Sequential Approvals with a dynamic number of approvers

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Posted on by aparkscsr

Trying to figure out how to handle a sequential approval where the number of approvers required depends on the dollar value of the item?

For example if the approval amount is $10k then only 2 people would need to approve, if it was $50k then 3 people and >$100k 4 people?

Our current approval flow triggers 2,3 or 4 separate approval requests based on the amount, I think a sequential approval would be a nicer solution if I can work out how to handle the different no of approvers required.

Thanks

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,969 Moderator on at

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Hi

Can you clear something up for me, if you are only sending 1 Approval, but to a dynamic number of people. where does the sequential part come in?

Are you saying instead of sending 1 to all, let's say 2 or 5 you want to send it 1 time to each of them, in order, based on if the previous person approved it?

Ugg no way.

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aparkscsr 10 on at

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Hi, Thanks for the response.

To clarify,
if the approval value is $5000, I need to obtain approval from person A and person B in that order.
If the approval value is $100000, I need to obtain approval from Person A, Person B, Person C, Person D, Person E in that order.

I'd like to implement the Sequential approval but can't figure out how to populate the correct number of people in the approval

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spons 20 on at

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I just tried to add a condition before the sequential approval action to check a variable, then set "var_AdditionalApprover" to either an email address or blank, then including that variable in the approval field. Of course, it returned the "not a valid approver email address." Figured this wouldn't work, since the approval action isn't super flexible, but worth a try.

Seems the best option is to just use a switch action to check the Amount then maintain the three separate approval actions with the appropriate number of approvers.

Would love to see a better way or an update to the action to allow more flexible use

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Impugno 27 on at

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I am attempting this as well. I currently get the 1st (always done) approver then concatenate with a second approver if present in the sharepoint item.

concat('{ "assignedTo": "', items('For_each_1')?['ApproverName/Email'],'"}', if( empty(items('For_each_1')?['OData__x0032_ndApprover/Email']), '', concat(', {"assignedTo": "', items('For_each_1')?['OData__x0032_ndApprover/Email']) ), '"}' )

I then add the output as the listed approvers.

However, I then still get an error when this runs "The request failed. Error code: 'InvalidRequestContent'. Error Message: 'The request content was invalid and could not be deserialized: 'Error converting value "{ "assignedTo": "----@---.com"}, {"assignedTo": "----@---.com"}" to type 'Microsoft.Azure.ProcessSimple.Data.Entities.ApprovalConnectorStepSetting'. Path 'steps[0]', line 1, position 141.'.'." (----@---.com replaces the valid email addresses in the error)

Any guidance on where I'm going wrong would be very helpful. This question is the first in Google currently. Thanks in advance!

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Impugno 27 on at

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I attempted a different method for this using an array. Below is my attempt but I am still unable to get the process to work correct.

This the is the current result and process steps being used.

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