For a user to act as an approver on any record within a Salesforce approval process, they must have the fundamental ability to view the record being submitted. This is governed by Salesforce's security model, which requires the user to have at least "Read" permission on the object in question—in this case, the "Timecard" object. Without this permission, the user cannot access the record's details to make an informed decision, and the system will prevent them from being a valid approver.

A. The approver must be in the same role hierarchy as the submitter

This is incorrect. Approval assignments can be routed to specific users, queues, or related user fields (like a manager), but there is no universal requirement for the approver to be in the submitter's role hierarchy.

C. The approver must be set up as a Delegated Approver for the submitter

This is incorrect. A Delegated Approver is a user designated to approve requests on behalf of another user who is unavailable. It is a substitution feature, not a prerequisite for being an approver.

1. Salesforce Help Documentation: In the guidelines for setting up approval processes, Salesforce explicitly states the permission requirement.

Source: Salesforce Help, "Considerations for Approval Processes"

Reference: Under the "Before You Begin" section, it is noted that "An approver must have read permission for the object they are approving." This is a platform-level requirement that applies to all objects, including Certinia's custom objects like Timecard.

2. Certinia PSA Documentation: Certinia's security model for approvers, such as Project Managers, relies on standard Salesforce permission sets which grant the necessary object permissions.

Source: Certinia PSA Administrator Guide

Reference: The permission set definitions for roles that typically approve timecards (e.g., "PSA - Project Manager" or "PSA - Resource Manager") include Read, Create, and Edit permissions on the Timecard object. This confirms that the necessary permissions are a core part of the configuration for an approver role within the Certinia PSA context.