How Approval Workflows Work
An approval workflow is an Automation that gates an event by holding it as a Pending Action until a reviewer approves the Work Item behind it. The change waits, and the event does not go through, until someone approves the Work Item. That approval is what lets the Automation complete.
How gating works
When an Automation needs a human decision before an event goes through, it holds the change as a Pending Action and creates a Work Item for a person to approve. The Work Item can be routed to a group or user in the Work Queue, the inbox where Work Items wait to be triaged. Until the Work Item is approved, the gated event stays held.
Approving releases the change
Approving the Work Item lets the Automation complete, which releases the held change. Approval is the step that makes the workflow finish: the Pending Action clears and the gated event proceeds. No Flow or Stages are required for an approval Work Item; a Work Item can run with or without a Flow.
Example: holding a lease publish for approval
A common use is holding a lease publish for approval. A lease is published when it is correct, and the published version is the lease in force, so teams often want a second set of eyes before publishing. With an approval workflow, the publish waits as a Pending Action until a reviewer approves the Work Item, and only then does the publish go through. You can see where publishing fits in Create a lease or Upload your first leases.
While a publish is held for approval, the lease stays a draft. A draft has no effect on critical dates, payments, or accounting until it is published.
Where you configure approval workflows
Approval workflows are set up as Automations, and Automations are configured in Setup by a setup administrator. Run History shows what each Automation did, including the steps it took on its runs.