Record locking in Flow Approval processes
Key Takeaway
Use the "Lock the record" setting for consecutive approval steps. For concurrent approval steps, deselect that setting and manage locking with background steps at the Flow Approval process level or the stage level.
Record locking controls who can change a record while its approval submission is still in progress in a Flow Approval process. It prevents changes while the record is under review, so the record stays steady and approvers judge exactly what was submitted. How you set it up depends on whether the approval steps in a stage run one after another (consecutively) or at the same time (concurrently).
Consecutive and concurrent approval steps
A record can have only 1 lock at a time. Trying to lock a locked record again fails with the UNABLE_TO_LOCK_RECORD error. Because of this limit, the setup differs for consecutive and concurrent approval steps.
If the approval steps in a stage run consecutively...
Use the "Lock the record" setting in the "Select Where to Complete the Action" section of the Approval Step properties panel.
If the process is a series of stages that each contain only one approval step...
Use the same Lock the record setting.
If the approval steps run concurrently...
You can't use the Lock the record setting, so deselect it. Manage locking at the Flow Approval process level or the stage level with background steps.