We recently had a Salesforce task that seemed pretty straightforward. The client had an approval process that had been configured and tested in Sandbox, and we needed to confirm that the approval and rejection notifications were working in Production.
It sounds like a small detail, but it’s actually an important part of making sure an approval process works the way the business expects.
When most people think about Salesforce approvals, they focus on the decision itself. A record gets submitted, someone approves or rejects it, and the appropriate status is updated.
But what happens next?
If a request is approved, does the person who submitted it know? If it’s rejected, does the right person receive a notification so they can take the next step?
If those notifications don’t work, the approval process may be technically functioning while the business process is still broken.
We’ve seen this type of issue with CRM automation before. The system successfully performs an action, but the people who depend on that action aren’t informed.
And when that happens, work can sit unnecessarily.
Someone might be waiting for an approval that was completed hours ago. Another person might not realize their request was rejected and needs to be corrected. The record in Salesforce has the right status, but nobody knows they need to do anything.
That’s why I think it’s important to test the entire process, not just the automation that changes the record.
When moving an approval process from Sandbox to Production, there are several things worth checking.
Are the approval and rejection actions configured correctly? Are the notifications going to the intended recipients? Are the email templates or other notification mechanisms available in Production? And are the users receiving the messages they need?
It’s also important to test both outcomes. Just because the approval notification works doesn’t mean the rejection notification does.
And don’t assume that something working in Sandbox guarantees it will work in Production. Different users, permissions, email settings, and configuration differences can affect the result.
A successful automation isn’t necessarily a successful business process.
The real test is whether the right action happens and the right people know about it.
This applies to more than just Salesforce approvals. The same principle holds true for lead assignments, case escalations, task notifications, and countless other CRM automations.
It’s easy to focus on the technical part of an implementation and overlook what happens afterward.
But your CRM isn’t just supposed to update records.
It’s supposed to help people get their work done.
