Yes — Salesforce supports Email Approval Response, letting approvers act on requests by replying to the notification email with approve or reject (plus an optional comment). Critical for managers who live in their inbox and don’t want to log into Salesforce for every approval.
How to enable it
- Setup → Process Automation Settings
- Check Enable Email Approval Response
- Save
Once enabled, every approval email sent through an approval process or @request_approval template includes instructions for replying with approve or reject.
How approvers use it
The approval email arrives in the manager’s inbox with a footer like:
To approve or reject this request, reply to this email with the word approve or reject in the first line.
The manager just hits Reply, types approve or reject on the first line, optionally adds a comment on the second line, and sends. Salesforce parses the reply and processes the approval.
What the system parses
| First line of reply | Action |
|---|---|
approve, approved, yes | Approve |
reject, rejected, no | Reject |
| Any other content | Email is ignored, no action |
Comments go in the second line and become the approval comment in Salesforce’s audit trail.
Limitations to know
- Approver must reply from the email address on their User record. A reply from a different address is ignored.
- The reply must come back to the org’s standard reply-to address — usually
[email protected]or whatever’s configured. - Subject line must not be modified — Salesforce uses it to match the reply to the work item.
- Mobile email clients sometimes add quoted-reply headers above the user’s text, which can confuse the parser. Salesforce handles common cases but very heavily-formatted replies can fail.
Why this matters operationally
- Approver experience: Reduces cycle time. Managers don’t need to log in for routine approvals.
- Mobile: works on any email client, no Salesforce app needed.
- Audit: the approval record still captures who, when, and the comment — same as if approved through the UI.
Alternative: Salesforce Approval mobile app / Lightning notifications
Modern Salesforce orgs also use:
- Salesforce mobile app push notifications with approve/reject buttons
- Approval components in Lightning Experience with one-click approve from the home page
- Slack integration that surfaces approvals in Slack with action buttons
Email response is the oldest but most universally available channel.
What interviewers want
- A confident “yes” with the feature name Email Approval Response
- The setting location: Setup → Process Automation Settings
- That the reply must come from the approver’s registered email address
Verified against: Salesforce Help — Enable Email Approval Response. Last reviewed 2026-05-17 for Spring ‘26 release.