Manager Escalation Chains

this guide shows you how to build approval workflows that automatically escalate through your management hierarchy based on deal value, discount levels, or other criteria what is manager escalation? manager escalation chains route approvals up the organizational hierarchy sales rep submits quote │ ▼ sales manager ─────► (if >$50k) │ ▼ sales director ────► (if >$100k) │ ▼ vp sales ───────► (if >$250k) │ ▼ cro ──────────► (if >$500k) each level has progressively higher approval authority business scenarios covered scenario description dynamic manager lookup automatically find approver based on owner's manager multi level escalation chain through multiple management levels skip level for large deals jump directly to executives for very large deals out of office handling automatic delegation when managers are unavailable timeout escalation escalate if approval not received within timeframe scenario 1 basic manager approval requirement all deals require the quote owner's direct manager to approve configuration create user lookup approver setting value approver name direct manager type user lookup lookup path owner managerid this dynamically finds the quote owner's manager from the user record how it works quote owned by sarah (sales rep) sarah's manager is mike (sales manager) quote submitted → approval routes to mike if sarah changes, or mike changes, next submission routes correctly \[screenshot user lookup approver configuration] scenario 2 multi level manager chain requirement $25k $50k → manager $50k $100k → manager + director $100k $250k → manager + director + vp $250k → manager + director + vp + cro configuration approach create four steps with dependencies in a single path step 1 manager approval setting value approval step name manager approval approver type user lookup lookup path owner managerid entry criteria amount >= 25000 step 2 director approval setting value approval step name director approval approver type user lookup lookup path owner manager managerid depends on manager approval entry criteria amount >= 50000 step 3 vp approval setting value approval step name vp approval approver type user lookup lookup path owner manager manager managerid depends on director approval entry criteria amount >= 100000 step 4 cro approval setting value approval step name cro approval approver type user user \[select cro] depends on vp approval entry criteria amount >= 250000 important enable "skip if not applicable" on each step flow example $150k deal $150k deal submitted │ ▼ step 1 manager ───────► amount >= $25k ✓ → approval required │ ▼ (approved) step 2 director ──────► amount >= $50k ✓ → approval required │ ▼ (approved) step 3 vp ────────────► amount >= $100k ✓ → approval required │ ▼ (approved) step 4 cro ───────────► amount >= $250k ✗ → skipped │ ▼ deal approved \[screenshot multi level escalation path with dependencies] scenario 3 skip level approvals requirement very large deals (>$500k) go directly to cro, skipping intermediate levels configuration approach create two separate paths standard escalation path (for deals <$500k) executive fast track path (for deals ≥$500k) path a standard escalation entry criteria amount < 500000 contains steps for manager → director → vp (as in scenario 2) path b executive fast track entry criteria amount >= 500000 setting value approval step name cro direct approval approver type user user \[select cro] result $300k deal → goes through manager, director, vp $750k deal → goes directly to cro scenario 4 dynamic approval based on amount requirement create a formula that determines the highest required approval level, then route directly to that person using formula fields 1\ create formula field on quote field highest approver c (text/formula) case( true, amount >= 500000, owner manager manager manager manager id, amount >= 250000, owner manager manager manager id, amount >= 100000, owner manager manager id, amount >= 50000, owner manager id, owner id ) 2\ create single approver lookup setting value approver name dynamic highest approver type user lookup lookup path highest approver c result single approval step that routes to the appropriate level based on deal size scenario 5 delegation for out of office requirement when a manager is on vacation, their approvals should go to their designated delegate built in delegation approvals pro handles this automatically manager opens home page component clicks my delegations configures delegate and date range \[screenshot my delegations dialog] nightly batch processing the nightly batch job ( reminderscheduler ) checks for active delegations reassigns approvals to delegates reassigns back when delegation period ends delegation settings users can configure setting description delegate user who receives delegated approvals start date when delegation begins end date when delegation ends auto delegation always delegate, or only during specified dates scenario 6 approval timeout & auto escalation requirement if a manager doesn't approve within 48 hours, escalate to their manager using salesforce flow create a scheduled flow trigger every 24 hours query find approval records where status = 'assigned' createddate < now() 2 days action call approvals pro reassign invocable action flow logic query stale approvals (>48 hours old) │ ▼ for each approval ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ get current approver user │ │ get approver's manager │ │ call reassign approval │ │ new approver = manager │ │ message = "auto escalated │ │ due to timeout" │ └─────────────────────────────┘ handling missing managers the problem if a user's manager field is blank, lookup based approvers will fail solutions option 1 fallback approver create a formula that handles null managers if(isblank(owner managerid), '\[default approver id]', owner managerid) option 2 conflict email configure a conflict approver email template on the approval process to notify administrators when approver lookup fails option 3 validation rule create a validation rule preventing quote submission when owner lacks a manager isblank(owner managerid) && amount > 25000 lookup path reference common lookup paths for manager chains lookup path returns owner managerid owner's direct manager owner manager managerid owner's manager's manager owner manager manager managerid three levels up createdby managerid record creator's manager account ownerid account owner account owner managerid account owner's manager best practices do's use user lookups for flexibility handles org changes automatically enable skip if not applicable prevents process blockage configure conflict approver email catch lookup failures test with different org levels verify chain works for all scenarios don'ts don't hardcode users unless they're truly static (like cro) don't create too many levels 4 5 levels maximum is typical don't skip delegation setup training teach users to set ooo delegates troubleshooting issue cause solution approval not routing manager field is blank add fallback or validation rule wrong manager lookup path incorrect verify path like owner managerid steps not sequential missing "depends on" set dependency on each step all steps triggered at once criteria overlap check entry criteria for each step delegation not working nightly batch not scheduled schedule reminderscheduler job related guides discount approvals docid\ uu08kacohc10hl9a1zr4n combine with discount thresholds deal desk routing docid\ uwih3wye4e4ez7cbjvcy4 team based routing approver guide docid\ jnjfdruc4khmeak0uvqva using delegation need help? check our troubleshooting guide docid\ sgpxdyp dpg9a9uanwlis or faq docid\ relcvm0ggisy7rghm2jml