Trigger approval for new rows added to excel table

[AKB_2K19]

Hello,

I have an excel file which contains a table "Proposed_changes_for_approval". Every other day, we keep adding new changes to this table and Mark a column "Send For Approval" as Yes. Each day flow picks up the list of rows where Send for Approval is marked as Yes and triggers approval action to corresponding approver maintained in that table.

But now what is happening if the approver doesn't approve the change for 1 day, next day another flow run is triggered automatically containing all previous changes pending for approval. So in their Requested Flow tab, they are having duplicate records. Gets very difficult which one they have to approve or else they have to approve same change again and again to clear their Pending approval queue.

How to update the flow so that each day it picks only those changes which were not sent for approval previously or new row(s) added each day to that table?

Thanks,
AK

[v-bacao-msft]

Hi @AKB_2K19,

What you mean is that if Approver does not perform the approval, the value of the corresponding field will not be updated. So The next day Flow will get the corresponding row, and then send the execution of the Start approval action again?

Could you share the details of your Excel table and Flow configuration? It is best to take a screenshot.

The suggestion I have given currently is that you could consider adding an additional column, configure Update row action on the "Start approval action", and change the status of this column to a value such as “approval that has been sent”.

In addition, when checking the row that needs to send the approval, it is necessary to check the status value of this column additionally. If it is empty, it needs to be sent to approve.

You could add additional conditions via the and() function.

I don't know the specific configuration of your Flow. I cannot provide a good example. I hope the above suggestions can help you a little.

Please take a try.

Best Regards,

Barry

[AKB_2K19]

This is flow I have created. 

• Recurrence is checking the excel file every day and picking up all rows from Proposed Changes table
• Then Filter array is filtering the list where "Sent for Approval" has been marked with "Yes".
• Based on this a loop is created where Approval email is triggered to Approver based on Approver details maintained in the "Approver Column" in the table.
• Flow is waiting till all the changes have been approved.

In case of Approval taking more than 1 day to approve the change, next day flow again triggers them with the same email because it sees that Sent For Approval column has been marked with Yes. This is creating duplicate records in the approver's Received tab. Even if he approves that request, there are other requests with same title pending in his/her queue.

@v-bacao-msft you mentioned about adding additional column where Flow will update the table with “approval that has been sent” and using and() function. Can you let me know where do I insert this and() function and during which step I should update that the "Approval has been sent" to excel table?

[v-bacao-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @AKB_2K19,

You could click Filter array-Edit in advanced mode, then configure and() function.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/flow/use-expressions-in-conditions

Adding additional decision conditions is what I mentioned in my previous post.

As for the Update row action, you could configure it above the Start an approve action, which is the first action of that branch.

Please take a try.

Best Regards,