Do until - Approvals email

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Posted on by SamHarland97

Hi everybody,

Thank you in advance for any help.

I have been working on a flow for Approvals and it mostly works well. The left side of the screenshot sent through is okay the trouble is coming from the right side.

I'd like the flow to send an email reminder to action the approval set by the flow after 2 days of not being approved, and then on the third day too. The 'do until' isn't recognising when the variable is true, and the approval has been approved.

Could you help please?

Note: All names have been deleted so that wouldn't be a causation of the issue. Flow - Approval reminder 2.png Flow - Approval reminder.png

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HarryO Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi

I have recently put together and tested a Flow with the outcome you are wanting to achieve.

Please see the steps below:

Trigger for flow to start
Create an Approval
Not Start and Wait for Approval
Initialize variable.
Name: Control (example)
Type: Boolean
Value: true
Initialize variable
Name: Counter (example)
Type: Integer
Value 0
Do Until Control
Control is equal to False
Wait for an approval
Approval ID: Approval ID
Click on the ellipsis on the Wait for an approval connector to set the Timeout duration (P1D = 1 day)
Send an email (V2) – If wanting to use O365 Outlook
Fill in details using dynamic content and use Respond Link option from Create an approval connector
On the Send an email connector, Configure to run after: Wait for an approval has timed out
Increment variable:
Name: Counter
Value: 1
Condition control
Counter is equal to ‘number of re-attempts you want’
If yes brand: Set Variable
Name: control
Value: false
Add a parallel branch
Set Variable on the parallel branch
Name: control
Value: false
Using this solution means that if the approver is working from a resent approval, it comes as an email with the link to take them to their Flow approvals (in step 8a). If they approve here and go back to the original email with the Approve and Reject option it will auto update and say the approval has already been submitted.

I hope this helps and if it does then please accept this as the solution.

Kind regards,
Harry.

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SamHarland97 45 on at

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Hi Harry,

Thank you for your reply.

I have made a mistake closing the 'apply to each' box and not showing it. I need to implement a create item on a SharePoint list into this, where would I do this?

Thanks,
Sam

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HarryO Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi Sam

I have tested adding an action to create an item on a SharePoint list if the first approval is accepted or if the approval process goes into a Do Until loop. Please note this was based on the solution that I provided above, I will paste the steps again below and highlight the additional actions in bold red.

Trigger for flow to start
Create an Approval
Not Start and Wait for Approval
Initialize variable.
Name: Control (example)
Type: Boolean
Value: true
Initialize variable
Name: Counter (example)
Type: Integer
Value 0
Do Until Control
Control is equal to False
Wait for an approval
Approval ID: Approval ID
Click on the ellipsis on the Wait for an approval connector to set the Timeout duration (P1D = 1 day)
Send an email (V2) – If wanting to use O365 Outlook
Fill in details using dynamic content and use Respond Link option from Create an approval connector
On the Send an email connector, Configure to run after: Wait for an approval has timed out
Increment variable:
Name: Counter
Value: 1
Condition control
Counter is equal to ‘number of re-attempts you want’
If yes brand: Set Variable
Name: control
Value: false
Add a parallel branch
Set Variable on the parallel branch
Name: control
Value: false
Add Create Item action and fill in the required details
Add Condition Control
Set condtition to: Control (or name entered in Initialzie Variable) is equal to True
In the If Yes container add Create Item and fill in the required details.
Kind regards,
Harry.

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SamHarland97 45 on at

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Hi Harry,

I apologise for my delay in getting back to you.

This is the automation I had initially used: https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/approval-reminders-using-parallel-branches/

My problem is that it is now not recognising that the approval is equal to true.

I have tested the automation above and haven't received the desired result.

Thank you again for all of your help.

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efw 2 on at

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Hi Harry, I guess I don't really understand this do until control = false loop. how does it keep incrementing if control was set to true, but then once inside the loop, there is a parallel branch that sets it to false? won't it stop incrementing at that point because it's a do until control = false?

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