Help in : Flow to update Excel cell after getting an approval when a form is submitted

[FarisD]

Hi there,

I have looked for a flow to fix this but I was getting nowhere. Any help is appreciated 😀.

I am creating a flow for this scenario:

• Once a form is submitted 
• Based on a project selection
• Approval initiated to a specific person related to the project
• Once approval is given by the designated person
• I want a specific cell in the live excel sheet - (from forms) - to be updated with ''Approver's name''. 

I understand that the key value is the identifier which tells the flow what to update, I thought of having it as the unique identifier for the form. 

I want the flow to pick up the new entry (from the form) and update the cell in the column I created '' Approved by '' with the ''Name of Approver'' when they approve the request. 

I know I am missing something or doing something wrong.

The flow runs perfectly and initiates an approval, I am stuck at the last step of updating the required cell after approval is given.

The column created '' Approved By '' is empty all along and doesn't have any value

Please see the photos:

12

3

Thank you 🙂

I have seen @rjones2022 @MarvinBangert responding to something similar but not this scenario I wonder if you can help?

[Slowpoke]

Is it necessary for you to use an Excel File ? Could you use a sharepoint list instead?

I generally encounter much less issues when using SP instead of Excel

[FarisD]

Thank you for your prompt reply 🙂

I need it as an Excel document because it will work as a master spreadsheet for a department. 

The excel document is already generated from MS Forms so it's intuitive as well and populated properly. 

[Slowpoke]

Ok, is it normal that your key value for the excel "update a row" is empty?

And, if you look at your flow historic, is the "approver name" a null value or not?

[FarisD]

I have changed the key value for both '' Get a row, Update a row '' to the unique identifier for the form submission.

The same issue,

For the Approver name. 

I thought that the name is automatically picked up if the designated person responds and approves the request.

Even if I want to go about it differently.

I have put the '' Response '' value to populate in the tcolumnomn '' Approved by ''. 

Still nothing,

Something is not working in this cycle > when an approval is given >> updating the excel sheet cell.

Its not populating the cell  😞

[FarisD]

Ok more updates I reworked the flow and tested it manually and it shows this:

The last step is failing 

[Slowpoke]

Can you send a screenshot of "Condition 4"?

[FarisD]

Actually what I have done is to change the approval request from parallel branches to start if the value doesn't match 

Still testing 🙂 

[v-jefferni · Accepted solution]

Hi @FarisD ,

Have you solved this question?

Actually you can update the row using that unique ID value without getting that row. See in the document:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/excelonlinebusiness/#update-a-row

The input value will overwrite the specified cells and columns left blank will not be updated.

Since you have the ID value in form response, the simplified process will be as follows:

Best regards,