Approval Process: Approver Not a User in Salesforce

[Mr. W]

Can Approval Processes be written so that a person, who is not an active user in salesforce, still recieve Approval Requets through email and approve or reject them triggering the next step?

How?

Thanks! 

[abhi_the1 · Accepted solution]

NO says my experience. Though you can send emails through workflow to some email address, but if they click on the approve/reject link they will not be able to approve it.

To support my statement, the doc - https://help.salesforce.com/htviewhelpdoc?id=approvals_checklist.htm&siteLang=en_US, says:

Who can approve requests?Requests can be approved or rejected by any of the following:

• A user or queue that the approval request submitter chooses.
• A queue specified by the administrator.
• A user listed in the Manager standard field on the submitter's user detail page.
• A user listed in a custom hierarchy field on the submitter's user detail page.
• Any combination of users and related users (users listed in a standard or custom field on the submitted record) specified by the administrator.

Let me know if this helps.

[Mr. W]

Thanks for the response.

What is a queue and how does it work in approvals?

Also what about portal users?  Would there be a way to grant them access through a portal. They would update a field through an email sent to them and then have a workflow based on that field that automatically approves?

Thanks!

[abhi_the1]

Can you please go through the link which I posted. Also go through "See Also:" section in the bottom.