Watch an approval flow run end-to-end
1. Watch an approval flow run end-to-end
Every organization has processes that need a human decision before things can move forward, such as expense approvals, leave requests, and contract sign-offs. This is where the Approvals connector comes in. Marco in Finance has submitted an expense request. The moment that record lands in the Vantara SharePoint list, this flow wakes up. The first action is Get manager. In a real organization, this single step finds Marco's manager from the company directory. The User UPN field accepts an email straight from the trigger. Next comes Create an approval, and notice it's Create rather than Start and wait, because there's an important distinction. Create sets up the approval and moves ahead immediately, which gives us a chance to do something before the flow pauses. In this case, we want to notify the approver on Teams first. The Details field pulls everything dynamically from the SharePoint record, including employee name, amount, and description, and the Item Link gives the approver direct access to the request so they have everything they need to make the decision. After that comes the Teams adaptive card. Instead of just sending an email, we post an interactive card right into the approver's Teams channel. They can approve or reject from there without ever leaving Teams, which is one of the touches that makes the Approvals connector feel polished. After the card, we add Wait for an approval. This is where the flow pauses. Run history shows Running until the manager responds. That could be seconds, hours, or even days. Then there's a Condition on the Outcome, where the value to check for is Approve with a capital A, since that case-sensitivity is one of the most common mistakes. In the Yes branch, we add an Update item action pointing back to the Expense Requests list, with the ID coming from the trigger and Approval Status set to Approved. The No branch is the same shape, just set to Rejected. Now I'll save and test. A new expense request lands in SharePoint, the flow triggers, and run history shows Running. Here's the adaptive card landing in the Finance Approvals channel, and I'll approve it now. Back in Power Automate, the flow resumes, the Condition evaluates to Yes, and SharePoint updates. Heading back to SharePoint, James Carter's expense request status now reads Approved, and that's the Approvals connector running end-to-end.2. Let's practice!
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