How to Provide Read-Only Access to Incidents Without Granting ITIL Role

[Kumar54]

Hi Community,

I have a scenario where certain business managers (non-ITIL users) need the ability to view incidents in ServiceNow without being granted the ITIL role. These users:

• Do not need to create, update, or assign incidents.
• Only require read-only access to specific types of incidents (based on conditions such as assignment group, category, or other filters).
• Should be able to view the form details and work notes but not perform any actions.

I’d like to achieve this without modifying the standard incident ACLs tied to ITIL.

I also noticed that:

• I don’t see any SNC-internal role available.
• The sn_read_only role is also not helpful in this case.

Questions:

1. What is the recommended way to grant incident read-only access to a custom role (non-ITIL)?
2. Should I clone the incident ACLs and adjust conditions for the new role?
3. Is there a better approach (e.g., data policies, UI view restrictions, or reporting-only access) for such use cases?

Appreciate any guidance or best practices from those who’ve implemented a similar requirement.

[Dr Atul G- LNG · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kumar54 

• The sn_read_only role is also not helpful in this case.

Any reason why?

[K Sankalp]

Hi @Kumar54 ,

You can create custom role with READ ACL on incident table to restrict the access and add role to users.
Also you can utilize the ITSM role sn_incident_read.

If my response helped please mark it correct and helpful.
Kind Regards,

Sankalp

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

Hi @Kumar54 

[Kumar54]

I can't create a custom role for this requirement. These users primarily need the ability to view incidents and, in some cases, possibly update the state. They are not directly involved in incident handling or resolution, but act as store managers who oversee incidents created for their location.

[Dr Atul G- LNG]

In this case use OOTB role as shown: