Ask for Approval action

Request approval for a record. Configure a set of rules to automatically approve, reject, or cancel an approval request without having to write script. Add a due date to automatically approve, reject, or cancel when a decision has not been made by a designated time.

Approvals play a central role in controlling workflow progression. They ensure that the right people review and authorize work before it moves forward, which is essential in incident handling, change requests, catalog fulfillment, and any process where structured governance and compliance matter. For more information about approvals, see Classic approvals.

Roles and availability

Available as a Workflow Studio ServiceNow core action. Users with the flow_designer or admin role can add an action to a flow and define configuration details.

Inputs

Provide a value for each input that your flow needs. To add dynamic values, you can also drag and drop pills from the Data panel or select them from the pill picker.

Record

Data type: Record

Reference to the record to approve. If the record contains an approval field, Workflow Studio automatically sets the Approval Field input.

Table

Data type: Table Name

Table name of the record associated with the approval request. The table that you select must support approvals by having an approval state field. For example, the Task table and its extensions contain approval fields.

Approval Reason

Data type: String

Text string containing a justification for the approval. You can use this field for auditing and regulation compliance. This information is stored in the Approval [sysapproval_approver] table. For example, you can list why a specific approval request is needed from an individual or a group.

Approval Field

Data type: Field Name

Field containing the results of approval requests.

Journal Field

Data type: Field Name

Field to store history and comments associated with the approval request.

Rules

Data type: Approval Rules

Configure which users can approve or reject requests, and what happens after the record is approved or rejected.

Approval or rejection user rules include:

• Anyone approves. Use this option when any user listed can approve.
• All users approve. Use this option when every user listed must approve.
• All responded and anyone approves. Use this option when every user must respond, but only one user must approve.
• % of users approve. Use this option when a majority of users is needed to approve.
• # of users approve. Use this option when a specific number of users need to approve.

In the field beside the approval rule, add the desired approval users. To add approval users:

• Select individual users or groups.
• Drag or select a field from a record.
• Select Manual approvers to allow a manual approver to process an approval or rejection. A manual approver is a user manually added to the Approvers related list who can then approve the request. For example, you can manually add a subject matter expert to a task to approve the request. To learn more about adding manual approvers, see Generate approvals using the approvers related list.

Note:

By default, Ask for Approval generates approval records for inactive users and groups. This behavior allows a flow or action to continue working even when a specific user or group is later made inactive. If you want to change the behavior of generating approvals for inactive entities, set the com.glide.hub.flow.approval.allow_inactive_entity system property. See Workflow Studio flow system properties.

Define rejection rules by adding another OR rule set. When defining approvals, include rejection rules that run when there are no matching approvals. Such rejection rules prevent the flow from remaining in a waiting state. For example, if an approval can be approved by anyone, create a time-based rejection rule in case no one approves it.

Note:

If you set an approval rule with no rejection rule (or vice versa) and the expected approval state is not met, the runtime value will be canceled.

For information about how to use inline script to specify approval rules, see the Scripted Approvals in Flow Designer with Flow Variables blog post on the ServiceNow Community.

Due Date

Data type: Schedule Date/Time

Due date for an approval state to prevent the flow from endlessly waiting for approval.

Output

These outputs appear in the Data panel. You can use them as inputs elsewhere in your flow.

Approval State

Data type: Choice

Completion state of the approval request. The flow execution details page displays one of these values.

• Not Yet Requested [not requested]
• Requested [requested]
• Approved [approved]
• Rejected [rejected]
• Cancelled [cancelled]
• No Longer Required [not_required]
• Skipped [skipped]

Example

In this example flow, an approval is required whenever a new high priority incident is created or an existing one is updated. When the incident enters the queue, the flow triggers an Ask for Approval action to confirm that the assigned work is appropriate and that the incident should move forward. The action waits one business day for a response, following an 8–5 weekday schedule to align with standard IT support hours. If no approver responds within that window, the system automatically approves the request to prevent delays in restoring service.

The approval request is routed to the manager of the user listed in the Assigned to field. This ensures that a responsible leader reviews whether the assigned technician has the correct skill set and workload capacity to handle the incident. The manager can approve or reject the request within the one day window, allowing the workflow to either continue or reroute the incident based on the decision.

General guidelines

Follow these guidelines when asking for approvals.

Do not duplicate ask for approval actions in Do the following in parallel flow logic

Workflow Studio does not support making multiple approval requests to the same record using Do the following in parallel flow logic. Asking for approval on the same record creates a dependency between branches, which can produce unexpected results since there is no way to know which branch will complete first.