Document approval and publish process

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 12, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Document Approval and Publish Process

    The document approval and publishing process in ServiceNow involves a structured workflow where documents are reviewed and approved by designated users before publication. Users with theplatformdocumentmanagementadminoradminrole can create approval and review rules, allowing for collaborative document management and ensuring quality control before final releases.

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    Key Features

    • Multiple Reviewers and Approvers: Documents can have one or more reviewers and approvers, facilitating diverse input and approval.
    • Approval Workflow Management: Users can initiate approval workflows, add reviewers or approvers, and monitor the approval status through an activity stream.
    • Condition-Based Approval Rules: Document approval revision rules can be created based on specific conditions to automate the approval process.
    • Email Notifications: Users receive notifications based on actions taken by reviewers and approvers, keeping all parties informed.
    • Sequential Approval Process: If multiple approvers exist, their actions dictate the flow of the approval process, with only the first action being considered.

    Key Outcomes

    Once the document has been reviewed and approved, it is marked as Ready for Publishing. Users can publish the document, and any previous revisions are retired, canceling existing workflows associated with them. This ensures that only the latest, approved version is active and accessible.

    A reviewer approves or rejects the document. A document can have multiple reviewers. During the approval process, the approver approves or rejects the document. A document goes through the approval process after the review process. A document is published after the review and approval process.

    A document can have a reviewer or multiple reviewers and no approvers and vice versa. You must have the platform_document_management_admin or admin role to create approval and review rules.

    Users who can create documents have the option to do the following:
    • Add approvers and reviewers to a document​.
    • Initiate the approval and review workflow​ for a document version.
    • Publish the approved version.
    • See the activity stream of the approval and review workflow.

    All approvers and reviewers have read access to the documents that they’re approving.

    Document approval revision rule

    The document approval and revision rule is created based on the conditions defined in the condition builder to determine which documents use the approval rule. After the approval rule is saved, reviewers and approvers are added if the conditions in the Condition field are met.
    Note:
    Document reviewer and approver directly added from the document record aren’t added to the Document approval and revision rule.

    Document review

    If the reviewer rejects the document, the author and owner are notified and the review is canceled. The author, owner, and reviewer should discuss what changes must be made to the document. If the reviewer approves the document, the author and owner are notified that the review was successful, and the document can move to the approval stage. If multiple reviewers are assigned to a document, the first reviewer to act dictates what happens to the document. For example, there are two reviewers, A and B.

    If reviewer A acts first and rejects the document, the review process stops and the revision state is set to Canceled. Reviewer B receives a notification email stating that the review was rejected and the status is changed to No Longer Required. If reviewer A acts first and approves the document, the review process stops and the document can move to the approval stage. Reviewer B's status is changed to No Longer Required.

    Document approval

    After the document has been reviewed, submit the document for approval. If the document doesn’t have an approver, the approval process is omitted.

    If the final approver approves the document, the author and the owner are notified. After the final approval is successful, the document stage changes to Ready for Publishing in the Document versions list.

    If there are multiple approvers, the approval process works in sequence, and multiple approvers can be assigned to a single sequence. For example:
    • Sequence 1: Approvers A and B
    • Sequence 2: Approvers C and D
    • Sequence 3: Approver E

    The sequences take place in ascending chronological order, approvers A and B receive the approval request first (approvers C, D, and E aren’t part of the process yet). Similar to the review process, the first approver to act within a sequence dictates what happens to the document. If approver A acts first and rejects the document, the approval process stops and the state is set to Canceled. Approver B's status is changed to No Longer Required. If approver A acts first and approves the document, the process stops and approver B's status is changed to No Longer Required. The document then moves to approval sequence 2. After at least one approver in each sequence approves the document, the author and the owner are notified that the document has been approved.

    Publish a document

    After a document has been created and edited, the revision can be submitted for draft review and final approval. After final approval, the document can be published.

    If the approval and publishing process is repeated, the published revision is retired when the new revision is published. Any workflows running against previous revisions are canceled when the document is published.