The approvals option assumes that you have only a single topic to respond to, since all responses go to the same list. Email with options gives more control over where you store results so that you can get input on a variety of topics and from a variety of audiences. Note: I experimented with sending email with options by looping through a distribution list. (I was thinking of a post-event feedback activity)... It waited for each response before sending the next email. So, I'll need a different trigger!
Agreed Teresa, the approvals space isn't customizable so it's very much a yes/no list. For users willing to configure and manage where they store email responses, the sky is the limit depending on how much they know about SharePoint list columns! It's great to see you're trying things out. The approvals step does have some variation (wait for first approval, wait for all to approve, etc.) Recreating this behavior for the Email with Options step isn't straightforward and powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Sending-email-with-options-to-multiple-people/td-p/178337. The best place to start may be to reorganize the loop to powerautomate.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/advanced-flow-of-the-week-send-parallel-approval-requests-to-a-dynamic-set-of-approvers/
Great content thank you! One question though: do you know if we can change the size of the comments box that appears after clicking on "Approve" or "Reject" ? Thank you!
Great question. They don't have to be in the same Team regardless of whether your flow was created by you or by that Team. You can simply put in email addresses in the assigned to field.
Great video! I'm trying the send email with options. But when I test it, the flow doesn't seem to wait at all (you mentioned 30 days). When I try to respond on the email I get the message that the flow is not in running state. Is there any configurations that I've missed?
If you are using the Outlook Send email with options action, it should pause the flow until the user responds. If that isn't happening you might need to open a ticket with Microsoft or get someone who can put eyes on your flow. Office Hours is coming up on 12/6 and you could send us a screenshot of what you are seeing or we can implement a flow live with you.
Great video.. I do have one quesion. I did try both methods and when I try to use "send and wait for approval" the message comes to my email, but it will not expand to allow comments and redirests me to power automate approvals. Does not seem to work the same way or is there something I am missing.. PS .. really liking your videos..
Hey Archie, that's ultimately what we wanted to convey here: The Start and Wait for Approval step operates on top of your built-in Approvals space in M365, so it's great for users that already are familiar with that space and want to manage the history of default approvals. The other method is more free-form and allows you to customize the response and add comments, but you have to configure more steps in Power Automate in order to record that data somewhere. I hope this clarifies things - let us know if there's something else you'd like to see in a future video!
Hello, in my start and wait for approval flow users are directed to power automate portal to take action instead of taking action from the email itself. Is there any issues with the outlook set up or anything else? I appreciate your help.
On my end, Approve button has a link to sharepoint instead of showing textbot for comments and submit button. Would you know the reason why? I use Start and wait for an approval also.
It sounds like your organization may be limiting the data coming out of SharePoint. If that link takes you to your list of approvals I expect you'd be able to review all of the details there. One way to test this may be to try the Send Email with Options step and include dynamic properties in the details to see what happens. Hope that helps!
Hi, I wanted to try approvals but how do I share the approval to others. Email approval are easier because you can use it as attachment to softwares like JDE or SAP.
Thanks for reaching out @bulldogrocks, Sharing (or assigning) the approval is as simple as adding their account to the assigned to field on the approval step in the flow. In the advanced options there's details and attachments/content to include on the approval as well. If you're asking how to share the actual flow, then you can add owners to it which makes it a shared flow.
Great video and info. I am looking to somehow implement a simple star rating review which can later be collected in a sharepoint or something similar. However i have found that incredibly difficult to achieve due to the limitation of outlook html and css. I considered the option of making a form but that would required the user to click and link and then fill out the survey. I dont seem to be able to find a solution of embedding a star rated feature in the actual email. Any suggestions or tips?
This question made me curious so I simply used the asterisk as a first attempt and used *,**,***,****,***** as my choices. That didn't work too bad... Then I wondered... what if the Email with options action will take ASCII characters. So I pasted this in the choices property... ☆,☆☆,☆☆☆,☆☆☆☆,☆☆☆☆ and that worked! Of course that means you'll need to sort out what to do with those responses, but it seems logical that you could make it work. Here's a site where you can grab an ASCII symbol, copy and paste it... www.alt-codes.net/star_alt_code.php
How do i do the next stop thou, so with the email approval, i have a form where people can request cover and it auto emails the cover details, and approve or deny, but if approved i then want to add an item to shared calender, how do i work with the approval?
It isn't clear if you are using "email with options" or "approvals". In either case, the step right after either the approval or email with options will only run when the user responds and you can add additional steps to do whatever you want (including adding something to a calendar).
@@BulbDigital options sorry new to this, struggling with getting the result of them pressing ether option back into my flow. To then do something with it.
I use the Wait for an Approval flow, but I cannot longer Approve or Reject in the body of the email, when clicking the buttons it takes me to Power Automate URL where I can then Approve or Reject. Do you know how to solve this? Thanks.
I am not sure why you are experiencing this. It might be that something in your email client changed so that the interactive elements no longer work directly in the client. In this case the "fallback" functionality would be to send the user to the Power Automate site to approve.
Thank you for putting the video, it helps alot. While I tried to create the same, the email sending out to the approver is from me (as the owner of the list) instead of what you have - 'Message sent via Microsoft Power Automate, it there a set up that I've missed?
The Send email with options action uses your Outlook connection as the sender. If you want the email to come from someone else, or a "service account" you'll have to configure the connection on the action accordingly. I think what you're referring to is the little note at the bottom of the email indicating that the message was "sent via Microsoft Power Automate..." This is not in fact the sender of the email. If you look at the header of Matt's message in the video, you'll see he actually sent it to himself.
Hey! The second option in the video is the default approvals step which is more out-of-the-box and always format the email to the responded in the same template. If by consistency you mean how the step sends out and is responded... there are a few options like sending to a group of people and wait for whomever is first to respond (or one where everyone needs to respond). Hopefully these are triggering for you, but if not I'd recommend looking at the active runs in the flow and begin your troubleshooting there!
Can we update columns data in approval, other than Status & comments?! I have two more columns from which the user enters data - i need to store it in SharePoint list
The start approval step has pretty limited default fields, but you can essentially put any metadata from your item that triggered the flow in the Details of the step. If you’re looking for something more interactive to display and give you more options to choose from, you may be interested in our Adaptive Cards video: ua-cam.com/video/kKVnC1QzO9I/v-deo.html It’s a bit more involved, but can support almost anything you want to throw at it.
Hey Kavini, Unfortunately requiring comments isn't an option for either Start and Wait for Approval or Send Email with Options steps. At best you can encourage the approvers to do so in the details section of the step. Requiring a comment field or additional data would more likely be done through a custom SharePoint form or prompting users for that input upon a manual trigger to update those items in a list. Instead of a standard approval step you could just send the approver an email/link to the item and have them trigger an "approval" trigger on said item to prompt them for those required comments.
Thanks for the explanation
You're welcome!
The approvals option assumes that you have only a single topic to respond to, since all responses go to the same list. Email with options gives more control over where you store results so that you can get input on a variety of topics and from a variety of audiences.
Note: I experimented with sending email with options by looping through a distribution list. (I was thinking of a post-event feedback activity)... It waited for each response before sending the next email. So, I'll need a different trigger!
Agreed Teresa, the approvals space isn't customizable so it's very much a yes/no list. For users willing to configure and manage where they store email responses, the sky is the limit depending on how much they know about SharePoint list columns!
It's great to see you're trying things out. The approvals step does have some variation (wait for first approval, wait for all to approve, etc.) Recreating this behavior for the Email with Options step isn't straightforward and powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Sending-email-with-options-to-multiple-people/td-p/178337. The best place to start may be to reorganize the loop to powerautomate.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/advanced-flow-of-the-week-send-parallel-approval-requests-to-a-dynamic-set-of-approvers/
@@BulbDigital Beautiful. That works much better. Thank you.
No problem! Glad we could help.
Great content thank you! One question though: do you know if we can change the size of the comments box that appears after clicking on "Approve" or "Reject" ? Thank you!
There is not a way to change the size of the approval comment box that shows in the email to users.
Great content! Does de approver have to be in the same Teams team for the 2nd option "Approvals"? thx!
Great question. They don't have to be in the same Team regardless of whether your flow was created by you or by that Team. You can simply put in email addresses in the assigned to field.
Great video! I'm trying the send email with options. But when I test it, the flow doesn't seem to wait at all (you mentioned 30 days). When I try to respond on the email I get the message that the flow is not in running state. Is there any configurations that I've missed?
If you are using the Outlook Send email with options action, it should pause the flow until the user responds. If that isn't happening you might need to open a ticket with Microsoft or get someone who can put eyes on your flow.
Office Hours is coming up on 12/6 and you could send us a screenshot of what you are seeing or we can implement a flow live with you.
Great content as always Matt. Thank you.
Thanks, Obi! We're happy you enjoyed our content.
Great video.. I do have one quesion. I did try both methods and when I try to use "send and wait for approval" the message comes to my email, but it will not expand to allow comments and redirests me to power automate approvals. Does not seem to work the same way or is there something I am missing.. PS .. really liking your videos..
Hey Archie, that's ultimately what we wanted to convey here: The Start and Wait for Approval step operates on top of your built-in Approvals space in M365, so it's great for users that already are familiar with that space and want to manage the history of default approvals. The other method is more free-form and allows you to customize the response and add comments, but you have to configure more steps in Power Automate in order to record that data somewhere. I hope this clarifies things - let us know if there's something else you'd like to see in a future video!
Hello, in my start and wait for approval flow users are directed to power automate portal to take action instead of taking action from the email itself. Is there any issues with the outlook set up or anything else? I appreciate your help.
On my end, Approve button has a link to sharepoint instead of showing textbot for comments and submit button. Would you know the reason why? I use Start and wait for an approval also.
It sounds like your organization may be limiting the data coming out of SharePoint. If that link takes you to your list of approvals I expect you'd be able to review all of the details there.
One way to test this may be to try the Send Email with Options step and include dynamic properties in the details to see what happens. Hope that helps!
Hi, I wanted to try approvals but how do I share the approval to others. Email approval are easier because you can use it as attachment to softwares like JDE or SAP.
Thanks for reaching out @bulldogrocks,
Sharing (or assigning) the approval is as simple as adding their account to the assigned to field on the approval step in the flow. In the advanced options there's details and attachments/content to include on the approval as well.
If you're asking how to share the actual flow, then you can add owners to it which makes it a shared flow.
Great video and info. I am looking to somehow implement a simple star rating review which can later be collected in a sharepoint or something similar. However i have found that incredibly difficult to achieve due to the limitation of outlook html and css. I considered the option of making a form but that would required the user to click and link and then fill out the survey. I dont seem to be able to find a solution of embedding a star rated feature in the actual email. Any suggestions or tips?
This question made me curious so I simply used the asterisk as a first attempt and used *,**,***,****,***** as my choices. That didn't work too bad...
Then I wondered... what if the Email with options action will take ASCII characters. So I pasted this in the choices property... ☆,☆☆,☆☆☆,☆☆☆☆,☆☆☆☆ and that worked!
Of course that means you'll need to sort out what to do with those responses, but it seems logical that you could make it work.
Here's a site where you can grab an ASCII symbol, copy and paste it... www.alt-codes.net/star_alt_code.php
Just wanted to say thank you for the excellent content. This really helped me figure out my invoice approval process.
Thank you! Glad to hear it, and happy we could help with your invoice approval process.
How do i do the next stop thou, so with the email approval, i have a form where people can request cover and it auto emails the cover details, and approve or deny, but if approved i then want to add an item to shared calender, how do i work with the approval?
It isn't clear if you are using "email with options" or "approvals".
In either case, the step right after either the approval or email with options will only run when the user responds and you can add additional steps to do whatever you want (including adding something to a calendar).
@@BulbDigital options sorry new to this, struggling with getting the result of them pressing ether option back into my flow. To then do something with it.
I use the Wait for an Approval flow, but I cannot longer Approve or Reject in the body of the email, when clicking the buttons it takes me to Power Automate URL where I can then Approve or Reject. Do you know how to solve this? Thanks.
I am not sure why you are experiencing this. It might be that something in your email client changed so that the interactive elements no longer work directly in the client. In this case the "fallback" functionality would be to send the user to the Power Automate site to approve.
Thank you for putting the video, it helps alot.
While I tried to create the same, the email sending out to the approver is from me (as the owner of the list) instead of what you have - 'Message sent via Microsoft Power Automate, it there a set up that I've missed?
The Send email with options action uses your Outlook connection as the sender. If you want the email to come from someone else, or a "service account" you'll have to configure the connection on the action accordingly.
I think what you're referring to is the little note at the bottom of the email indicating that the message was "sent via Microsoft Power Automate..." This is not in fact the sender of the email. If you look at the header of Matt's message in the video, you'll see he actually sent it to himself.
I like the second email. But I can't get it consistently. Anytips
Hey! The second option in the video is the default approvals step which is more out-of-the-box and always format the email to the responded in the same template. If by consistency you mean how the step sends out and is responded... there are a few options like sending to a group of people and wait for whomever is first to respond (or one where everyone needs to respond). Hopefully these are triggering for you, but if not I'd recommend looking at the active runs in the flow and begin your troubleshooting there!
Can we update columns data in approval, other than Status & comments?!
I have two more columns from which the user enters data - i need to store it in SharePoint list
The start approval step has pretty limited default fields, but you can essentially put any metadata from your item that triggered the flow in the Details of the step.
If you’re looking for something more interactive to display and give you more options to choose from, you may be interested in our Adaptive Cards video: ua-cam.com/video/kKVnC1QzO9I/v-deo.html
It’s a bit more involved, but can support almost anything you want to throw at it.
I want to mandatory this comment field(start and wait for approval action) after approved or reject? How can i do this?
Hey Kavini,
Unfortunately requiring comments isn't an option for either Start and Wait for Approval or Send Email with Options steps. At best you can encourage the approvers to do so in the details section of the step.
Requiring a comment field or additional data would more likely be done through a custom SharePoint form or prompting users for that input upon a manual trigger to update those items in a list.
Instead of a standard approval step you could just send the approver an email/link to the item and have them trigger an "approval" trigger on said item to prompt them for those required comments.
You look like Stephen Curry bro :)
Thanks! Haha, What’s the email equivalent of a 3-pointer?