When doing approvals, how can you control the history of approvals

[Greg27]

We are using SharePoint Lists and Power Apps. When the user submits a Power Apps form, it writes the information to the SharePoint List and then it triggers the Power Automate Flow. How do we see the date and time for each approval and display the date and time for each approval at the bottom of each approval email and/or the final approval email?

[ScottShearer]

Please post a screen shot of your Flow with as much detail as possible.  The answer to your question depends on how your Flow is structured.

Also, the best that you'll be able to do is to include that info in the detail section of the approval email.

[Greg27]

@ScottShearer 

Not sure which part of the flow you would want to see in the screenshot as it would take a lot of them, but if all I can do is add fields to my SharePoint List to hold the log information, do I add 3 fields per approver? I.E. if I have 3 approvers, I would add the following fields to my SharePoint List:

Approval1_Approver

Approval1_Date

Approval1_Status

Approval2_Approver

Approval2_Date

Approval2_Status

Approval3_Approver

Approval3_Date

Approval3_Status

Thanks.

[rikdekoning · Accepted solution]

Why not have a single column in your SharePoint list that stores the entire approval history? That way, your list isn't flooded with multiple columns. I've created a simple example that shows 3 ways of having your flow history logged to your SharePoint list; 1 basic text, 1 basic text on a hover card (column formatting) and 1 with HTML (in which you can click through to the actual flow run):

Basically you can do the same in your scenario. Each approver step is a new update to the list that updates the SharePoint column with its previous value, appended with the new values.

Example using some F12 browser alteration:):

[Greg27]

@rikdekoning 

I like how your bottom example looks. If I create a log field, how do you write to the field so that each append to the field starts on a new line?

[rikdekoning]

You can use the previous value of your logging field as dynamic content. Depending on your flow configuration that would be from the trigger or from the previous Update item action.

Simple add that from your dynamic content, add a newline and enter the new logging value(s):

For the icons, you can use https://emojipedia.com which you can copy-paste as Unicode text to your flow

[Greg27]

@rikdekoning 

So, in that example, you added a Single line of text field in your SharePoint List named "Run history"? How did you add the checkbox to the left of the formatDateTime field?

[rikdekoning]

It's a multiline of text field, with no formatting enabled. The icons come as Unicode text from Emojipedia (see my previous reply). You can copy-paste them, just like regular text

[Greg27]

@rikdekoning 

Sorry, I missed the link to the emoji's. Is there an easy way to save the emoji's to one area? Also, what emoji do you use if an approval is rejected?

[rikdekoning]

Not sure what you mean by saving the emoji to one area? It's basically text, so a copy-paste from Emojipedia should be sufficient.

I used the Cross Mark for a rejection

[Greg27]

I wasn't sure if every time you needed to access those emjoi's, if you searched for them on the website, if you favorited each emoji in your browser, if you saved them to a document, or if you had another way that you accessed those emoji's. Seems like a lot of extra work to search for them every time.

[rikdekoning]

I just look them up on the website or in one of my existing Power Apps or flows. I only have a few that I use, so that isn't much of a hassle luckily

[Greg27]

@rikdekoning 

Not sure what timezone you are in, but how do you use formatDateTime() for a specific time zone. I'm EST (UTC-4). I am not finding documentation on it without adding another step in my flow.

[rikdekoning]

You can use the Convert Time Zone action for that. It allows you to set a datetime format as well. Or you can extend the formatDateTime expression with the convertTimeZone expression

[Greg27]

@rikdekoning 

I tried the action, but it is not working. I set it up as the following:

My Run History field contains the following expression:

formatDateTime(utcNow(),'MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm tt')

It's still not showing the date and time in EST. Am I missign something? Should I not be using utcNow() in my formatDateTime expression?

[rikdekoning]

You're still referencing utcNow in your run history field. You should be referencing the outcome of your Convert Time Zone action

[Greg27]

@rikdekoning 

I finally figured out what I was trying to do. Here is what I came up with:

formatDateTime(convertTimeZone(utcNow(),'UTC','Eastern Standard Time','M/dd/yyyy h:mm tt'),'M/dd/yyyy h:mm tt')

Not sure if there is a better and shorter way to write this expression, but it at least works. Thanks again for all of your help!!