How to show approval step?

In JIRA Cloud version and in JIRA, in one space, I have a task and this task is in status "waiting for approval" and it has 2 approvers.

I would like to know is it a way that in dashboard or some place, if I search task key, the approval step can be shown?

Screenshot 2026-07-09 161431.png Screenshot 2026-07-09 161743.png

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Hi @Benjamin Zhou,

If Jira's Filter Results gadget doesn't meet your requirements, you may want to explore apps available on the Atlassian Marketplace.

If you're open to using an app, I recommend trying the Pivot Table & Pivot Chart gadget included in our Great Gadgets app.

This gadget can display a list of issues pending approval, along with their workflow Status, Approval Status, Approvers, and any other fields you want to include.

Unlike the Filter Results gadget, this one does not use pagination, so all matching issues are displayed in a single table. This also makes it easy to locate a specific issue by pressing Ctrl+F in your browser.

To create a list like the one described above, configure the gadget as follows:

Also, on its More Settings tab you have to uncheck the options for displaying Totals row and Totals column.

Hope this helps.

Danut.

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@Danut M _StonikByte_ Thank you for your help. Pivot Table & Pivot Chartgadget looks good but it is not free. Do know any fee app related to search gadget so that I can evaluate?

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Hello @Benjamin Zhou

Thanks for your question.
If you are open for third-party app, I would like to recommend our JQL Argon app.

This is JQL powerful Search app, but not cover your request in 100%.

Where Argon does help:

Time in Status custom field – add it as a column in the Filter Results gadget / Issue Navigator. Combined with a saved filter key = XXX-123, a user sees exactly how long the issue has sat in "Waiting for Approval."
commented() function – if approvers leave a comment like "approved" when they act, you can query it directly:
issue in commented("project = DEV", "John", "", "", "approved")
transitionedBy() function – audit who/when an issue moved into the approval status:
issue in transitionedBy("project = DEV", "Waiting for Approval", "2026/07/01", "2026/07/12")

What Argon does not solve: an interactive "type a key, see one field" search box on a dashboard.

Also our dashboard app - Spectra — is not a key-lookup tool, but could give an aggregate view: a dashboard showing all issues currently sitting in each approval status, cross-filterable by assignee/approver. Useful if real pain is "who's blocking approvals" rather than single-issue lookup.

I hope my answer will be helpful somehow for you and help you to solve the problem.

Greetings
Bartek from Orbiscend OU (JQL Argon app provider)

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Hi @Benjamin Zhou

If these steps in the workflow aare actual approval steps, then you coudl create a JQL filrer based on

approval = pending(), this will show all work items waiting on approval, this filter you could use in a filter gadget on a dashboard.

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@Marc -Devoteam- Thank you for the reply. The big issue for me is I need a search bar in dashboard. Then if I input a task key, I need the approval step is shown at somewhere.

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Hi @Benjamin Zhou

There is no search bar option for a dashboard.

You would need to revert yourself to 3rd party apps from the marketplace.

I don't know any app that are free that offer this functionality.

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Hi @Benjamin Zhou

Thanks for the question.

If I understand your question correctly, you're looking for a way to display the current approval step, Finance Director Approval or Accounting Manager Approval, outside the issue view, such as in the issue navigator or on a dashboard.

At the moment, Jira Service Management doesn't expose the approval step name as a standard field that can be added to issue search results or dashboards. The current approval information is available in the Approvals panel on the issue view, while the approval step itself is configured as part of the workflow.

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/set-up-approvals

If your goal is to report on the approval stage, one common approach is to use workflow statuses that represent the approval stages, or maintain a custom field that is updated by Jira Automation whenever an issue enters a particular approval step. That custom field can then be displayed in the issue navigator, dashboards, and reports.

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@Gor Greyan Thank you for your reply. For now my space is in JIRA, not in JIRA service management,. In JIRA, is it still not possible to do so?

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@Benjamin Zhou

Thanks for the reply.

If you're using Jira Software l the answer is unfortunately still no. Jira Software doesn't have a native approval feature or approval steps like those available in JSM, so there isn't a built-in field that exposes the current approval step in the issue navigator or on dashboards.

If your project requires an approval process, you could model it using workflow statuses (for example, Waiting for Manager Approval, Waiting for Finance Approval) or use a custom field that is updated by Jira Automation as the issue progresses through the workflow. Those values can then be displayed in searches, dashboards, and reports.

Are you using a Marketplace app to provide the approval functionality in your Jira project in this screnshot?

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@Gor Greyan Are you using a Marketplace app to provide the approval functionality in your Jira project in this screnshot? - No, I am not. I just you JIRA software default workflow to set up the approval.

--- Could you please teach me how to do this way? More details, more better.

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Hi @Benjamin Zhou

- Create dedicated workflow statuses for each approval stage: Waiting for Manager Approval and Waiting for Finance Approval.

- Create workflow transitions between those statuses.

- Use Jira Automation with the Work item transitioned trigger to update a custom field whenever an issue enters one of those statuses.

- Add that custom field as a column in the Issue Navigator or on a dashboard so you can easily identify the current approval stage.

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@Gor Greyan Thank you Gor. If so, how to input task key to search in dashboard?

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@Benjamin Zhou

If you're referring to a dashboard, you don't search by issue key directly on the dashboard itself.

Instead, you create a saved filter using JQL.
key = XXX-12345

If you want to see all issues in a particular approval stage

"Current Approval Stage" = "Waiting for Manager Approval"

You can then add a Filter Results gadget to your dashboard and select that saved filter. The gadget will display the matching issues, including the Current Approval Stage custom field if you've added it as one of the displayed columns.

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@Gor Greyan Thank you again for your prompt support. I know Filter results gadget. If I use it, and if I have 200 tasks match the saved filter, all of these tasks (let's say the number is 200, maybe more) will be shown on Filter results gadget. If I want to see one task, I have to find it one page by one page. I can not ask every user to do so.

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Dear @Benjamin Zhou

I understand your requirement: you'd like users to enter an issue key and immediately see the corresponding approval stage.

Unfortunately, Jira's native dashboard gadgets don't support that type of interactive search. Gadgets such as Filter Results are based on saved JQL filters, so users can't type an issue key into the gadget to dynamically filter the results.

If Marketplace apps are an option, apps such as Rich Filters for Jira Dashboards provide interactive filtering capabilities, although they're intended for filtering a set of issues rather than looking up a single issue by key.

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@Gor Greyan Rich filter is spotlight but it is very expensive (USD 14375/year). Do you know any feel apps in Marketplace so that I can evaluate?

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Dear @Benjamin Zhou

Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a free Marketplace app that provides this type of interactive issue-key search on a Jira dashboard.

Rich Filters is the closest solution I'm familiar with, but as you mentioned, it may not be suitable due to the licensing cost.

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