comment), clicking New Approval Step from the Approval Steps section each time.
On the Approval Process detail page, click Activate to make the process live.

Note:

The process does not trigger at runtime until it is activated. The three steps run sequentially because each step depends on the one before it. Follow the best practice of deactivating the process before making further edits, and reactivate it when you are finished.

Continue Policy Approval on a Reject is left unselected. Because this is an audit-critical, sequential approval chain, a rejection at any stage should stop the entire process rather than continue collecting responses from the remaining approvers.

Submit the Agreement for approval as the end user, using Submit with Attachment in place of Submit whenever a supporting file needs to go with the request.

Open the Agreement record MSA-Meridian-Starlink-2025 and select Preview & Submit Approvals. The Preview & Submit Approvals page opens.

On the Preview&Submit Approvals page, click Submit (With Attachments) to upload the file, then enter each step's justification comment using the sample data below:

Field	Value
Attachment to Upload	Starlink_TermSheet_Signed_v3.pdf
Finance Justification	Pricing approved at a 12% discount based on multi-year commitment and competitive match. Standard pricing exception approved verbally by Sales Director on July 10.
Legal Justification	Non-standard payment terms (net-60 instead of net-30) included per customer request. Legal has reviewed and accepted the risk.
Executive Justification	Strategic account. Approval supports Q3 expansion into the healthcare vertical. Revenue impact: $250K ARR.

Click Submit to start the approval process.

Submitters must provide step-specific justification comments before the request can be submitted.
The signed term sheet is attached to the request and is visible to every approver at every stage.
The Approval Request History captures all comments, approver actions, and the attachment for audit purposes.
Administrators and approvers can view and download the attachment from the Approval Center, indicated by the Has Attachments icon.

Audit Trail View on the My Approval page or in the Approvals related list

Step	Approver	Status	Comment	Attachment
Finance Review	Daniel Moore	Approved	Pricing exception acknowledged. Approved per policy 3.4.	Starlink_TermSheet_Signed_v3.pdf
Legal Review	Agreement Review Committee	Approved	Net-60 terms accepted. Risk classification: Low.	Starlink_TermSheet_Signed_v3.pdf
Executive Approval	Sophia Grant	Approved	Approved. Strategic priority account.	Starlink_TermSheet_Signed_v3.pdf

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