Ask for Approval step

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated February 28, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Ask for Approval step

    The Ask for Approval step in Workflow Studio enables ServiceNow users to request approval for a record that contains an approval field. It supports configuring rules for approval, rejection, or cancellation, and can automatically resolve approvals based on a due date if approvers do not respond in time. This feature helps automate approval workflows, ensuring timely decisions and compliance.

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    Key Features

    • Role and Availability: Available as an action step in Workflow Studio. Users with the actiondesigner role can create custom actions incorporating this step.
    • Inputs:
      • Record: Reference to the record being approved; Workflow Studio auto-sets the approval field if present.
      • Table: Name of the table for the record, which must support approval states (e.g., Task table).
      • Approval Reason: A text justification stored for auditing and compliance in the sysapprovalapprover table.
      • Approval Field: The field capturing approval outcomes.
      • Journal Field: Field for storing approval history and comments.
      • Rules: Defines approval and rejection criteria, including options like "Anyone approves," "All approve," "% of users approve," and manual approvers. Rejection rules help avoid indefinite waiting states.
      • Due Date: Sets a deadline for approval to prevent the flow from waiting indefinitely.
      • Action Error Evaluation: Configures behavior if the approval step fails, allowing continuation or error handling.
    • Manual Approvers: Allows adding users manually to the approvers list for specific expertise or responsibility.
    • Inactive Users and Groups: By default, approvals are generated for inactive entities to maintain flow continuity; this can be changed via system properties.

    Key Outcomes

    • Approval State Outputs: The step outputs the current state of the approval, such as Requested, Approved, Rejected, Cancelled, or Skipped, which can be used in subsequent workflow steps.
    • Automation and Compliance: Enables automated, rule-based approvals with audit trails and rejection safeguards to maintain workflow efficiency and compliance.
    • Flexibility: Supports complex approval scenarios with multiple rules, manual overrides, and due dates to adapt to varying business needs.

    Request approval for a record with an approval field. You can configure a rule set for an approval, rejection, or cancellation. If a due date is added to an approval, the approval is automatically approved, rejected, or canceled if the approvers have not responded by the designated time.

    Classic approvals is a platform feature that enables users or groups to approve or reject a task.

    Roles and availability

    Available as an Workflow Studio action step. Users with the action_designer role can create a custom action with one or more action steps.

    Inputs

    Provide a value for each input that your action needs. To add dynamic values, you can also drag and drop pills from the Data panel or select them from the pill picker.
    Record
    Data type: Record

    Reference to the record to approve. If the record contains an approval field, Workflow Studio automatically sets the Approval Field input.

    Table
    Data type: Table Name

    Table name of the record associated with the approval request. The table that you select must support approvals by having an approval state field. For example, the Task table and its extensions contain approval fields.

    Approval Reason
    Data type: String

    Text string containing a justification for the approval. You can use this field for auditing and regulation compliance. This information is stored in the Approval [sysapproval_approver] table. For example, you can list why a specific approval request is needed from an individual or a group.

    Approval Field
    Data type: Field Name

    Field containing the results of approval requests.

    Journal Field
    Data type: Field Name

    Field to store history and comments associated with the approval request.

    Rules
    Data type: Approval Rules

    Approval and rejection rules to determine which users can approve or reject requests, and what happens after approval or rejection.

    Approval or rejection rules include:
    • Anyone approves
    • All users approve
    • All responded and anyone approves
    • % of users approve
    • # of users approve

    In the field beside the approval rule, add the desired approvers. To add approvers:

    • Select individual users or groups.
    • Drag or select a field from a record.
    • Select Manual approvers Manual approvers icon to allow a manual approver to process an approval or rejection. A manual approver is a user manually added to the Approvers related list who can then approve the request. For example, you can manually add a subject matter expert to a task to approve the request. To learn more about adding manual approvers, see Generate approvals using the approvers related list.
    Note:
    By default, Ask for Approval generates approval records for inactive users and groups. This behavior allows a flow or action to continue working even when a specific user or group is later made inactive. If you want to change the behavior of generating approvals for inactive entities, set the com.glide.hub.flow.approval.allow_inactive_entity system property. See Workflow Studio flow system properties.

    Define rejection rules by adding another OR rule set. When defining approvals, include rejection rules that run when there are no matching approvals. Such rejection rules prevent the flow from remaining in a waiting state. For example, if an approval can be approved by anyone, create a time-based rejection rule in case no one approves it.

    Note:
    If you set an approval rule with no rejection rule (or vice versa) and the expected approval state is not met, the runtime value will be canceled.

    For information about how to use inline script to specify approval rules, see the Scripted Approvals in Flow Designer with Flow Variables blog post on the ServiceNow Community.

    Due Date
    Data type: Schedule Date/Time

    Due date for an approval state to prevent the flow from endlessly waiting for approval.

    Action error evaluation

    If this step fails
    Data type: Choice

    Option to continue running the next step or go to error evaluation. To use the step status code or message for a custom action error condition, see Action error evaluation.

    Output

    These outputs appear in the Data panel. You can use them as inputs elsewhere in your action.

    Approval State
    Data type: Choice

    Completion state of the approval request. The flow execution details page displays one of these values.

    • Not Yet Requested [not requested]
    • Requested [requested]
    • Approved [approved]
    • Rejected [rejected]
    • Cancelled [cancelled]
    • No Longer Required [not_required]
    • Skipped [skipped]

    Example

    Example Ask for Approval step in an action.