An approval process in Salesforce CRM is an automated mechanism that you can set up to automate and control the approval of records within your organization.

Approval processes contain a structured set of steps that are used to facilitate the review and action of records that match a specified criterion where approval is required. The approval process also allows for the specifying of which users are to approve the record at each step.

Each step of an approval process can apply to either all records within the process or specified records that have certain field values.

The building of approval processes involves the setting of what actions are to be taken after the record is either first submitted, approved, rejected, or recalled from the approval process. The setup of an approval process also allows for the selective locking of the record during the process.

Approval processes provide you and your organization with a powerful mechanism to control internal processes that must be completed as part of an organization business process requirement. For example, setting up line manager approval for leave of absence, ensuring that financial managers agree with budgets and planned expenditure, sanctioning marketing campaigns, or authorizing that large sales deals are acceptable to proceed.