Approvals experience reference
Summarize
Summary of Approvals Experience Reference
This document serves as a reference for enhancing the approval experience within ServiceNow's Employee Center, specifically for managing approvals. It outlines default task configurations, role requirements, integration details for SAP Concur and Workday, and guidelines for mobile approval access.
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Key Features
- Default Task Configurations: Approvals can be customized using default configurations for requests and requested items.
- Role Requirements: Users must have the approvaluser or businessstakeholder roles to approve IT requests.
- Fallback Configurations: If child tables lack task configurations, the system falls back to parent table configurations or defaults.
- SAP Concur Integration: Automatically syncs reports and creates approval records based on Concur data.
- Workday Integration: Manages data flow for approvals while protecting sensitive information through Integration System Users (ISU).
- Mobile Approvals: Approvals are available on mobile devices via the sysapprovalapprover table, with an option to disable this feature.
- Out-of-the-Box Actions: Includes default action groups for approving or rejecting requests.
Key Outcomes
By leveraging the referenced configurations and integrations, ServiceNow customers can streamline their approval processes, ensure compliance with role-based access, and enhance overall efficiency in managing tasks across platforms. Proper configuration and adherence to best practices will lead to improved visibility and management of approval requests, ultimately fostering better organizational workflows.
Use the following reference information for better approval experience.
Default task configurations
Use the following default task configurations available for approvals.- Request with sysapproval as reference column and sc_request as reference table.
- Requested item with sysapproval as reference column and sc_req_item as reference table.
Unable to see Approval todos
Ensure you have the approver_user or business_stakeholder roles to see the approval todos for the sc_request or sc_req_item items. In the _getClosureFunction() method of Script Include todoPageUtils:if (tableName == 'sysapproval_approver') {
if (!(gs.getUser().hasRole('approver_user') || gs.getUser().hasRole('business_stakeholder'))) {
var queryString = "sysapproval.sys_class_name!=sc_request^sysapproval.sys_class_name!=sc_req_item^NQsysapprovalISEMPTY";
grTask.addEncodedQuery(queryString);
}
} Fallback to parent table configuration
When the child table does not have task configuration, fallback is one level above its hierarchy and picks the task configuration of the parent table. When the task parent is not available, fallback is to the default configuration.
SAP Concur reference info
- All Concur actions are present in SAP Concur Spoke (sn_sap_concur_spok) plugin.
- Scheduled job Pull concur reports (sysauto_script) is triggered daily. This scheduled job internally calls the Concur Integration record from the Integration Source table (sn_hr_integr_fw_source) of the ESM framework.
- Schedule job runs and updates the record in the Concur Sync Details table (sn_ex_cnc_concur_sync_details) with latest timestamp.
- Concur reports from ServiceNow are synced in the Concur Expense Report Staging table (sn_ex_cnc_concur_report_staging).
- Reports from the Staging table are transformed in the Concur Expense Report table (sn_ex_cnc_concur_report) by the ESM framework. Use the transformation map Concur Report Transform Map in the Table Transform Map table (sys_transform_map).
- Approval record is created in the Pulled Integration To-do table (sn_hr_integr_fw_todo_inbound) based on the Approver field in the Concur Expense Report table.
Workday reference info
Use the following information for Workday integration.- Workday uses RAAS reports to send data to external system. For more information on RAAS and field-level info about leaves, timesheets, compensation, job change, job requisition, or leave of absence, see Workday HR Spoke.
- Only the open requests are displayed on the approvers My tasks page.
- Approval and rejection actions are performed using an Integration System User (ISU). ISU is a virtual user (and not an actual user) which helps in the safe-keeping of approver credentials. With the use
of ISU, approval and rejection records protect the sensitive data according to your configuration in Workday. For example,
- When John Doe, the approver enters time sheet approved as comment, the comment shown as
John Doe(john.doe@acme.com): Time sheet approved. - When John Doe performs the action Approve, a comment is added in Workday as
John Doe (john.doe@acme.com): Action – Approve. - When John Doe performs the action Reject, a comment is added in Workday as
John Doe john.doe@acme.com): Action – Reject. - When John Doe performs the action Reject with a comment-Request is not in compliance with company policy, two comments are added
John Doe (john.doe@acme.com): Action–RejectJohn Doe(john.doe@acme.com): Request is not in compliance with company policy.
- When John Doe, the approver enters time sheet approved as comment, the comment shown as
- Approve or reject actions are shipped out-of-the-box for all use cases.
- When an approval is delegated from one approver to another in Workday; report data source is not able to handle the delegation change such as delegated task and other delegation details.
- When a request requires a multi-level approval with level 1 approved in Workday and ServiceNow, you may see two entries for the same approval. This is a limitation with the ISU use.
- Attachments support a max limit of 12 MB. Ensure the attachment size is below 12 MB.
- Use the following scripts:
- WorkdayApprovalToDosClientUtilSNC: Retrieves records for the purge process in Workday approvals.
- WorkdayApprovalToDosHelperSNC: Contains constants related to Workday approvals.
- WorkdayApprovalToDosClientUtil: Extends WorkdayApprovalToDosClientUtilSNC and allows users to define custom code.
- WorkdayApprovalToDosHelperUtils: Extends WorkdayApprovalToDosHelperUtilsSNC and enables users to define custom code.
- WorkdayApprovalToDosHelperUtilsSNC: Provides functions for Workday approvals.
- Ensure you configure the right user controls and privileges for Compensation Change and Spend Authorization use cases. Only the authorized users can view the sensitive records and data from Workday.
- For data protection, use the default purge policy to delete data more often. By default, data purge happens after in 30 days.
- Ensure only the HR administrator [sn_hr_core.admin] has access to the sensitive information as explained in Remove HR Administrator role from IT System Administrator.
Approvals on mobile
Only approvals that are in sysapproval_approver table are shown using the generic card in Now Mobile.To disable the feature change the value of this sys_property: sn_me_todos.all_approvals_mobile_enabled to false.
OOTB action group use
Use the out-of-the-box Approvals action group to display the actions such as Approve and Reject. For more information, see Action framework.Additional information
- Click the URLs for additional information and context.
- Allow BUs to add non-task tables easily to the list in the To-dos or Task configuration reference tables by passing non-task tables as an array in the Scripted Extension Points. sn_hr_sp.TodoNonTaskTables, and sn_ex_sp.RefNonTaskTables.