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 a Workflow Studio ServiceNow core action. Users with the flow_designer or admin role can add an action to a flow and define configuration details.

Inputs

Provide a value for each input that your flow 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.

Output

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

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 action in a flow.

General guidelines

Follow these guidelines when asking for approvals.

Do not duplicate ask for approval actions in Do the following in parallel flow logic
Workflow Studio does not support making multiple approval requests to the same record using Do the following in parallel flow logic. Asking for approval on the same record creates a dependency between branches, which can produce unexpected results since there is no way to know which branch will complete first.