Manage Approvals in Microsoft Teams

You can now review and act on approval requests directly in Microsoft Teams without switching applications. When an approval is triggered, approvers receive a Teams notification and can approve or reject the request in real time. For more information, see Approvals Integration with Microsoft Teams and Approvals in Microsoft Teams.

Smarter Criteria, Streamlined Approvals, and Flexible Approver Management

Administrators now have greater control over approval configuration with an improved Advanced Criteria Builder, enhanced Approval Center capabilities, and flexible backup and delegate approver management. These updates provide a more consistent and streamlined experience across approval workflows.

Advanced Criteria Builder

Enhanced the Advanced Criteria Builder with UI improvements and expanded configuration capabilities to simplify criteria creation and improve the overall experience.

• Full-Screen Interface: The Advanced Criteria Builder now opens in a full-screen view with an improved layout that provides better visibility and alignment of text boxes, picklists, and input fields. The system now displays all input fields, including LHS and RHS Search Filter toggles, in a single row with clearly labeled fields. The system also consolidates Rule Entry creation into a single screen to streamline the configuration process. These enhancements apply to the following screens:
  • Rule Criteria
  • Rule Entry Creation
  • Search Filter Creation
  • Step Entry Add Condition
  • ReApproval Criteria
• Add Formula Support for Related Objects: You can now use the Add Formula option to fetch and compare fields across related objects, including multi-level lookup relationships up to five levels deep. This enhancement is available for Lookup fields and enables you to reference calculated or related data instead of using only static values.For example: Account.Parent.PriceList.BasedOnPriceList.ModifiedBy.Name
• Child Object Filter Support: You can now define criteria on child objects even when you configure the approval flow at the parent level.
• Auto-Reapproval Improvements: You can now compare current and previous values for fields on both the current record and related child records while configuring auto-reapproval conditions.

Approval Criteria Using Product Attributes

You can now use product attributes in approval criteria for line items, and combine product attributes with line item fields in the same criteria. This enhancement is available when Line Item is selected as the business object, and applies to Approval Rule Criteria, Reapproval Criteria, Entry Criteria, and Search Filters. To configure criteria using product attributes, select Attribute as the field and use the Add Formula button to choose the required product attribute. When you edit an existing criterion, the system automatically pre-fills the selected attribute and its values. The following data types are supported: string, number, lookup, picklist, boolean, and date.

Approval Center Improvements

• Action Button Visibility: The Approve and Reject action buttons now appear exclusively in the Pending tab. In the All tab, these buttons are no longer visible for Approved and Rejected records. This ensures you see only the actions relevant to each record's current status, and applies to all object types.
• Select All Records in the All Tab The All tab now includes a functioning Select All checkbox that selects all records on the current page. You can now select Approved and Rejected records that were previously greyed out and unavailable. Bulk actions and bulk downloads are supported across the following object types:
  • Product Configuration
  • Contract
  • Requests
  • Line Items

Backup and Delegate Approvers

Administrators can now configure backup and delegate approvers to ensure approval tasks continue without interruption during planned absences or coverage gaps. This feature supports:

• Assigning a backup approver to take full ownership of approval tasks
• Configuring one or more delegate approvers to act on behalf of the original approver
• Controls for handling both pending and new approvals during the coverage period
• Notification preference management
• Mutually exclusive settings for Backup, Delegate, and Transfer In Flight scenarios

For more information, see Backup Delegate Approver.

Formatted Text Support in LongString Fields

The Approvals application now renders formatted paragraph content in LongString fields. Formatted content displays correctly on the My Approvals, Preview, and other Approvals pages.

Example:

A LongString field configured with the following content: <p><b>Please review the attached documents before proceeding.</b></p>

Displays as: Please review the attached documents before proceeding.

Approvals API Support for External IDs and Custom Objects

Conga Approvals API Services now support external IDs and custom objects across key approval workflows. The following APIs support operations using external IDs and custom objects:

• Submit Async: api/approvals/v1/requests/submit-async
• Bulk Actions: api/approvals/v1/requests/bulk/{actionType}
• Activities: api/approvals/v1/activities/{objectType}/{objectId}
• Get Child Object Approval Status: api/approvals/v1/requests/{objectType}/{objectId}/child/{childObjectType}

You can submit, approve, reject, and recall approval requests by referencing external IDs or custom object identifiers.