Require fields before approval in fixed workflows

What is the challenge?

Required fields by status can be configured alongside fixed-workflow approval transitions, but an explicit approval can advance the record without enforcing the required fields. A previous attempt to enforce this created unrecoverable approval states because there was no clear UX for resolving missing fields.

What is the impact?

Teams using approvals to enforce governance cannot rely on required fields for data quality. This is especially problematic for organizations that have designed and received executive approval for a gated workflow.

Proposed experience

When an approval transition has unmet required fields:

• Block approval submission until all required fields are completed.

• Clearly identify the missing fields and provide a path for the requester to complete them.

• Keep the record recoverable; do not strand it in an approval state with no way to resolve missing information.

• Notify the approver that the request needs additional information before it can be approved.

Zendesk context: Ticket 1192208