Service Builder approval flow

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Service Builder approval flow

    The Service Builder approval flow manages the lifecycle of services and service offerings from creation to publication within ServiceNow. It controls how these items transition through various states—Draft, Awaiting approval, and Published—ensuring that services meet organizational standards before becoming available for use. Administrators can enable the default approval process or customize it using Workflow Studio to align with specific business needs.

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    Key Features

    • Standard Approval Flow: By default, services move automatically through the states—starting in Draft when created or edited, then Awaiting approval after submission, and finally Published once approved.
    • State Management:
      • Draft: Indicates a new or checked-out service/offering being edited; these items are inactive, not searchable, and display visual indicators like [DRAFT] labels and warning icons.
      • Awaiting approval: Services/offering submissions await review and approval to ensure compliance with standards such as naming conventions, descriptions, commitments, and KPIs.
      • Published: The active version used by the application and accessible to users.
    • Edit and Checkout Process: Editing a service or offering creates a Draft copy; offerings can be edited individually but require checking out their parent service to republish changes.
    • Approval Roles: Service owners create/edit items and submit for approval; process owners and portfolio owners review and approve for publishing.
    • Customization via Workflow Studio: Administrators can enable the standard approval flow and tailor it by modifying the 'Service Builder publish' subflow or creating custom flows to meet organizational requirements.

    Key Outcomes

    • Ensures that all services and offerings meet quality and compliance standards before publication.
    • Provides clear visibility and control over service versions through defined states and checkout mechanisms.
    • Enables organizations to customize approval workflows to fit their governance and process needs.
    • Facilitates collaboration among service owners, process owners, and administrators during the service lifecycle.

    As you create and edit services and service offerings in Service Builder, various states get assigned and change on the services' way to being published (approved). Administrators enable the standard approval flow and can even customize it using the subflow option in Workflow Studio.

    Standard approval flow

    By default, the approval flow in Service Builder is set to approve services automatically.

    When editing a service or offering in Service Builder, the standard approval flow is as follows:
    • As you edit a service or offering, it's in a Draft state.
    • After you submit your service or offering, it moves into the Awaiting approval state.
    • After your service or offering is approved, it moves into the Published state.
    You can edit (checkout) a service or a single offering, one at a time. You can also edit a service without checking out its child offerings — The offerings remain in the Published state until they’re separately checked out.

    When you check out an offering to edit it, the offering and its parent service both get checked out. The rest of the child offerings of that parent service remain in the Published state. After you finish editing the offering, submit it to the parent service so the offering can be republished (offerings are published via the parent service).

    Service states

    See the following table for each state in the standard service and service offering approval flow.
    State Description
    Published

    When a new service or offering is created and submitted in Service Builder, the item goes through an approval process before it's assigned to the Published state. The Published state indicates that the item is the version being used by the application and available for others.

    When you edit a published item, Service Builder automatically checks out the item for you and creates a copy for you to work on. The copy is set to the Draft state.
    Draft
    A service item is in the Draft state in one of these scenarios:
    • A new service or offering is being created in Service Builder and hasn’t yet been submitted.
    • An existing published service or offering has been checked out for editing in Service Builder.
      • When the item is being edited, Service Builder checks out the item and creates a copy of it and its related records (offerings and subscribers).
      • The copy is in a Draft state.
        Note:
        In the Draft state (checked out), the item displays in both Service Builder and in Service Portfolio Management in one or more of the following ways:
        • The word [DRAFT] is in front of the checked out item name.
        • A red dot (Red dot) is next to the item, signifying that it's read only.
        • A clear triangle warning symbol (Clear triangle) is next to the item name, signifying it's the new copy (DRAFT) that's being worked on.
      • The published item remains in the Published state and the Checked out field is set to True.
      • After editing and submitting the item, the edits to the draft are merged with the related published item, and then the draft version is deleted.

    Awaiting approval

    After submitting your service or service offering, your submission goes through an approval process. Your organization's approval flow confirms that the service is created according to standards such as naming conventions, descriptions, proper use of commitments, and key performance indicators (KPIs). It also enables a quality check to confirm services aren't duplicative.

    The following lists the tasks for each persona in the approval flow:
    • Service owners create or edit services and offerings in the Draft state and then submit them for approval.
    • Process owners and portfolio owners review and approve services and offerings before they approve them for publishing.
    • Process owners and admins can access the 'Service Builder publish' subflow in Workflow Studio to set up and modify the approval flow based on the organizations needs.
    Important:
    • You can only edit an item when it's in a Draft state. You can't edit a published item that has been checked out.
    • An item in the Draft state is always inactive and doesn't show up in a search or when you're browsing.
    • You can't change the Active flag of an item in the Draft state.
    • The approval process is available starting with the Utah release and after. Depending on your organization, the approval process could take some time. Contact your administrator if you have questions about the approval process time.

    Enable and customize an approval flow

    Administrators enable the approval flow that comes with the base system by updating the 'Service Builder publish' subflow in Workflow Studio.

    Administrators can also create a customized approval flow that best meets the organization's needs. See the following for more information about these tasks in Workflow Studio: