Patent ID: 8548940

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a request to initiate an approval process on a data object; executing the approval process on the data object including locking the data object to prevent modifications to the data object during the execution of the approval process on the data object; receiving a request from a tenant of a multi-tenant on-demand database service to recall execution of the approval process being performed on the data object, wherein the request is received during the execution of the approval process for interrupting the approval process being performed on the data object; in response to the request to recall the execution of the approval process, automatically executing at least one recall action to temporarily suspend the execution of the approval process, wherein the execution of the recall action includes unlocking the data object such that even after the approval process on the data object has been initiated, the recall action allows operations on the data object to be performed by the tenant prior to an approval decision associated with the approval process being made, and wherein the execution of the recall action further includes automatically updating data of the data object with predefined data; receiving a modification to the data object after the unlocking of the data object; and re-initiating the approval process after receiving the modification to the data object.