Entity based record access update utility

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Entity based record access update utility

    The Entity based record access update utility in the Yokohama release is a guided assistance tool designed to help ServiceNow customers efficiently enable or disable access restrictions across large volumes of records. It offers a user-friendly, step-by-step interface that supports dynamic scoping, conditional filtering, and real-time feedback, ensuring a controlled, consistent, and auditable bulk update process. This utility improves operational efficiency and strengthens governance in managing entity-based record access.

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    Key Features

    • Four-step bulk update process:
      • Scope entities: Select entities, entity classes, or types (such as individuals, departments, systems) whose related records will be affected.
      • Scope related record types: Define related record types (like risks, controls) tied to those entities, with optional conditions for precise targeting and phased application.
      • Preview record counts (optional): Review a summary of selected records and their counts before execution, allowing confirmation of impact and choice to enable or disable access restrictions.
      • View results: Monitor update status (queued, completed, failed), review counts of updated records, and access execution logs. Failed updates offer a retry option.
    • Dynamic and conditional filtering: Enables precise control over which records are updated by combining entity scope with additional filters.
    • Asynchronous execution: Updates run in a controlled, background manner to ensure system stability and manage large data volumes effectively.

    Key Outcomes

    • Enables scalable and efficient management of access restrictions on entity-based records across large datasets.
    • Promotes transparency and governance through an auditable, consistent update process with clear status tracking.
    • Reduces operational risk by allowing selective, phased updates and providing real-time feedback before applying changes.
    • Supports resolution of update failures with retry capability and detailed logging for troubleshooting.

    The entity based record access update utility is a guided assistance, designed to simplify the application of enabling or disabling access restrictions across large volumes of records.

    The guided assistance provides a user-friendly, step-by-step interface that enables authorized users to configure and execute bulk updates in a consistent and auditable manner. It supports dynamic scoping, conditional filtering, and real-time feedback, promoting a controlled and transparent update process. This utility helps scale access management efforts efficiently. It improves overall operational efficiency and strengthens governance.

    The bulk record access update process follows a four-step process, designed for clarity and control:
    1. Scope entities – In this step, you select the entities, entity classes, or entity types whose associated records are impacted by the utility. Entities can include individuals, departments, processes, systems, or applications. This step helps ensure that the update is focused on the selected entities' related records.
    2. Scope related record types – You define the selected entities' related records. Record types can include risks, controls, or any other scoped tables that support entity-based access. This granular scoping helps prevent unintended updates and help apply entity-based access restrictions in a phased manner. You can define conditions optionally to narrow the scope further. The entity scoped in the previous step acts as a primary filter, and you can add more filters.
    3. Preview record counts (optional) – Before execution, you’re presented with a summary preview of your selections. This step includes the selected record types and their secondary information with impacted record counts. The system prompts you to review and confirm the potential impact based on scope. You can set access using the enable or disable access restrictions buttons.
    4. View results – See the result of the entity-based record access update with a count of the records updated.

    After confirmation, the system executes the update job in a controlled and asynchronous manner. You can see the results after the job execution is completed. You can see the log data specific to the configuration record.

    The update states the system supports are as follows:
    • Update queued – The update is actively being processed.
    • Completed – The update is successfully applied to all selected records.
    • Failed – The update couldn’t be executed due to configuration issues or system errors. You can see a Retry button in this state so that you can trigger the update again.

    The following image shows the entity-based record access update utility screen:

    Figure 1. Entity based record access update utility guided assistance
    Guided-experience for entity-based record access update utility.