Ask for Approval action
Summarize
Summary of Ask for Approval action
The Ask for Approval action in ServiceNow’s Workflow Studio enables you to request approval for a record that contains an approval field. You can configure rules for approval, rejection, or cancellation, and optionally set a due date that triggers automatic approval, rejection, or cancellation if approvers do not respond in time. This action supports approvals by individual users or groups and integrates with flow logic to automate approval processes.
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This feature is available to users with the flowdesigner or admin roles and is part of the ServiceNow core Workflow Studio actions.
Key Features
- Inputs: Accepts dynamic inputs including the record to approve, table name, approval reason (for audit and compliance), approval field, journal field for comments/history, approval and rejection rules, and an optional due date.
- Approval Rules: Supports multiple rules such as “Anyone approves,” “All users approve,” “Percentage of users approve,” and manual approvers who can be added dynamically to the approval list.
- Handling Inactive Users/Groups: By default, approvals generate even for inactive users or groups to ensure flow continuity. This can be changed via a system property if needed.
- Rejection Rules: Allows defining rejection conditions to avoid flows getting stuck waiting indefinitely for approval.
- Due Date: Prevents indefinite waiting by automatically progressing the approval based on a schedule if no response is received.
- Output: Provides the approval state as an output, which can be used downstream in the flow. States include requested, approved, rejected, cancelled, and others.
Practical Guidance
- Use the action to automate approvals on tasks or records with approval fields, such as incidents or change requests.
- Configure clear approval and rejection rules to ensure the flow progresses without hanging.
- Set due dates to automate decision-making if approvers do not act within the expected timeframe.
- Avoid placing multiple Ask for Approval actions for the same record in parallel branches of a flow, as this can cause unpredictable behavior due to dependencies between branches.
- Leverage manual approvers to include subject matter experts or additional approvers not defined in automated rules.
Example Use Case
An incident record triggers the Ask for Approval action to request approval from the assigned user’s manager. The approval request is sent with an 8-5 weekday schedule and a one-business-day due date. If no response is received within one business day, the approval is automatically granted, preventing the flow from waiting indefinitely.
Request approval for a record with an approval field. You can configure a rule set for an approval, rejection, or cancellation. If a due date is added to an approval, the approval is automatically approved, rejected, or canceled if the approvers have not responded by the designated time.
Classic approvals is a platform feature that enables users or groups to approve or reject a task.
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
- 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
Approval and rejection rules to determine which users can approve or reject requests, and what happens after approval or rejection.
Approval or rejection rules include:- Anyone approves
- All users approve
- All responded and anyone approves
- % of users approve
- # of users approve
In the field beside the approval rule, add the desired approvers. To add approvers:
- 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, the flow asks for approval once an incident is created or updated. The Ask for Approval action waits one day for approval using an 8-5 weekday schedule. After one business day has passed, if no one has approved or rejected the request, the request is approved. The action sends an approval request to the manager of the person listed in the Assigned to field. That manager can approve or reject the request within one business day.
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.