Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject

This feature enables you to continue approval processes, even if an approver rejects the approval request. Previously, if a specific approval request resulted in a rejection, the entire process would halt.

This option is selected at the specific approval process level.

Note:

Before configuring Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject, learn the behavior of Continue Approval Policy on a Reject, as both settings are mutually dependent.

To set Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject

In an approval process, go to Step 3: Specify Consolidation Settings.
Select Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject and save the approval process.

By default, this option is not selected.

The following lists the effect of selecting or not selecting the Continue Pending Approval on a Reject option on approval requests.


Selected	A Rejected request status is rejected. A request that is dependent on a rejected request enters the Canceled status. Requests in the Assigned status remain in that status. Requests in the Not Submitted status remain in that status. The overall object record approval status continues to be Pending Approval.
Cleared	A Rejected request status is rejected. Rejection of any approval request cancels all other assigned requests. Requests in the Not Submitted status remain in that status. The overall object record approval status is Rejected.

Returning to the approval process later to change the option will impact new approval processes but will not change the behavior of in-flight processes.

Use Case: Continuing Parallel Approvals After a Single Rejection

Configure a parallel approval process that continues collecting all reviewer assessments even when one approver rejects, ensuring a complete risk profile is captured before the final outcome is determined.

Business Context

In multi-branch approval processes, a rejection from one branch does not always need to stop all other branches from completing. The Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject setting allows the process to continue even when one approver rejects, so all branches complete before the overall outcome is determined.

Overview

This use case provides an example of how to enable the Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject setting for a parallel approval process in an investment proposal review scenario. Your implementation may vary. For more about parallel steps and rejection handling, see the Conga Approvals documentation.

Persona


Field	Details
Name	Felix Huang
Role	Approvals Administrator, TechNova Solutions
Goal	Configure a parallel approval process where all three reviewers complete their assessment even if one rejects, ensuring that the risk profile is fully captured before the final outcome is recorded.

Scenario

TechNova reviews investment proposals through three independent assessors: a Financial Risk Analyst, a Legal Compliance Officer, and a Market Risk Analyst. These three reviews happen in parallel. Even if the Financial Risk Analyst rejects the proposal early, the Legal and Market reviews must still complete so all assessments are recorded and available to the decision-maker.

Prerequisites

The Conga Quote Approvals package is installed, the Quote/Proposal object is registered in all five Conga Approvals picklists, and a record for Apttus_Proposal__Proposal__c exists in Approval Custom Config. If not, complete the Prerequisites steps in Use Case: Route Approvals to Regional Managers Using Dimension-Based Rules.

Step 1: Create Three 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. For more information, see Creating Approval Rules.
Select Quote/Proposal as the Business Object and click Next.

Enter the rule details using the sample data below and click Save:


Rule Name	Business Object	Rule Type	Approval Policy	Rule Criteria
Financial Risk Review Rule	Quote/Proposal	Condition	Unanimous	Total Quote Amount >= 100000
Legal Compliance Review Rule	Quote/Proposal	Condition	Unanimous	Total Quote Amount >= 100000
Market Risk Review Rule	Quote/Proposal	Condition	Unanimous	Total Quote Amount >= 100000

Repeat steps 3 to 5 to create all three rules listed above.

Step 2: Add a Rule Entry to Each Rule

From the Approval Rules tab, click Financial Risk Review Rule to open the rule detail page. For more information, see Configuring Assignees in an Approval Rule.
Scroll down and click Manage Entries.

Add an entry for each rule using the sample data below, and click Save:


Rule	Condition	Approver Type	Approver	Send Email
Financial Risk Review Rule	Total Quote Amount >= 100000	User	Clara Davies (Financial Risk Analyst)	Selected
Legal Compliance Review Rule		User	Raj Patel (Legal Compliance Officer)	Selected
Market Risk Review Rule		User	Tom Chen (Market Risk Analyst)	Selected

Repeat steps 1 to 3 for the Legal Compliance Review Rule and the Market Risk Review Rule, using the corresponding rows from the table above.

Step 3: Create the Approval Process

From the main menu, select Conga Approvals Setup and click the Approval Processes tab. For more information, see Creating an Approval Process.
In the Manage Approval Processes for dropdown, select Quote/Proposal, then click Create New Approval Process.
Select Rule Driven Process.
Specify the Entry Criteria using the sample data below and click Next:

Table 1. Entry Criteria
Field Operator Value
Total Quote Amount Greater Than or Equal To 100,000
On the Specify Consolidation Settings page, select Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject and click Next:

Important: Selecting Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject is critical for this use case. Without it, a rejection from any one reviewer immediately cancels the remaining parallel steps and the other reviewers cannot complete their assessments.
Click Next to move through each page of the wizard, change any options your scenario needs or leave them at their defaults, then click Save on the final page. Save.

Table 1. Entry Criteria
Field	Operator	Value
Total Quote Amount	Greater Than or Equal To	100,000

Step 4: Create Three Parallel Approval Steps

On the Approval Process detail page, click Add New in the Approval Steps section. For more information, see Creating Approval Steps.

The three approval steps run in parallel. Setting Depends On to None for each step ensures no step waits for another to complete before starting.

Enter the step details using the sample data below and click Next through each wizard page, then click Save:


Step Name	Step Type	Approver Rule	Depends On
Financial Risk Review	Sub Process	Financial Risk Review Rule	None
Legal Compliance Review	Sub Process	Legal Compliance Review Rule	None
Market Risk Review	Sub Process	Market Risk Review Rule	None

Repeat steps 1 and 2 to add all three approval steps listed above.

Step 5: Add Submission Actions

Add Initial Submission Actions, Final Approval Actions, and Final Rejection Actions using the sample data below:


Action Type	Field Action Type	Field Name	Approval Status
Initial Submission	Field Update (Constant)	Approval Status	Pending Approval
Final Approval	Field Update (Constant)	Approval Status	Approved
Final Rejection	Field Update (Constant)	Approval Status	Rejected

For more information, see Creating Initial Submission Actions. Follow the same steps to configure the Final Approval and Final Rejection actions.

Step 6: Activate the Approval Process

On the Approval Process Definition page, click Activate to make the process live.

Note: The approval process will not trigger at runtime until it is activated. Activation is a separate step from saving.

The approval rules, rule entries, approval process, submission actions, and approval steps are configured and active.

When a proposal is submitted, all three approval steps start simultaneously. Clara Davies (Financial Risk Analyst), Raj Patel (Legal Compliance Officer), and Tom Chen (Market Risk Analyst) each receive an approval request independently.

Consider the following scenario:

Clara Davies reviews the proposal and rejects it.
Because Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject is selected, the process does not stop. Raj Patel and Tom Chen can still complete their assessments.
Raj Patel approves the proposal.
Tom Chen approves the proposal.

Once all three reviewers have responded, the overall outcome is determined. Even though two out of three reviewers approved, the process is marked as Rejected because the approval policy for each rule is Unanimous. All assignees in a rule must approve for that rule to pass. Since Clara rejected, the Financial Risk Review rule fails, and the overall process outcome is Rejected.

However, all three assessments are fully captured and available to the decision-maker, which is the primary purpose of enabling Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject. The decision-maker can review the complete set of responses before taking further action.

Note: Without the Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject setting, Clara's rejection would immediately cancel the pending requests for Raj and Tom. Their assessments would never be recorded, leaving an incomplete picture for the decision-maker.

Conga Product Documentation

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Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject

To set Continue Pending Approvals on a Reject

Use Case: Continuing Parallel Approvals After a Single Rejection

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