Issue on flow desinger approvals

[learnSN]

I am working on a requirement in Flow Designer where the trigger is a Service Catalog request. Based on a variable selected in the associated catalog item, the flow must initiate two level approval process. The first level is a Manager approval, and once the Manager approves, it should then trigger a second-level approval from the VP. Initially, I implemented this using two sequential “Ask for Approval” actions—one after the other. While the Manager approval triggered correctly, I encountered an issue where, after the Manager approved, the system sent another approval request to the Manager along with the VP, which is incorrect. To resolve this, I attempted a parallel approval setup, which sent approvals to both the Manager and VP at the same time. This worked technically, but the business requirement is for sequential approvals, not parallel. I then added a “Wait for Condition” step to ensure the VP approval only triggers after the Manager’s approval is completed. However, even with this in place, the Manager still received another approval request when the VP’s was triggered. I need the flow to ensure that after the Manager approves, only the VP receives the next approval request without re-triggering the Manager. The goal is to have a clean, sequential approval path: first Manager, then VP, without any duplication.

[kaushal_snow]

@learnSN ,

What you’re seeing is a known issue of the Ask for Approval action in Flow Designer , when you chain approvals, ServiceNow might reset or re trigger prior approvals if your configuration still populates the Approval field on each Ask for Approval, or if record watchers get triggered unexpectedly.....

A more robust approach (especially pre Utah) is to clear the Approval Field in the first Ask for Approval (so the RITM’s approval field isn’t updated immediately), then use a Wait for Condition after that action to watch for the approval result (i.e. wait until the first approver’s approval is approved), and only then invoke the second Ask for Approval, this ensures the VP approval doesn’t spin off until Manager approves.

Also, be aware that in some versions there is a bug where duplicate approval records are generated if you use a group as approver and don’t manage the watchers correctly, check if your flow version or instance has that issue......

If you found my response helpful, please mark it as ‘Accept as Solution’ and ‘Helpful’. This helps other community members find the right answer more easily and supports the community.

[learnSN]

Thank you for your response.

As requested, I already tried implementing it that way — after the first approval, I added a “Lookup Record” action to retrieve the first approval record, followed by a “Wait for Condition” to ensure the first approval was completed.

While this works correctly for the first approval , once the manager approves, the flow unexpectedly triggers the Manager approval step again during the vp approval.