A method for an approver to ask for a reference opinion for an approval task, comprising: an approver acquiring an approval task in an approval flow; and the approver initiating, to one or more consulted persons for the approval task, a request for asking for a reference opinion. A consulted person is an independent individual character; one independent individual character can only be associated with a unique user in the same time period; and one user is associated with one or more independent individual characters. An approver initiates a request for asking for a reference opinion via a management system, and the reference opinion can assist the approver in making a more scientific and more accurate approval result and can form an effective query record in the system. The consulted person uses an independent individual character, and when an employee leaves the office or transfers positions, seamless joint can be realised, and the lag or omission of the handover of a consulted task cannot occur, thereby ensuring that the consulted person gives a reference opinion in a timely manner, and avoiding the leakage of secrets and chaos when managing a company.