Do Until Action - Approval

[sharepointuser1]

Hello! 

I'm creating a flow that requires approval by the next-level managers until it reaches a certain job title. The next level managers can go up to at least 2-3 people before it reaches the operations manager.

I'm trying to create a Do Until start and wait approval action needs to loop until it reaches a certain job title, operations manager, for example. I'm having trouble figuring this out and would appreciate any help!

[takolota]

I assume you’re using the Get manager action from the set of O365 users actions and that you set the loop condition to if the user title outputs of the O365 action = Operations Manager.

What’s the problem you’re running into?

[sharepointuser1]

Yes, that's correct.

I did a test where the requestor has two next-level managers before the operations manager. So it's requestor>manager 1>manager 2>operations manager. However, the flow only did requestor>manager 1>operations manager. I'm not sure what I'm missing.

[takolota]

1. I don’t know how that is working if the Get user details isn’t within the do until loop and inserting the user details of the last user that approved.

2. Are you sure the second manager is the manager of the 1st manager?

If you go to Teams, find the employee you’re testing with, & go to the Organization tab, is the 2nd manager in the line of superiors above the employee?

[sharepointuser1]

1. I think that is my issue, how can I do this? I need the loop to get the last approver's manager, have the approval keeping until the approver is the operations manager.

2. Yes, I double-checked.

[takolota · Accepted solution]

@sharepointuser1 

Oh okay.

Put the Get user details or Get user manager action before the approval inside the loop. Then initialize a variable near the start of the flow with an initial value set to the 1st person’s email. Then within the loop, set the approved email to the variable value. Then still inside the loop, use Set variable after the approval to set the variable to the email of the manager or the manager’s manager depending on if you used the Get manager or Get user details action.

[sharepointuser1]

@takolota - thank you!

When you say set the approved email to the variable value. Do you mind expanding a bit?

Thank you so much for your help! 

[takolota]

Remove the Created by email in the Get manager. Instead go to dynamic content and find the variable output. That’s what you put in. Then you can set the approval email to the manager email and create another action - Set variable below the approval where you will also input the manager email. That way in the next loop it grabs the manager’s manager for the approval.

Make sense?

[Pstork1 · Accepted solution]

@takolota has the right answer.  But since you asked me to weigh in here's the way I would do it.  First, declare two variables, one to hold the email of the approver and one to control the Do Until Loop.

Then the loop looks like this. Run the loop until the control variable doesn't equal "Pending".  Inside the loop use the approver email variable to get the manager. Send the approval.  When the approval returns set the loop control variable equal to the outcome if the approval was rejected or the title of the approver was Operations manager.  If the loop isn't complete set the approver email variable equal the current approver.  When the loop exits the loop control variable will be either Approve or Reject depending on whether anyone along the way has rejected the document.

[sharepointuser1]

@Pstork1 

Can you explain to me the condition again? Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Does both conditions need to be met or either or?

[Pstork1]

Sorry, the screenshot is incorrect.  The condition should be an OR, not an AND.  That way the Loop will record the outcome and exit if either the approval was rejected or the approval was completed by the operations manager.

[sharepointuser1]

@Pstork1 

Thank you! Makes sense. 

Is there a way to capture the names of all approvers? I want to update the request in the SharePoint list as someone approves/rejects it. For example, the first manager approves it, I want their name to populate in column Approver 1.

[Pstork1]

Since you are doing the approvals in a loop you can append the name of the current approver to a variable after each approval is returned.  Then when all the approvals are done you can use the variable to store the names of the approvers in SharePoint.

[sharepointuser1]

I tested the flow by rejected the approval but the looped kept going 😅

[Pstork1]

Did you make sure to change the condition from AND to OR?

[sharepointuser1]

@Pstork1 

Yes, it's working now thank you! Would you be able to show me how to add the append action for the approvers' names?

[Pstork1]

You just initialize a string variable at the top of the program and then use the Append to String variable action to append the emails in each loop item to the variable.  Make sure to also add a semicolon after each value.  Something like this.

[sharepointuser1]

Thank you @takolota and @Pstork1! The flow is working now.

[sag-2408]

Hi, 

Can I make the approval request popped up again or sent to the approver until it has been completed?  making sure that there are no duplicates? 

[Pstork1]

Please post this as a new question.  You'll get more responses and others will be able to find the answer more easily later.