Preventing Duplicate Approval Actions in Multi-Channel Approval Workflows

[Shubham_112013]

Background

We have a catalog item approval workflow that sends approval requests through multiple channels (Employee Service Portal, email, etc.). Our approvers can take action through any of these channels.

The Issue

We're experiencing a problem where approvers sometimes take an action in one channel (e.g., approving via the Service Portal) and then later accidentally take a different action in another channel (e.g., rejecting via email). The system is allowing this second action to override the first one, which is causing significant workflow issues and confusion.

Example Scenario

1. Approver receives approval request through both portal and email
2. Approver APPROVES the request through the Employee Service Portal
3. Later, the same approver accidentally clicks REJECT in the email notification
4. The system allows this second action and changes the approval status from "Approved" to "Rejected"

What We Need

I need to configure our ServiceNow inbound email action processing to check if an approval decision has already been made before processing a new approval action. If the approver has already made a decision, the system should ignore any subsequent actions from the same approver.

Questions

1. Is there a way to configure the inbound email action for approvals to check the current state of the approval before processing?
2. What would be the best approach to implement this protection? Through a business rule, script include, or some other method?
3. Has anyone implemented a similar solution that prevents multiple approval actions from the same approver?

Technical Details

• ServiceNow Instance: Washington DC
• Current Implementation: Standard catalog item approval workflow with email notifications

Thank you in advance for any guidance on this issue!