Manager Approval Not Visible in HR Case Activity Log

[iztgokul]

Hi Community,

We have an HR service that is used to assign roles to users. We configured a Flow Designer flow with two approval steps:

1. Manager approval
2. Group approval

Both approval steps are completed successfully. However, in the HR case Activity Log, only the approval message from the group approver is displayed. The manager’s approval message is not visible in the Activity Log. I have add the approval history in the journal field of the flow aswell.

Has anyone experienced this issue? Is there any configuration, system property, or Flow Designer setting that needs to be enabled for the manager approval to appear in the Activity Log?

[KPNow]

Hi @iztgokul :

This seems to be a common headache in ServiceNow HRSD. What’s happening under the hood comes down to how Flow Designer handles sysapproval_approver records versus how the HR Case Activity Stream captures journal updates. When you run consecutive approval steps, the manager approval often updates the underlying approval record without triggering a direct write to the parent HR Case's work_notes or commentsfields. Group approvals, on the other hand, frequently trigger built-in system Business Rules that auto-post group task state changes to the activity log, making it look like only the second approval registered.

To fix this, I think the cleanest approach is to add an explicit Update Record action in your flow immediately after the Manager Approval step. Target your HR Case record and set the Work notes (or Comments) field to map directly to the Approval History data pill or a custom string like "Manager [Approver name] approved the request." This will force the entry directly into the HR Case journal field right as it happens. Additionally, double-check the funnel icon (Activity Filter) on your HR Case form layout to ensure that both Approvals and Work notes are toggled visible for all user roles reviewing the case.

Hope this helps!

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@iztgokul 

screenshots please