OOB Flow/Logic Responsible for Approval Updates in RITM Activity (Work Notes)

[Damayanti Sarod]

Hi All,

I’m trying to understand the out-of-box (OOB) functionality in ServiceNow that adds approval-related updates to the Activity stream (Work Notes) on a Requested Item (RITM).
Specifically, when an approval is requested, approved, or rejected, entries automatically appear in the Activities section.

Which OOB Flow Designer flow, workflow, or engine is responsible for this behavior?

Are there specific business rules, script includes, or approval engine components involved in writing these updates to Work Notes?

Have added ss of RITM for reference.

[Huynh Loc]

Hi @Damayanti Sarod ,

The approval stage is recorded through the “Ask for Approval” action.
Please refer to the attached image for more details.

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[Damayanti Sarod]

Hi @Huynh Loc ,

Scenario:

• My RITM has two approvals , one is manager approval and other is group approval.
• When the first manager approval is approved, the Approval field on the RITM changes from Requested → Approved in activity of worknote.
• When the second approval is generated, the same field changes again from Approved → Requested.
• After the second group approval gets approved, it changes again from Requested → Approved.
•  

But requirement , when first approval is approved, state should remain requested until the request is approved by group approval, I tried this from flow associated with catalog item, through ask for Approval action in flow designer but is getting overridden by some other OOB server side script.
Need to know the name of that OOB server side script/flow

[Huynh Loc]

Hi @Damayanti Sarod ,

We unable find the oob script to update value of approval.
It is updated by Ask for Approval action.
There is workaround to fulfill your case

Workaround

Remove the value in Approval Field on the Ask for Approval action in your flow. Emptying this field has 2 effects:

1. The Approval Field field on the task will no longer be updated with the result of the Approval record. If this is required for your further process, make sure to add an Update Record action later in your flow.
2. The action will no longer create a record watcher for the state of approvals related to the task. For several approval actions in parallel branches, these record watchers lead to marking the other approvals as "No longer required" once the first approval has been completed. If there are no record watchers, each branch will wait for the completion of the approval in that branch, regardless of any parallel approvals.
   
   

Further detail, you can refer to this blog 
https://www.servicenow.com/community/workflow-automation-articles/flow-designer-approvals-overview-w...

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[Ankur Bawiskar]

@Damayanti Sarod 

I believe it comes from platform level whether your catalog item has Flow or Workflow associated to it which uses approval activity or action

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