Approvals

Use Approvals to request approval for items within a Major Business Object and automatically perform Actions based on whether designated Approvers approve, deny, or abstain.

For example, use an Approval to approve:

• A Knowledge Article before it can be published.
• A Service Request for new hardware.
• An expense.

An Approval is a Supporting Business Object that can be used in conjunction with a Major Business Object (example: When a Knowledge Article reaches the Approval phase, an Approval tab is displayed in the Form Arrangement of the record). Approvals can be added to any Major Business Object and are made up of one or more Approval Blocks. Each Approval Block consists of:

• A Trigger Condition: Condition that initiates an Approval (example: Record reached a specific status).
• Approvers: One or more users or Teams that provide approval, and the number/percentage of users or Team members who must approve a request.
• Actions: One or more Actions that take place when an Approval is approved, denied, or expired (example: Change a record status, put a record in a Queue, initiate a One-Step Action that sends an email notification, etc.).

You can use multiple dependent Approval Blocks to define multi-level Approvals using different triggers, Approvers, and Actions for different situations within the same Business Object. For example, an Emergency Change Request might require that all Emergency Change Board members approve the change, whereas a regular server change might require only the approval of a hardware Team member.

Approvals are also processed by the Automation Process Service.