Power Automate – Excel row not updating after approval/rejection

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Posted on by JD-13051811-0

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a Power Automate flow that connects Microsoft Forms, Approvals, and Excel Online (Business). Here's the use case I'm trying to implement:

A user submits a Microsoft Form.
The flow retrieves the form response details.
It sends an approval request to the user's manage
Depending on the manager’s response:
1. If approved, I want to write "Approved" in the "Validation du responsable" column of the corresponding row in an Excel table.
2. If rejected, I want to write "Rejected" in the same column.

The Excel file is hosted on SharePoint and contains a structured table with an ID column (intended to uniquely identify each request). In the Update a row action, I set:

Key column: ID
Key value: @outputs('Get_response_details_2')?['body/r027bce0f9a2541ca95a42c7404bb005a'] (this value comes from the form response)

The issue: nothing happens in the Excel file — the column doesn't update, and I receive no error.

I suspect the value I'm using for the ID might not match the actual ID values in the Excel file.

What I'd like to know:

Is this the correct way to reference the Excel row to update?
Should I use List rows present in a table first and filter using something like the form responder’s email or another unique field?
What's the best practice to update a specific row after an approval step when you need to write either "Approved" or "Rejected"?

Thanks a lot for your help!

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Building flows

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David_MA 12,982 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Since your image does not show it, I assume that the flow is at least going down the yes side of the condition. If not, you need to check your condition to find out why it is not. You can add a compose action before the condition with the value from the left side of the condition to make sure it matches what you have on the right.

Then, if it is going down the yes side, please share a screen shot of what you are doing in the Apply to each action and how you have it configured. Also show some sample data from the spreadsheet showing your key column. In the apply to each, add another Compose action and show the two values you are using for the key matchup in Excel. They need to match.

For data privacy reasons, you may want to update the image you already included to hide your organization name.

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JD-13051811-0 9 on at

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I am currently working on a Power Automate flow connected to Microsoft Forms, Approvals, and Excel Online (Business). My objective is the following:

When a form is submitted, the flow retrieves the response.

An approval request is then sent to the relevant manager

Based on the manager’s response: If approved, I want to update the Excel table and write “Approved” in the column “Validation du responsable”.If rejected, I want to write “Rejected” in that same column.

The Excel table is stored on SharePoint and contains a column “ID” which is supposed to uniquely identify each request. In my flow, I use:

Key column: ID

Key value: @outputs('Get_response_details_2')?['body/r027bce0f9a2541ca95a42c7404bb005a'](This comes from the response details of the submitted form.)

However, the row does not get updated. The condition for the approval outcome is working — I have tested and confirmed that the flow goes into the “If yes” branch — but the action “Update a row” does not update anything in the file.

To troubleshoot this, I added a step to list all rows in the Excel table (List rows present in a table) and used an Apply to each loop. Inside this loop, I attempt to update the row by matching the ID field, but without success. I suspect the ID I'm using from the form does not match the values in the Excel file.

I have attached screenshots showing:

The flow setup

The Excel structure with the column “Validation du responsable”

The data in the table with sample IDs

Could you please advise on:

Whether my ID matching logic is incorrect

Whether it would be better to match based on another unique field (e.g., email)

The recommended way to ensure that the correct row is found and updated in Excel

Thank you very much for your help.

Best regards,

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JD-13051811-0 9 on at

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Hi David,

Thank you for your detailed response and suggestions. I’m following up with additional context based on the structure of my flow and the data setup.

The flow does correctly enter the "If yes" branch. I have confirmed that the outcome from the approval step is working as expected and the condition evaluates properly.

Inside the "If yes" branch, I have configured the following: I use "List rows present in a table" to retrieve all rows from the Excel table stored in SharePoint. Then I apply an "Apply to each" loop using the output of that list. Within the loop, I call "Update a row" with the key column set to "ID" and the key value set to the response from the form, specifically using the dynamic value:

@outputs('Get_response_details_2')?['body/r027bce0f9a2541ca95a42c7404bb005a']

The Excel file has a structured table named Table1. The "ID" column contains numeric values like 33, 34, 35, etc. There is also a column labeled "Validation du responsable" where I want to insert the value "Approved" or "Rejected" depending on the approval outcome. Screenshots I shared earlier show the table structure and this column clearly.

At this point, I suspect that the ID value retrieved from the form does not match any of the ID values present in the Excel table. This would explain why the "Update a row" action does not actually perform any changes even though no error is thrown.

Following your advice, my next step will be to add Compose actions inside the Apply to each block to display the values being used for matching. I will compare the form’s response ID with the Excel row ID and verify whether they align. If they do not, I may consider using another field, such as the form respondent’s email, which is reliably present in both the form and the table.

Thank you again for your support. I will keep you updated on what I find after making these changes.

Best regards,

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