Manage Approvals on Forms

Youreka does a great job of allowing users to collect data while in the field. But one question that we often answer for customers is "how do I manage approvals for forms that are filled out in the field?". In many cases, filling out a form is only one of the first steps to a business process. After a form is completed, it might need to be signed off on by management, reviewed by executive leadership, or otherwise.

In this tutorial, we're going to show you a few examples of how Salesforce can be configured to manage approvals for Youreka's forms. As you read through them, one thing to keep in mind is that technically speaking, most of these examples aren't mutually exclusive. You could implement many of them at once if your organization required it.

Example 1: Use Salesforce Approval Processes to Handle Form Approvals

Salesforce approval processes are great for managing sign-off on specific records in the system. As we think about implementing Youreka, it's important to remember that Youreka's Forms are records just like any other record in the system. This means they can have approval processes configured for them.

By visiting Setup -> Approval Processes, you can create an approval process on the Form object. Be sure to establish your entry criteria, configure email templates, define who can submit the form for approval, and then define which fields on the Form might be updated after the form is submitted for approval. Here some additional things to think about:

1. Consider creating a picklist field on the Form object called Approval Status. You can use this field to manage where in the process the form records currently sit as it pertains to approvals.
2. Consider creating a checkbox field on the Form object called Approved. You can use this field to represent when a form has officially been approved, and have the approval process automatically set it.
3. Consider creating a workflow rule or Process Builder on the Form object to automatically trigger the approval process.

After a Form record has entered the approval process, the approver will have the ability to visit the record in Salesforce and determine if the Form is approved.

Example 2: Have Approvers Sign The Actual Form in Salesforce

Sometimes we speak to customers who want approvers to actually sign the same form that was submitted to them. In order to accomplish this, you might consider doing the following:

• Create a checkbox field on the Form object called Approved (if you haven't already)
• Make this field visible to none of the profiles in Salesforce
• Create a permission set called Form Approvals, and provide access to the Approved checkbox in the object settings of the permission set

• Assign this permission set to any users who will be approving forms.
• Visit Youreka's Form Template Builder by editing any Form Template in the system (or create a new template).
• At the end of your Form Template, drag a question onto the canvas and call it Approved?
• Select Field Link for the question type, and then choose self for the Field Link Lookup. Select Approved as the field you want to link to. (This is an example of self field linking, which can be really nifty in certain situations. We wrote a whole article about it here)

• Create two more questions on the Form Template - one E-Signature question called Approver Signature and one called Approver Name. Make these questions conditionally visible, based on the Approved checkbox. This will ensure that the original form submitter won't see these questions at all (and they won't see the Approved checkbox because they won't have the Form Approval permission set that we created earlier).

Now, when approvers visit a Form record, they can edit the Form, approve it, and sign off.

Example 3: Use Salesforce Screen Flows to Review Forms

If you've chosen to configure a Lightning Page for the Form record, it's feasible for you to create a screen flow to capture important information from an approver about the form.

Not only could the screen flow drive important automation regarding the approval process itself, but it could even be used to score certain variables on the actual form itself. These scores could be recorded on the Form record, and used for reporting.

Example 4: Send Forms for Approval to Youreka Mobile Users

In some cases, forms need to be approved by someone who is in the field using the Youreka mobile app. In these situations, you could consider using a Salesforce Approval process to manage this. For one of the approval steps consider re-assigning the Form record to the approver, or creating a Mobile Form Share - both of which would make the form visible to the approver on the Youreka mobile app. Using some of the other strategies above (controlling visibility of questions on the form, Salesforce approval processes, etc.), fully automated processes can be managed where users are alerted that they need to approve a form, the form is made available on the mobile device, and the approver can easily sign off on questions that are dedicated specifically to them.