Get started with Power Automate: Approval Workflows

Getting things approved is a part of every organisation, whether it’s an annual leave request, a purchase order or a project decision. As your business grows, these approvals can become increasingly difficult to track and manage as more systems and people are involved.

With Power Automate, you can automate the approval process for almost any scenario that requires approving or declining. It also provides transparency in the process, ensuring the approval process is fully traceable.

Getting started with an approval workflow is nice and easy and a great place to start if you are only just becoming familiar with Power Automate.

1. To start, navigate to Power Automate and create a new automated flow from blank

2. You can then choose your trigger – this is what will trigger the workflow to start, e.g. when a new document is created, a new list item is added or a new form is submitted.

3. Next, add the Approvals - Start and wait for an approval action and add in the details of your approver.

4. This will send a notification to the approver to review and act on the request. The flow will not continue until the approver has acted.

5. You can then add another action after the approval – e.g. if the request is approved, send an approval email to the user who submitted the request.

If you don’t want to start from a blank flow, Power Automate has a number of templates you can start with and customise. Go to the templates section in Power Automate and search for “Approval” to see the pre-built templates you can use: