Process Visualizer
Process Visualizer was a read-only Salesforce tool that rendered a classic approval process as a flowchart: each step, its entry criteria, the assigned approver, and the approve and reject branches.
Definition
Process Visualizer was a read-only Salesforce tool that rendered a classic approval process as a flowchart: each step, its entry criteria, the assigned approver, and the approve and reject branches. It was retired in the Summer '19 release, June 2019, because it ran on Adobe Flash Player. Adobe ended Flash support at the end of 2020.
Nothing replaced the chart. Approval processes were untouched by the retirement and still run as configured, so the only loss was the picture. You read the same logic today on the Approval Processes pages in Setup.
In plain English
“Salesforce used to have a button that drew your approval steps as a picture, like a map of who signs off on what. The picture was built with Adobe Flash, and when Flash was switched off, the button went away. The approvals themselves still work fine.”
Worked example
A 400-person distributor runs a Discount Approval process on Opportunity that has been live since 2016. Entry criteria: Discount_Percent__c greater than 15. Step one routes to the submitter's manager; step two adds a VP Finance queue when Amount exceeds 250,000. In 2018 the admin documented it by pasting the visualizer chart into a wiki. In 2026 a new admin finds no diagram anywhere, so she rebuilds it by hand from Setup, the process detail page, and each step's criteria and approver. Same information, more clicks, no chart for the auditor.
Reading and rebuilding approvals without the chart
Reading a classic approval process today
Salesforce Help now calls these classic approval processes, separating them from the newer flow-based kind. From Setup, enter Approval in Quick Find, select Approval Processes, then choose the object. The detail page lists entry criteria, each step's approver assignment, and the submission, approval, and rejection actions. It reads as a table, so a six-step process with branching takes real effort to follow.
Generate your own diagram from metadata
The ApprovalProcess Metadata API type exposes the whole configuration. That covers allowed submitters, entry criteria, up to 30 steps with assignees and delegation rules, and the final approval and rejection actions. Retrieve it and a script can turn it into a diagram, and unlike the Flash chart, that output lives in version control.
The newer approval surface is already visual
Flow approval processes, built on Orchestrator, model approvals as stages and steps on the Flow Builder canvas. The canvas is the diagram, so there is nothing separate to retire. Classic approval processes remain supported and are not on the active retirement list, so nobody is forcing a migration. But new approval work that needs a readable visual belongs there.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Process Visualizer.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Process Visualizer.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He writes and edits salesforcedictionary.com, published by KineticBit Inc., to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
+5 pts / dayQ1. Why did Salesforce retire Process Visualizer?
Q2. An org still runs approval processes built in 2015. What happened to them when Process Visualizer was retired?
Q3. You need a diagram of a twelve-step classic approval process for an audit. What actually works in a current org?
Discussion
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