Deal Desk & Complex Deal Routing

this guide shows you how to configure approval workflows that route complex deals through specialized review teams like deal desk, legal, and finance what is deal desk routing? deal desk is a specialized team that reviews complex deals before final approval deals are typically routed to deal desk based on deal size (e g , >$100k) non standard terms or pricing strategic accounts multi year contracts custom product configurations payment term exceptions business scenarios covered scenario description deal desk queue review route deals to a team queue where any member can approve deal desk + executive chain deal desk reviews first, then escalates to executives parallel specialist reviews legal, finance, and deal desk review simultaneously conditional routing different teams based on deal characteristics scenario 1 basic deal desk queue requirement deals over $100k go to deal desk team any deal desk member can approve prerequisites create a salesforce public group called deal desk team containing all deal desk members configuration 1\ create approval process setting value approval process name deal desk review process available objects quote final action status field approval status c 2\ create approval path setting value approval path name deal desk review 3\ create approval step setting value approval step name deal desk approval approval reason deal exceeds $100k threshold resolve on first approval/reject 4\ add group approver setting value approver name deal desk team type group group name deal desk team note use the group's developername (api name), not the display label 5\ entry criteria field value type clause value amount operator greater than value 100000 result any group member sees the approval in their pending list first person to approve/reject determines outcome all group members can view approval status scenario 2 deal desk → executive escalation requirement all deals >$100k go to deal desk after deal desk approval, deals >$500k also need vp approval configuration create a single path with two dependent steps step 1 deal desk review setting value approval step name deal desk review approver type group group name deal desk team entry criteria amount > 100000 step 2 vp approval setting value approval step name vp approval approver type user user \[select vp] depends on deal desk review entry criteria amount > 500000 flow deal submitted ($750k) │ ▼ ┌─────────────────────┐ │ step 1 deal desk │ ← amount > $100k ✓ │ (group approval) │ └──────────┬──────────┘ │ approved ▼ ┌─────────────────────┐ │ step 2 vp │ ← depends on step 1 │ (amount > $500k) │ amount > $500k ✓ └──────────┬──────────┘ │ approved ▼ deal approved scenario 3 parallel review teams requirement large deals need simultaneous review from deal desk (pricing review) legal (contract terms) finance (payment terms) configuration approach create three separate paths that run in parallel (no dependencies) process structure ┌──────────────────┐ │ approval process │ └────────┬─────────┘ │ ┌────────────┼────────────┐ ▼ ▼ ▼ ┌────────┐ ┌────────┐ ┌────────┐ │ path a │ │ path b │ │ path c │ │deal desk│ │ legal │ │finance │ └────────┘ └────────┘ └────────┘ │ │ │ ▼ ▼ ▼ \[approve] \[approve] \[approve] │ ▼ all paths complete │ ▼ deal approved path a deal desk review setting value approval path name deal desk review depends on (none runs immediately) step deal desk approval approver group deal desk team entry criteria amount > 100000 path b legal review setting value approval path name legal review depends on (none runs in parallel) step legal approval approver group legal team entry criteria has nonstandard terms c = true path c finance review setting value approval path name finance review depends on (none runs in parallel) step finance approval approver group finance approvers entry criteria payment terms c != 'net 30' path entry criteria each path should have entry criteria so it only activates when relevant path entry criteria deal desk amount > 100000 legal has nonstandard terms c = true finance payment terms c != 'net 30' enable "skip if not applicable" on each path so other paths continue even if one doesn't apply scenario 4 conditional team routing requirement route to different teams based on deal characteristics enterprise segment → enterprise deal desk mid market segment → regional deal desk strategic accounts → named account team using dynamic group lookup 1\ create a formula field on quote create a formula field approval group c that returns the appropriate group name case( account segment c, 'enterprise', 'enterprise deal desk', 'mid market', 'regional deal desk', 'strategic', 'named account team', 'default approvers' ) 2\ create group lookup approver setting value approver name dynamic deal desk type group lookup group lookup field approval group c result the approval is automatically routed to the correct team based on the account segment, without needing separate paths for each scenario scenario 5 deal desk with ad hoc approvers requirement deal desk reviewer can add additional approvers during their review (e g , pull in a product specialist) configuration on the approval process level enable allow ad hoc addition of approvers on the approval step level for deal desk approvers can use the "add approver" function during their review how it works deal submitted → routes to deal desk deal desk reviewer sees complex product configuration reviewer clicks "add approver" and selects product specialist product specialist receives approval request both must approve for step to complete scenario 6 deal desk edit & resubmit requirement deal desk can edit the quote and resubmit, triggering recalculation of remaining approvals configuration on the approval process enable allow to edit record by approvers enable allow to resubmit how it works quote submitted with 25% discount deal desk reviews, adjusts discount to 22% deal desk clicks "resubmit" system recalculates remaining approvals based on new values if 22% doesn't require vp approval (but 25% did), vp step is removed role based vs group based routing approach best for configuration group approver first available approval any group member can approve role approver role based authority anyone in the role can approve group + unanimous full team consensus all group members must approve unanimous approval example for scenarios where multiple deal desk members must review setting value resolve on unanimous approval all members of the group must approve for the step to complete notifications for deal desk configure email templates on the approval process, set template purpose request email template notify deal desk of new approval approved email template notify submitter of approval rejected email template notify submitter of rejection recall email template notify deal desk if approval is recalled email content best practices include in approval request emails deal value and key terms customer name and segment discount percentage link directly to the quote record one click approve/reject links reporting on deal desk activity create lookup field create a lookup from approval request to quote for reporting create lookup field quote c on approval request object create a flow to populate it when approval request is created build reports joining approval request data with quote data key metrics average deal desk cycle time approval vs rejection rate deals pending by age approvals per deal desk member best practices do's use groups for team routing provides flexibility as team membership changes enable parallel paths reduces total cycle time for multi team reviews configure good email templates help approvers make quick decisions use entry criteria per path don't activate paths that aren't needed don'ts don't create circular dependencies path a depends on b, b depends on a don't over complicate start simple, add complexity as needed don't forget "skip if not applicable" process will stop if path criteria aren't met troubleshooting issue cause solution group members don't see approval group developername incorrect verify api name in salesforce setup parallel paths not running paths have dependencies remove "depends on" for parallel execution can't add ad hoc approvers feature not enabled enable on approval process edit button not visible approver edit not enabled enable on approval process related guides manager escalation docid\ an5dh883znnipx6qywlqo building approval chains customer segment approvals docid\ mr d0rl2ctanpyo onlcb segment based routing approver guide docid\ jnjfdruc4khmeak0uvqva for deal desk team members need help? check our troubleshooting guide docid\ sgpxdyp dpg9a9uanwlis or faq docid\ relcvm0ggisy7rghm2jml