Where do requesters and managers see approval/rejection messages & notifications for a submitted for

[aikaterinik]

I’m testing a simple approval flow for a submitted form and want to confirm the out-of-the-box places where the requester sees approval/rejection messages and where the manager/approver sees their notifications and related emails. Scenario: a user submits a form; a manager approves/rejects; the user gets notified (portal + email) and can see the decision somewhere obvious.

Path A — Requester journey (end user)

• Impersonate a test end user.

• Open the form (Catalog Item) and submit.

• Manager approves/rejects (see Path B).

• The requester receives an Approval or Rejection email. Besides email, where in the Portal/Employee Center should the requester see the decision? Is the Activity (Additional comments) on the Request/RITM the OOTB place?
• Where can I verify that the email was sent in the instance (e.g., System Mailboxes → Outbound → Sent)?
• What is the best practice to surface the decision so the requester sees it—write to Additional comments (not Work notes) from Flow Designer?

Path B — Manager/Approver journey

• Log in as a manager (different browser/profile).
• Review and Approve/Reject the item.
• Where should the manager see pending approvals OOTB in Portal/Employee Center and in the platform UI (e.g., My Approvals)?
• Besides email, are there OOTB in-product notifications (bell/toast) for approvers, and where do I enable/configure them?

Please also confirm:

• The default UX locations (by role) where these messages/notifications appear in Portal/EC without custom widgets.
• Best practice to post decision messages so requesters see them (Activity/Additional comments vs other).
• Pointers to specific OOTB notifications to enable for both roles and any gotchas (e.g., templates using Work notes vs Additional comments).
• Anything else I should check in sysapproval_approver, sc_req_item / sc_request, or sys_email to validate the full loop.

[Rafael Batistot]

Hi @aikaterinik 

This article might help 

https://www.servicenow.com/community/servicenow-ai-platform-forum/understanding-approval-workflows-i...

[kaushal_snow]

@aikaterinik ,

In ServiceNow OOB flows, once a requester submits a catalog item and an approver makes a decision, the requester receives an email notification plus sees the decision listed in the Additional comments on the Request/RITM record by default, whereas the manager or approver sees pending approvals in the My Approvals section of the portal or Employee Center and also gets a notification email (and, in newer EC versions, a bell icon notification) for the approval task, and you can verify emails sent via System Mailboxes > Outbound > Sent, and it’s generally recommended to write decision messages to Additional comments (not work notes) so they show in the activity stream to the requester....

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