Purchase requests, time-off requests, document sign-offs, engineering changes: most businesses approve these by email. Someone sends a request, it gets forwarded, someone replies “approved” from their phone, and six months later nobody can find out who approved what or when.
Microsoft 365 already includes the pieces to do better. For most approval processes, a SharePoint list and a Power Automate flow using the Approvals connector are enough, with no custom software.
The basic pattern
- A SharePoint list holds the requests. Each item is one request, with columns for the requester, amount or details, status, approver, decision date, and comments. The list is the record of truth.
- A flow starts when an item is created. It reads the request and works out who needs to approve it.
- The Approvals action sends the request. “Start and wait for an approval” delivers it by email, in Teams, and in the Approvals app, where approvers can respond from anywhere.
- The flow writes the result back. Status, approver, date, and comments go back to the list item, and the requester gets a notification.
That’s it. The requester fills in a form, the approver taps Approve in Teams, and the list keeps a permanent record.
Getting the details right
- Choose the approval type deliberately. “First to respond” suits a group where anyone can approve. “Everyone must approve” suits sign-offs that need several people. Custom responses let you offer options such as Approve, Reject, or Needs changes.
- Route by rule, not by name. Look up approvers from a small settings list (by department, cost center, or amount threshold) instead of typing email addresses into the flow. When someone changes roles, you update a list item, not the flow.
- Handle timeouts. Approvals can sit forever. Configure a timeout and escalate or send a reminder when it passes.
- Lock down the list. Requesters can create items and see their own; only the flow’s account should be able to change the status column. Otherwise the audit trail means nothing.
- Run flows under a service account, and keep them in a solution. A flow owned by one employee’s account stops working when that account is disabled. Put the flow in a solution, give it a service account or co-owners, and document it.
Multi-step approvals
Many processes need more than one level: a manager, then finance above a certain amount. Build these as sequential approval steps with conditions in between, and write each step’s outcome to the list so you can see where a request is waiting. If a process has many branches or changes often, keep the rules in a list the business can maintain, and keep the flow itself simple.
What you get
- Requests in one place instead of scattered across inboxes
- Approvals from Teams or a phone in seconds
- A complete history: who approved, when, and why
- Reports on turnaround time and bottlenecks, straight from the list
Start with one high-volume approval, such as purchase requests or time off. Once people have seen it work, the next process is usually just a copy of the first.