Troubleshooting RITM state transitioning to Closed Incomplete when parent REQ is rejectedIssue A Requested Item (RITM) state incorrectly transitions to Closed Incomplete when the parent Request (REQ) is rejected. This occurs because base system behaviour cascades the rejection from the parent REQ to the associated RITM, setting its state to Closed Incomplete. The issue is made worse when a flow explicitly updates the parent REQ state to rejected or Closed Incomplete during the approval process, triggering this cascade. Release<!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } NA Cause Two factors combine to cause this behavior: 1. Your flow updates the parent REQ state to rejected or Closed Incomplete during the approval process. This triggers the base system behaviour that cascades the rejection to the associated RITM, setting the RITM state to Closed Incomplete. 2. Base system behaviour in ServiceNow causes child RITMs to transition to Closed Incomplete when the parent REQ is rejected. When your flow explicitly updates the parent REQ state during approval, this worsens the issue by compounding the cascade effect. A base system business rule called Reject Approval on Closed Incomplete exists on the Requested Item (sc_req_item) table. This rule triggers when an approval is rejected, checks for related RITM tasks, and if no tasks are found, automatically sets the RITM state to Closed Incomplete. A second base system business rule, Close Parent if Required, then propagates that state change through the request hierarchy. Resolution 1. Verify that the parent REQ approval process is complete before the RITM flow is triggered. Confirm the parent REQ is in an approved state before RITM processing begins. 2. Review your flow to confirm it does not update the parent REQ state to rejected or Closed Incomplete during the approval process. 3. If your flow incorrectly updates the parent REQ state, modify the flow to remove any actions that set the parent REQ state to rejected or Closed Incomplete. If the issue persists after reviewing your flow, consider whether both a stage field update and an Update Record action are present in the same Flow Designer flow for a Service Catalog item. Using both simultaneously can cause double updates on the RITM, leading to the state transitioning first to Closed Complete and then to Closed Incomplete, and can also trigger duplicate notifications to the user. To prevent the base system business rule Reject Approval on Closed Incomplete from running, you can set its active field to false and create a copy with conditions scoped to the relevant catalog items, or deactivate it entirely if the behaviour is unwanted across all catalog items. Related Links - Requested Items changing to Closed Complete then Closed Incomplete — double updates in the RITM when Flow Designer has stage update - RITM approval is set to Rejected when tasks state is set to Closed Incomplete