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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / Sequential approvals- ...
Power Automate
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Sequential approvals- Using users other than Managers.

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Posted on by Microsoft Employee

Hello!

 

Is there a way to set up a sequential approval without having it go to the users manager next? I am building an approval Flow for document revisions. A user suggests a revision on a document, then it will go to a group of people one by one that need to approve or deny the changes. I want to be able to make it so that it doesn't go to the users manager, but the appropriate group of people that needs to approve/deny. 

 

Appreciate the help folks!

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  • Verified answer
    ScottShearer Profile Picture
    25,331 Most Valuable Professional on at

    Here is a solution that should work for you.

     

    First, I am storing the approvers in a SharePoint list.  The list is a custom list with a Title column and a Person or Group column that allows you to select more than one person but not groups. 

     

    I am using the Approvers list as a lookup.  The type of document is entered in the Title column and the approvers for that type of document are entered in the person or group column.  The lookup column is titled "Type of Document".

     

    The Flow starts with a "For a Selected Item" trigger.  My document library did not show in the dropdown list, so I entered it as a custom value.

     

    Next, I use a Get File Properties action so that I can retrieve the value stored in the lookup column (Type of Document").

     

    Once I know the type of document, I use a Get Items action to retrieve the row of data that has the approvers.  I am filtering the data returned by matching the type of document column with the title column.

     

    Since there can technically be more than 1 row of data returned, I need to use an Appy the Each to work with the row of data returned - there will never be more than 1 row returned so this is OK.

     

    Also, the person or group column has or can have multiple values.  Becuase of that, I am using a string variable to store the approver email addresses.  I am append an email address followed by a ; to the string with each loop.

     

    I have one more apply to each loop - there will never be more than one row returned but I still need to use an apply to each.  This time I start an approval and assign the approval to the string variable that holds my approvers emails.

     

    If this works for you, please mark this issue as solved.

     

    If you have additional questions, please post here.

     

    Scott

     

    Approval1.jpgApproval2.jpgApproval3.jpgApproval4.jpgApproval5.jpgApproval6.jpgApproval7.jpg

     

  • Community Power Platform Member Profile Picture
    Microsoft Employee on at

    Thanks Scott! I appreciate the detailed response and screen caps!

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