Approvals experience reference

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 4 minutes to read
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    Summary of Approvals experience reference

    This reference guide provides essential information for configuring and managing the approvals experience within ServiceNow, including default task configurations, integration details, role requirements, and mobile approvals. It supports better approval workflows and aligns with the Employee Center framework.

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    Default Task Configurations and Role Requirements

    • Default approval tasks reference sysapproval as the reference column, with tables screquest and screqitem for requests and requested items respectively.
    • Task configurations can be customized and extend the Employee Center To-do configuration as a related list.
    • Users require the approvaluser or businessstakeholder roles to approve IT requests in Employee Center; this role validation is not enforced in Core UI16 due to platform-level ACL considerations.
    • To view approval To-dos, users must have the approver roles; otherwise, approval tasks are filtered out.
    • When child tables lack specific task configurations, the system falls back to the parent table's configuration or the default configuration.

    SAP Concur Integration

    • Integration is managed via the SAP Concur Spoke plugin (snsapconcurspok).
    • A scheduled job pulls Concur reports daily, syncing data through several staging and transformation tables within the ESM framework.
    • Approval records are created based on approver fields from Concur reports, facilitating automated approval workflows.

    Workday Integration

    • Workday uses RAAS reports to send HR data to ServiceNow; only open requests appear on approvers’ My Tasks pages.
    • Approval and rejection actions utilize an Integration System User (ISU), enhancing security by safeguarding approver credentials and masking sensitive data.
    • Comments on approvals or rejections are automatically formatted with the approver’s name and email for audit trails.
    • Limitations include lack of delegation handling in report data sources and possible duplicate entries for multi-level approvals.
    • Attachment size is limited to 12 MB.
    • Provided scripts support customizations and purging of Workday approval records; data purge defaults to 30 days for data protection.
    • Access to sensitive Workday compensation and authorization data should be tightly controlled, typically restricted to HR administrators.

    Approvals on Mobile

    • Only approvals from the sysapprovalapprover table are displayed in Now Mobile using the generic card interface.
    • The mobile approvals feature can be disabled via the snmetodos.allapprovalsmobileenabled system property.

    Out-of-the-Box (OOTB) Action Group Usage

    • Use the OOTB Approvals action group to display standard approval actions like Approve and Reject.
    • To enable these actions in the My Items widget, add the Approvals action group in Employee Center To-dos configurations under Fields Mapping.

    Additional Configuration and Reference

    • Business units can easily add non-task tables to To-dos or Task configuration via scripted extension points.
    • Numerous related forms, dashboards, and components support enhanced approval and employee center experiences.
    • For detailed configuration guidance, refer to the Configurable approvals experience documentation.

    Use the following reference information for better approval experience.

    Default task configurations

    Use the following default task configurations available for approvals.
    • Request with sysapproval as reference column and sc_request as reference table.
    • Requested item with sysapproval as reference column and sc_req_item as reference table.
    You can customize the task configurations to suit your requirements. The data model is an extension to the Employee Center To-do configuration as a related list. Follow the instructions Enable task configuration for approvals about configuring the approval experience. For more information on how to configure approvals, see Configurable approvals experience.
    Note:
    A user must have the approval_user or business_stakeholder role to approve IT requests (not applicable to other requests such as HR approvals) on Employee Centre. Role validation has not been implemented in Core UI16 because modifying ACLs in UI16 might have broader implications at the NowPlatform level.

    Unable to see Approval todos

    Ensure you have the approver_user or business_stakeholder roles to see the approval todos for the sc_request or sc_req_item items. In the _getClosureFunction() method of Script Include todoPageUtils:
    if (tableName == 'sysapproval_approver') { 
 if (!(gs.getUser().hasRole('approver_user') || gs.getUser().hasRole('business_stakeholder'))) { 
  var queryString = "sysapproval.sys_class_name!=sc_request^sysapproval.sys_class_name!=sc_req_item^NQsysapprovalISEMPTY"; 
  grTask.addEncodedQuery(queryString); 
 } 
}

    Fallback to parent table configuration

    When the child table does not have task configuration, fallback is one level above its hierarchy and picks the task configuration of the parent table. When the task parent is not available, fallback is to the default configuration.

    SAP Concur reference info

    Use the following information for SAP Concur integration.
    • All Concur actions are present in SAP Concur Spoke (sn_sap_concur_spok) plugin.
    • Scheduled job Pull concur reports (sysauto_script) is triggered daily. This scheduled job internally calls the Concur Integration record from the Integration Source table (sn_hr_integr_fw_source) of the ESM framework.
    • Schedule job runs and updates the record in the Concur Sync Details table (sn_ex_cnc_concur_sync_details) with latest timestamp.
    • Concur reports from ServiceNow are synced in the Concur Expense Report Staging table (sn_ex_cnc_concur_report_staging).
    • Reports from the Staging table are transformed in the Concur Expense Report table (sn_ex_cnc_concur_report) by the ESM framework. Use the transformation map Concur Report Transform Map in the Table Transform Map table (sys_transform_map).
    • Approval record is created in the Pulled Integration To-do table (sn_hr_integr_fw_todo_inbound) based on the Approver field in the Concur Expense Report table.

    Workday reference info

    Use the following information for Workday integration.
    • Workday uses RAAS reports to send data to external system. For more information on RAAS and field-level info about leaves, timesheets, compensation, job change, job requisition, or leave of absence, see Workday HR Spoke.
    • Only the open requests are displayed on the approvers My tasks page.
    • Approval and rejection actions are performed using an Integration System User (ISU). ISU is a virtual user (and not an actual user) which helps in the safe-keeping of approver credentials. With the use of ISU, approval and rejection records protect the sensitive data according to your configuration in Workday. For example,
      • When John Doe, the approver enters time sheet approved as comment, the comment shown as John Doe(john.doe@acme.com): Time sheet approved.
      • When John Doe performs the action Approve, a comment is added in Workday as John Doe (john.doe@acme.com): Action – Approve.
      • When John Doe performs the action Reject, a comment is added in Workday as John Doe john.doe@acme.com): Action – Reject.
      • When John Doe performs the action Reject with a comment-Request is not in compliance with company policy, two comments are added John Doe (john.doe@acme.com): Action–Reject John Doe(john.doe@acme.com): Request is not in compliance with company policy.
    • Approve or reject actions are shipped out-of-the-box for all use cases.
    • When an approval is delegated from one approver to another in Workday; report data source is not able to handle the delegation change such as delegated task and other delegation details.
    • When a request requires a multi-level approval with level 1 approved in Workday and ServiceNow, you may see two entries for the same approval. This is a limitation with the ISU use.
    • Attachments support a max limit of 12 MB. Ensure the attachment size is below 12 MB.
    • Use the following scripts:
      • WorkdayApprovalToDosClientUtilSNC: Retrieves records for the purge process in Workday approvals.
      • WorkdayApprovalToDosHelperSNC: Contains constants related to Workday approvals.
      • WorkdayApprovalToDosClientUtil: Extends WorkdayApprovalToDosClientUtilSNC and allows users to define custom code.
      • WorkdayApprovalToDosHelperUtils: Extends WorkdayApprovalToDosHelperUtilsSNC and enables users to define custom code.
      • WorkdayApprovalToDosHelperUtilsSNC: Provides functions for Workday approvals.
    • Ensure you configure the right user controls and privileges for Compensation Change and Spend Authorization use cases. Only the authorized users can view the sensitive records and data from Workday.
    • For data protection, use the default purge policy to delete data more often. By default, data purge happens after in 30 days.
    • Ensure only the HR administrator [sn_hr_core.admin] has access to the sensitive information as explained in Remove HR Administrator role from IT System Administrators.
    For more information on how to configure approvals, see Configurable approvals experience.

    Approvals on mobile

    Only approvals that are in sysapproval_approver table are shown using the generic card in Now Mobile.

    To disable the feature change the value of this sys_property: sn_me_todos.all_approvals_mobile_enabled to false​.

    OOTB action group use

    Use the out-of-the-box Approvals action group to display the actions such as Approve and Reject. For more information, see Action framework.
    Note:
    For actions to appear in my items widget, you can add the OOTB Approvals action group from All > Employee Center > Administration > To-dos Configurations, click an existing to-dos configuration, navigate to the To-do Configuration Details record, and use the OOTB action group under Fields Mapping.

    Additional information

    • Click the URLs for additional information and context.
    • Allow BUs to add non-task tables easily to the list in the To-dos or Task configuration reference tables by passing non-task tables as an array in the Scripted Extension Points. sn_hr_sp.TodoNonTaskTables, and sn_ex_sp.RefNonTaskTables.