Apart from Assigned approver and delegated approver who else can approve the approval request? | CRM Curator

Beyond the assigned approver and the delegated approver, System Administrators (and anyone with Modify All Data permission) can approve or reject any pending approval request in the org. This is the platform-level escape hatch when assigned approvers are unavailable.

Who else can approve

User type	Can approve?	How
Assigned approver	Yes	Through their queue or email
Delegated approver of the assigned approver	Yes	Through their queue or email
System Administrator	Yes	Setup → Approval Processes → drill into the work item; or Apex
User with Modify All Data	Yes	Same as admin
User the approver Reassigned to	Yes	After reassignment
Anyone else	No	—

How an admin approves on someone’s behalf

Setup → All Approvals (or All Approvals on the record)
Find the pending work item
Click the Approve or Reject button on it

The admin can approve or reject from the Approval History related list on the record, even though it normally only shows the action buttons to the assigned approver. The admin override is automatic if they have Modify All Data.

In Apex

List<ProcessInstanceWorkitem> items = [
    SELECT Id, ActorId
    FROM ProcessInstanceWorkitem
    WHERE ProcessInstance.TargetObjectId = :recordId
];
Approval.ProcessWorkitemRequest req = new Approval.ProcessWorkitemRequest();
req.setComments('Approved on behalf of unavailable approver');
req.setAction('Approve');
req.setWorkitemId(items[0].Id);
Approval.process(req);

Running as an admin user or with without sharing Apex, this works for any pending work item.

Audit trail

When an admin approves on behalf, the ProcessInstanceStep record captures:

ActorId — the user who actually clicked Approve (the admin)
OriginalActorId — the user the step was assigned to

Auditors care about this distinction — make sure your compliance reviewers know to look at both fields.

Use cases for admin override

Approver on long-term leave with no delegate set up
Approver left the company and their account was deactivated mid-approval
System glitch — an approval routed to the wrong person and needs manual unstucking
Compliance review — auditor needs to force-clear a queue

What interviewers want

System Administrators / Modify All Data as the answer
The path: Setup → All Approvals or via Apex
That the audit trail captures both the actor and the original actor

Verified against: Salesforce Help — Approval History. Last reviewed 2026-05-17 for Spring ‘26 release.