Approved State - CSM/FSM workspace

[SNCOMUSER]

Hi All,

We are recently working on a migration to CSM/FSM Workspace for our Sales & Operations.

Topic: Approvals for Quotes under the Opportunities.

After creating a quote by a Sales Rep role user, we have observed that Sales Reps are able to navigate and change stage on quote as below:

Draft

In-Review

Send for Approval

Approved

Rejected

Accepted

Completed etc.

My question here is, can SN CSF/FSM workspace configurations (OOTB) not restrict Sales Rep from moving stages into Approved without any specific approvals provided by Managers.

Keep in mind, the approval process is configured in system, where in Sales Rep can send the quote for approvals to their respective managers but they an also by-pass the entire approval process but selecting Approved state by themselves.

[sandeepdutt]

Hi @SNCOMUSER ,

I would handle this using a Flow where only the approval flow updates the Quote to Approved after all required approvals have been received.

[SNCOMUSER]

Thank you Sandeep.

Can you help if there is any specific article on how to get this done through flows?

[Abhishek Pal]

Hi @SNCOMUSER ,

The Flow Designer approach is directionally correct, but for Quote Management the preferred OOB solution is Advanced Approval Management rather than building a separate custom approval flow.

Recommended OOB approach:

1. Verify that Quote Management and Advanced Approval Management are installed and licensed.

2. In CSM/FSM Configurable Workspace, navigate to:

Advanced Approvals > Approval Configurations

3. Create an approval configuration for:

Quote [sn_quote_mgmt_core_quote]

4. Configure:

- Trigger conditions
- Approval rules
- Sales Manager or approval groups
- Sequential or parallel approval chains
- Rejection and escalation behavior

5. The Sales Representative should use the OOB Submit for approval action.

The expected lifecycle is:

Draft
-> Submit for approval
-> In Review
-> Required approvers approve
-> Approved

If an approver rejects the request:

In Review
-> Rejected

The quote should move to Approved only after all required approval steps are completed.

Also verify that Sales Representatives do not have approval-administrator or override roles that allow them to bypass approval steps.

If users can still manually select Approved from the State field:

1. Confirm whether the Quote State field or Workspace page was customized.
2. Compare the configuration with an OOB Quote form.
3. Check UI Policies, Client Scripts, ACLs, Business Rules, Declarative Actions, and page variants affecting the State field.
4. Do not rely only on hiding or making the field read-only in Workspace, because that is not a security control.
5. Add a server-side validation only if the OOB approval lifecycle does not prevent the transition. The validation should reject a direct transition to Approved when the required approval process is incomplete.

If Advanced Approval Management is not available in your version or entitlement, the fallback Flow Designer design is:

Trigger:
Quote is updated to Send for Approval

Actions:

1. Update the Quote to In Review.
2. Use Ask for Approval and route it to the Sales Representative's manager or the required approval group.
3. In the Approved branch, update the Quote to Approved.
4. In the Rejected branch, update the Quote to Rejected.
5. Add server-side validation to prevent users from manually changing the Quote to Approved.

Do not allow both the user and the approval flow to independently control the Approved state. The approval process should be the only supported path to Approved.

Official references:

Advanced Approval Management:
https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/order-management/configuring-advanced-approval-management.html

Create approval rules:
https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/order-management/create-approval-rules.html

Submit a quote for approval:
https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/order-management/sales-and-order-management/submit-a-quote-for-app...

Approving or rejecting quotes:
https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/order-management/approving-or-rejecting-quotes.html

Flow Designer Ask for Approval:
https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/build-workflows/workflow-studio/ask-approval-flow-designer.html

Hope this helps!

If this response helped, please mark it as Helpful.
If it resolves your issue, please Accept it as Solution.

Kind Regards,
Abhishek Pal

[SNCOMUSER]

Thank you Abhishek.

I will try this and let you know how it goes. 

Appreciate your help on the same.