Definition
Approvals in Chatter is a Chatter capability that brings social collaboration into the Salesforce workflow. It allows teams to communicate, share files, and discuss records in context, reducing the need for external communication tools.
Real-World Example
At their company, the Salesforce admin at FreshStart Inc. leverages Approvals in Chatter to automate a multi-step process that previously required three different people to complete manually. Approvals in Chatter now handles the entire sequence in seconds, sending notifications at each step and logging every action for audit purposes.
Why Approvals in Chatter Matters
Approvals in Chatter bridges the gap between Salesforce's formal approval process engine and the social collaboration layer of Chatter. Before this feature existed, approvers had to navigate to a specific record or dig through email notifications to act on pending requests, creating bottlenecks and delays. By surfacing approval requests directly in the Chatter feed, approvers can review, approve, or reject requests from the same interface where they already consume updates. This removes friction from the approval workflow and dramatically reduces response times, especially for time-sensitive items like discount approvals or expense authorizations.
As organizations scale their use of approval processes across departments — from sales discounts to procurement requests to HR onboarding — the volume of pending approvals can overwhelm traditional notification methods. Managers who receive dozens of approval emails per day often let them pile up, creating cascading delays. With Approvals in Chatter, these requests appear alongside regular feed updates, making them harder to overlook. Organizations that fail to leverage Chatter for approvals often see approval cycle times stretch from hours to days, directly impacting deal velocity and operational efficiency. Combining Chatter approvals with the Salesforce mobile app allows managers to clear their approval queue from anywhere.
How Organizations Use Approvals in Chatter
- Velocity Sales Group — Velocity Sales Group routes all discount approvals above 15% through a multi-step approval process. When a rep requests a 22% discount on a $180,000 deal, the approval post appears instantly in the VP of Sales' Chatter feed with deal details, margin impact, and competitive context. The VP approves it from her phone during a layover, and the rep sends the revised quote within the hour instead of waiting two days.
- Cascade Procurement Services — Cascade uses Approvals in Chatter for their purchase order workflow. When a department head submits a PO over $5,000, the approval request appears in the finance team's Chatter group with line items, budget codes, and remaining budget. The CFO can ask clarifying questions directly in the Chatter thread before approving, creating an auditable conversation trail alongside the formal approval record.
- Summit HR Solutions — Summit HR processes 200 employee onboarding requests per month across 8 offices. New hire equipment requests trigger approval posts in the IT Director's Chatter feed, complete with role-specific equipment bundles and costs. The IT Director batch-reviews approvals each morning in the feed, approving standard bundles with a single tap and flagging non-standard requests for discussion — cutting their average approval time from 3 days to 4 hours.