An Escalation is a scheduled, automatic change in assignee dependent upon date/time-based events.

To view or configure an Escalation, open the Process Designer for the appropriate Process. Open the desired Step Settings (1) and expand the "Escalations" (2) section.

To configure an Escalation, click on the "add" link (3) to open the Create New Step Escalation popup (4).

Step can be escalated to (5):

• User, Group, Chatter Group, Role, Queue, Profile - Native Salesforce objects that represent a single Salesforce user or multiple Salesforce users.
• Fields - A field on the Data Source Object that represent any assignable object (user, group, etc.).
• Variable - A variable defined in the Process, which must contain an ID of any assignable object (user, group, etc.) or, for multiple assignees, a comma-separated list of IDs.
• System - The step will be proceeded automatically by the System.

Escalation can be scheduled for a period of time relative to a specified date/time (event). The Period (6) must be a numeric expression that should return a number of units (7). The Period Type (8) picklist whether the period should be set before or after event.

The Event is a date/time value. Select the desired Event Value Type (9):

•   Process - The Event Value (10) will be related to the current Process Instance.

• Field - The Event Value must be selected from the Process's Data Source Object fields. Click the ">>" button to display the field selector (11). Select the desired field and click the "Apply" button.

• Formula - The Event Value must be returned as a result of a formula expression. Click the ">>" button to display the formula editor (12). Compose the desired formula and click the "Apply" button.

Check the "Consider Business Hours" checkbox (13) to exclude non-working hours, weekends and holidays (if set in the Salesforce organization) from date/time calculations.

If desired, check the Override Standard Chatter Message checkbox (14) and populate the Message field (15):

Save the configured Escalation. All Escalations will be displayed in the step properties. Escalations can be deleted (16), added to library (17) for reuse, or edited by clicking on the desired row (18).