Process Visualizer
Process Visualizer is the read-only Salesforce tool that displays an Approval Process as a flowchart, showing each step, the entry criteria, the assigned approver, the actions on approval and rejection, and the routing path from start to final outcome.
Definition
Process Visualizer is the read-only Salesforce tool that displays an Approval Process as a flowchart, showing each step, the entry criteria, the assigned approver, the actions on approval and rejection, and the routing path from start to final outcome. It exists alongside the Approval Process setup screen and renders the configured approval logic in a way humans can read at a glance, which is useful for documentation, audit walkthroughs, and onboarding new admins to an inherited org.
Process Visualizer reads existing approval processes; it does not author or edit them. The flowchart it produces is a snapshot of the configuration at the time the visualizer opens. Salesforce shipped Process Visualizer before Flow Builder absorbed most declarative automation work, so the tool today is most useful for legacy approval processes that have not been converted to flows and for documenting complex multi-step approval chains that survived multiple org migrations.
Why Process Visualizer still matters for inherited Salesforce orgs
Approval Process recap
An Approval Process in Salesforce defines a multi-step workflow for getting a record approved (a discount, a contract change, a time-off request). Each step has entry criteria, an assigned approver (a specific user, a role, a queue, or a related-record owner), and field updates that fire on approve or reject. Approval Processes were the standard tool for record approvals before Flow Builder added approval primitives. Many production orgs still run hundreds of approval processes built years ago, often with no documentation beyond the live configuration.
What the visualizer renders
Process Visualizer draws each approval step as a labeled node, the entry criteria as the edge condition, the approver assignment as a tag on the node, and the approve and reject branches as outbound arrows. Final actions (Record Locked, Field Update fires, Outbound Message sent) appear as terminal nodes. The whole diagram fits on one screen for short processes and scrolls for longer ones. The format is roughly Visio-style but auto-generated; it does not require any external diagram tool.
Reading complex multi-step processes
For an approval process with five or more sequential steps, branching on amount, region, and product family, the live configuration screen requires clicking through each step to understand the routing. The visualizer collapses that into one diagram. An auditor walking through the configuration sees in seconds what would take twenty clicks otherwise. Implementation teams reviewing an inherited org use the visualizer to extract the as-built state into a written narrative the team can discuss.
Limits of the visualizer
Process Visualizer renders the approval process structure but not the data flow. It does not show what field values trigger the entry criteria, what field updates do in detail, what users actually fall into each role assignment, or how the approval interacts with workflow rules and triggers running on the same record. For end-to-end automation analysis, the visualizer is one input among several; the field update logic, the trigger code, and the flow definitions need separate review.
Print and export
The visualizer supports a Print View that renders the flowchart on a single page suitable for export to PDF or saving as an image. This is what most admins use to produce documentation artifacts for compliance audits, project hand-offs, and steering committee reviews. The print view is the only way to extract the diagram; there is no API endpoint that returns the rendered chart programmatically.
Approval Process vs Flow Builder
Modern Salesforce development uses Flow Builder to model approval-like workflows because flows offer more flexibility (sub-flows, conditional sub-routing, custom UI, post-approval action chains beyond record locking). Approval Processes are still supported and still actively maintained by Salesforce, but new automation almost always uses flows. Process Visualizer is therefore most relevant to teams maintaining legacy approval processes that the org cannot easily convert because of downstream integration dependencies.
Visualizer and the move to Flow
Customers migrating an old Approval Process to Flow Builder typically start by opening Process Visualizer for the legacy process and treating the diagram as the migration spec. The flow design mirrors the visualizer nodes one-to-one in the first pass, then gets refactored to use Flow Builder's richer primitives. The visualizer is therefore the bridge artifact: it preserves the as-built knowledge from the legacy world while the new flow implementation is built and tested in parallel.
Open Process Visualizer on a Salesforce approval process
View an existing Approval Process as a flowchart, then print or export the diagram for documentation, audit, or migration planning.
- Open Approval Processes
Setup, Process Automation, Approval Processes. The list shows every active and inactive approval process in the org grouped by Object.
- Pick the process
Click the process name. The detail page opens with the step list, the assigned approvers, and the entry criteria.
- Click View Diagram
On the detail page header, click View Diagram. The visualizer opens in a new tab with the auto-generated flowchart.
- Trace the flow
Start at the entry criteria node. Follow approve and reject arrows through each step. Confirm the routing matches what you understood from the live configuration.
- Print or screenshot
Click Print View. The diagram renders in a single-page layout. Print to PDF or take a screenshot for documentation.
- Document discrepancies
If the diagram reveals routing the team did not expect, file the gap as a follow-up task. The visualizer is read-only; changes happen in the Approval Process editor.
Opens the auto-generated flowchart for the selected approval process.
Renders the diagram in a single-page layout suitable for export.
Click any node to jump to that step's detail in the Approval Process editor.
The visualizer cannot edit the process. Use the standard Approval Process editor to make changes.
- Process Visualizer only renders the approval process. It does not show interactions with workflow rules, triggers, or flows running on the same record.
- The diagram is a snapshot at view time. If someone edits the process while you are looking, the change is not reflected until you reload the visualizer.
- Approval Processes are increasingly considered legacy; new approvals should be modeled in Flow Builder. The visualizer does not exist for flows.
- Print View is the only export path. There is no API or Tooling endpoint that returns the rendered flowchart programmatically.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Process VisualizerSalesforce Help
- Approvals OverviewSalesforce Help
- Salesforce Process AutomationSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Process Visualizer.
- Process Visualizer DocumentationSalesforce Help
- Approval Process StepsSalesforce Help
- Flow Builder OverviewSalesforce Help
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 runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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