Manual Approvals workflow activity

  • Release version: Yokohama
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Manual Approvals workflow activity

    The Manual Approvals workflow activity in ServiceNow is designed to monitor and manage any approvals that users manually add outside of the automated workflow process. It specifically targets approvals in theNot requestedstate on tables extendingTask. This activity does not create approvals but pauses the workflow until all manual approvals are resolved, allowing the workflow to wait for user actions before proceeding.

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    If no pending manual approvals exist when the activity runs, it completes immediately with a result of approved.

    Key Features

    • Waiting for approvals: The activity can be configured to wait for different approval conditions:
      • Any manual user or group approval (first approval completes with approved)
      • All manual user or group approvals (all must approve)
      • The first response from any manual approval (approval or rejection completes the activity)
    • Handling rejections: Configurable options specify whether the activity immediately rejects on any user rejection or waits for other responses before deciding.
    • Result values: The activity returns a result reflecting the final approval status. Possible results include Approved, Rejected, Deleted, Cancelled, or Error.
    • Workflow control: The activity pauses the workflow until manual approvals are completed, ensuring user oversight on records with associated workflows.

    Key Outcomes

    • The workflow accurately reflects manual approval decisions, pausing and resuming based on user input.
    • Administrators can set precise conditions on when to proceed or stop the workflow based on approval or rejection outcomes.
    • Activities transition through states (Executing, Waiting, Finished, Cancelled, and Error) that the workflow engine uses to manage execution flow and error handling.

    Practical Application for ServiceNow Customers

    This activity is essential when you need your workflows to integrate manual approval steps added dynamically by users. It ensures workflows wait for these approvals without prematurely completing or bypassing necessary user validations. Configuring the input variables properly allows you to control how approvals and rejections impact workflow progression, enabling flexible and user-driven approval management within your existing workflow processes.

    The Manual Approvals activity watches and manages any approvals that users add manually outside of the workflow process. This activity only selects approvals that are in the Not requested state.

    Note:
    This activity is only available when the workflow runs on a table that extends Task.

    If there are no pending manual approvals when this activity executes, the activity immediately completes with a result of approved. This activity does not create approval records. Use this activity to pause the workflow when a user adds a manual approval to a record with an associated workflow, and it is in the Not requested state. The workflow waits for the approval to be closed before proceeding.

    Results

    The workflow designer can assign a result value using activity.result from within a script field of the activity. By default, the result value of the activity is the final approval disposition determined by the approval actions take by the approvers. Possible result values are:
    • Approved
    • Rejected
    • Deleted
    • Cancelled
    • Error

    Input variables

    Input variables determine the initial behavior of the activity.

    Table 1. Manual Approvals activity input variables
    Field Description
    Wait for
    Indicate what to wait for to indicate that the approval activity is approved or rejected. Options are:
    • Any manual user or group approval: Any user can approve and the first approval causes the activity to complete with a result of approved.
    • All manual user or group approvals: All users must approve (see below for how a rejection is handled).
    • The first response from any manual approval: The first approval or rejection from any user causes the activity to complete.
    When anyone rejects
    Indicate what happens when any user rejects their approval request. Options are:
    • Reject the approval: Immediately complete the activity with a result of rejected.
    • Wait for other responses before deciding: Wait until we get other responses before making an approval or rejection decision. This allows users to change their mind until a decision is made.

    In addition, if Wait for is set to Anyone to approve then a single approval will cause the activity to complete with a result of approved even if one or more users reject.

    Conditions

    The conditions determine which transition runs after this activity.
    Note:
    Approval activities run as the user whose actions match the approve or reject conditions the workflow was waiting for and advances the workflow.
    Table 2. Manual Approvals activity conditions
    Condition Description
    Approved The users from the groups have approved the request based on the Wait for rules.
    Rejected The users from the groups have rejected the request based on the Wait for rules.

    States

    The activity state tells the workflow engine what to do with the activity.
    Table 3. Manual Approvals activity states
    State Description
    Executing The workflow engine starts the execute function of the activity.
    Waiting The workflow engine ignores the activity until a specific event to restart the activity is fired.
    Finished The activity finished running. See the result value for the outcome of the activity.
    Cancelled This activity, or the workflow that contains this activity, was canceled.
    Error A JavaScript error occurred. Review the logs for error details.