Task-Based Workflow (before winter release 2007)
Posted on December 14, 2006
You don’t have to wait for the Winter 2007 release of Salesforce.com to take advantage of approval processes. That’s right - you can do it now using the existing functionality. All you need is a custom field on the activity object and you can make workflow rules to accomplish virtually any approval process. Here’s how:
Enter setup (you must be an admin) and navigate to “App Setup” > “Customize” > “Activities” > “Custom Fields”:
Now, create a custom field here titled “Workflow_ID” as a text field with length of 50. This field will record the be used to trigger your workflows. The system will ask if you want this field shown or editable by anyone. I suggest that it’s visible to admin but not editable by anyone else. Personally, I haven’t found reason to include it in a layout.
With this custom field, you can now create workflow chains. Where you once had three check-boxes that held the different levels of completion for approvals on a record, you can have the one task workflow handle this. Let’s take Opportunity close as an example.
At one client, an Opportunity must be approved by legal before going to finance. A task is created as a template for the legal review. On this task, since you’re admin, populate the Workflow_ID field with “OPPTY_APPROVAL_STEP_1″.
Now, create a workflow rule assigning this task to the finance guy when the Opportunity closes. Great, now you’ve got a legal approval - finance needs to know when it’s complete.
Next step, create a new workflow based off the “Task” object with criteria related to the Workflow_ID field. Use the following criteria:
Workflow_ID , equals , OPPTY_APPROVAL_STEP_1
Status , equals , Completed
Now, when that task is closed, this rule can be triggered. Follow the steps above with a different Workflow_ID key and you have task-based workflow.
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Tasks created under Setup->Customize->”Workflow and Approvals”->Tasks don’t seem to have the custom field WORKFLOW_ID you talked about available - i.e when I define a new task, the custom field is not visible.