How are re-approval's handled?

[David Quiram]

I can't seem to find any hard documentation giving us the answer, so maybe someone else will know. 

If we send a task through an approval workflow more than once, do we need to clear any sort of field to ensure the approval is "fresh" or "new", or will re-entry into the approval workflow do that automatically?

[Alex Ortiz]

I'm pretty sure, the reapproval, is just entered as a new line item in the history and the Approval section of the work item.  You just need to make sure your workflow supports a transition back to the status that would trigger the reapproval.

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

In Jira Cloud (Jira Service Management approvals), approvals are tied to the workflow status that contains the approval step. In practice, an approval “round” is created when the issue enters that approval status.

Scenario 1  The issue leaves the approval status and re-enters it (most common)

No field clearing needed.
If the issue transitions out of the approval status and later transitions back into it, Jira treats that as a new approval round and approvers must approve again.

Example:
Waiting for approval → In progress/Needs changes → Waiting for approval
Result: Fresh approval required.

Scenario 2  You “send for approval again” but the issue never leaves the approval status

Not a new approval round.
If the issue stays in the same approval status (even if you change fields or comments), Jira generally does not create a fresh approval instance automatically—because the workflow step didn’t restart.

Fix / Best practice:
Add a transition to move it out and back in, e.g.:
Waiting for approval → Needs changes → Waiting for approval
Result: Fresh approval required.

Scenario 3 You want the approver list to refresh (approvers come from a field)

If your approval step uses an Approvers field / user picker / group / assets-derived value:

If the issue exits and re-enters the approval status, Jira will typically reinitialize the approval step and re-read the approver source.

But if the approver source is not updating as expected, you may need to update/clear the approver source field first, then transition back into approval.

Practical pattern:

Update/clear the approver source field (if needed)

Transition out of approval

Transition back into approval
Result: Fresh approval + refreshed approver list.

Scenario 4  You want the same approvers to approve again (but Jira shows prior approvals in history)

This is normal.
Jira will keep the history/audit trail of prior approval rounds. You won’t “wipe” the past, but re-entering the approval status creates a new round.

Result: Fresh approval required, history remains visible.

Scenario 5  Someone approved earlier, then changes are made, and you want approval to be required again

You must force a new approval round by leaving and re-entering the approval status.

Example:
Waiting for approval (Approved) → Needs changes → Waiting for approval
Result: Approvers must approve again.

Short rule:

Fresh approval = leave the approval status and re-enter it.

You usually do not need to clear any special “approval state” field.

Only clear/update fields if you specifically need the approver list to change/refresh.