Configuring Advanced Approval Management

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 23, 2026
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Configuring Advanced Approval Management

    The Advanced Approval Management application enables ServiceNow customers to automate approval workflows for Sales Customer Relationship Management (CRM) entities such as customer quotes and orders. This capability helps streamline complex approval processes by defining business-specific rules, conditions, and notifications, ensuring compliance with company policies and improving efficiency.

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    Key Features

    • Environment Setup: Install required plugins including Advanced Approval Management and the relevant Sales CRM plugins (e.g., Quote Management), enable approval functionality, and configure the user interface.
    • Approval Configuration: Create approval configurations containing elements like trigger conditions, approval rules, approval chains, and assignment of approval users and groups.
    • Trigger Conditions: Define conditions based on company policies (legal, pricing, etc.) that initiate approval workflows. Supports smart reapprovals to reuse previous approvals on resubmitted requests.
    • Approval Rules and Chains: Develop approval rules specifying criteria and approvers for each step. Optionally, create approval chains to manage the sequence of approvals in multi-step workflows.
    • Approver and Group Definitions: Assign individual approvers and approval groups to specific approval rules to manage accountability.
    • Notifications: Configure system notifications to keep requesters and approvers informed about approval statuses, including custom notifications if needed.
    • Delegation: Set granular delegation rules for approvers, especially useful for organizations using Employee Service Management, allowing delegation of approval tasks when approvers are unavailable.
    • Additional Features (from version 1.0.1): Enable approval request consolidation, escalations, and email reminders to enhance notification and workflow efficiency.

    Configuration Workflow

    1. Complete environment setup to establish the system foundation.
    2. Create an approval configuration tailored to your Sales CRM entity (quotes, orders, etc.).
    3. Define trigger conditions that initiate approval workflows based on business policies.
    4. Create approval rules that specify approval criteria and assign approvers.
    5. Optionally build approval chains for complex multi-step approval sequences.
    6. Assign individual approvers and groups to the approval rules.
    7. Configure notifications to keep all parties informed about approval progress.
    8. Set up delegation rules where applicable to allow approval task handoffs.

    By following this configuration process, ServiceNow customers can effectively automate and manage complex approval workflows within Sales CRM, ensuring compliance, accountability, and timely approvals.

    Install the Advanced Approval Management application to build workflows that automate the approval process for Sales Customer Relationship Management entities such as customer quotes.

    Configuration overview

    Advanced Approval Management configuration overview

    Configuring the Advanced Approval Management involves the following sections:
    • Environment Setup: Establish the system foundation by installing required plugins, enabling approval functionality, and configuring the user interface.
    • Approval Configuration: Create business-specific approval rules, conditions, and workflows for your entities (for example, quotes, orders) that requires approval management.
    1. Install Advanced Approval Management.

      You can install the Advanced Approval Management application (sn_adv_appr_mgmt) if you have the admin role.

      Note:
      The plugin for the Sales Customer Relationship Management application for which you are creating workflows, such as Quote Management, must also be installed.
    2. Create an approval configuration.

      Create an approval configuration for a Sales Customer Relationship Management entity, such as quotes. An approval configuration contains the approval elements that you define to automate approval workflows: conditions that trigger approval workflows, approval rules, approval chains, and approval users and groups. Starting with the 1.0.1 release, you can enable certain features for the configuration, namely approval request consolidation, escalations, and email reminder features.

    3. Create conditions that trigger approval workflows.

      Define one or more conditions that apply company policies, such as legal or pricing guidelines, to trigger an approval workflow. Also enable the smart reapprovals feature, which allows previous approvals to be used for a resubmitted approval.

    4. Create approval rules.

      Create approval rules that define the approval criteria and approvers for an approval step.

    5. Create approval chains.

      Optionally create approval chains that control the sequence in which two or more approvals are run.

    6. Define an approval user.

      Define the approver and the associated approval rule that they review during the approval process.

    7. Define an approval group.

      Define the group that can approve requests for a specified approval rule.

    8. Set up approval notifications to deliver approval status to requesters and inform approvers of approval rejections.

      You can customize these system notifications if needed.

    9. Configure granular delegation rules for an approver if your organization uses Employee Service Management and your approvers want to delegate approval tasks when they're not available or away from work.

    Configuration workflow

    The following workflow illustrates the end-to-end process for configuring the Advanced Approval Management:

    1. Complete all environment setup tasks to establish the system foundation.
    2. Create an approval configuration for your entity (quote, order, or other Sales Customer Relationship Management entity).
    3. Define trigger conditions that specify when approval workflows should be initiated.
    4. Create approval rules that define approval criteria and assign approvers.
    5. Optionally create approval chains to orchestrate complex multi-step approval sequences.
    6. Assign individual approvers and approver groups to approval rules.
    7. Configure system notifications to inform requesters and approvers of approval status.
    8. Configure granulation delegation if your organization is using Employee Service Management and your approvers want to delegate their approval tasks to another employee.