Hi everyone,

We’re excited to let you know that we have shipped Comments for approvals in Jira Service Management Data Center 5.7 (20th March 2023).

Approvers will now see a transition screen after they select Approve or Decline on a request. They can leave a comment explaining their decision on the new screen. In this release, the transition screen will appear when approving requests in the customer portal and the agent view.

Commenting on approvals comes with an extra perk—making the comments required. Jira admins can access new settings when editing or adding approval steps in workflows. By selecting the Comment required when approving and Comment required when declining checkboxes, you’re guaranteed to get some important input from approvers.

Whether it’s an explanation of why a request is declined or additional evidence needed to support an approval that you need to keep track of, comments from approvers will improve the approval processes in your organization.

Learn more about configuring approvals in Jira Service Management

Please also note that the upcoming 5.8 version will allow approvers to add attachments to the comments that they leave when they approve or decline a request. We’re also adding new audit logs to help you track any changes to your approval workflow.

Kind regards,

Charlie Marriott

Jira Service Management Data Center