Microsoft Flow Approval issue

[marcellv]

Hi Community,

We have set up a Microsoft Flow for our internal Holiday Request. We use Infopath form for the request (I know, we shouldn't use but we do). When a new holiday request is added to the SharePoint the flow goes out and find the user's manager in Office 365, then start an approval, and depending on the response it sends an email back to the user and also set content approval status on the SharePoint item. This works fine and everyone is happy with it. 

But as mentioned above the life isn't easy we have two issues:

 1.) User's manager is also on holiday: In this case no one else gets the Approval emails as well as no one has access to the manager's Flow portal.

 Questions: 

  - Can Flow Approval emails be shared with other users on the portal?

• Cannot add another user to the "Assigned To" because other manager should only get an approval if the main manager is not available to approve it.
• Reassigning on the Portal is not a solution because it means the manager actaully needs to log in

 - Is there an option to get Out of Office replies with Flow?

• I could add another condition if the user's manager is on holiday but I cannot seem to have an option to get Out of Office by using Flow. I could set but not querying.

2.) This comes from the first issue the managers could potentially go the "Approve/Reject Items" in SharePoint and use the "Approve" under the more option on the list. However, it turned out although it changes the Approval Status in Sharepoint, it doesn't continue the Flow so the users don't get any holiday authorised/rejected emails. They could see (yes) in the Sharepoint List but everyone now expects an email.

 Questions:

 - Why doesn't Flow see when the item is approved in SharePoint?

 - I could probably create another workflow when an item is modified but I cannot seem to have an option to "Get content Approval Status" from SharePoint either?

We are the only one who is having this issue? Does anyone have any workaround please?

Thank you in advance

[mydevexperience]

Hi @marcellv,

Here are the options I can think of for solving your issue.

You need couple of flows to resolve. Not sure you can resolve all in one. 

For the first issue you probably need to check something like status is waiting (By querying the SharePoint list) and check the date created is more than 7 days or so. This means manager is not approved and elapsed the time limit then you could send another email for approval.

For the second issue you probably need to look "When an existing item is modified" then check the status is approved.

Hopefully using the above info you could work out a logic and build a flow.

If you need any assistance please let me know.

Thanks

[marcellv]

Hi @mydevexperience,

Thank you for your suggestion.

The first one could work however it will also run if the manager is not on holiday but busy and was unable to approve it.

The second one would be a good solution if there was a flow which could get content approval status from the SharePoint list. Currently we ould only set content approval status but unable to read.

Thanks

[Dorul]

Hi @marcellv

I think you could try with a parallel branch, and set another Approval if you dont get your answer after lets say, 5 days.So if your manager is in holiday the second approver should approve.

On the second approval click on the 3 dots, Configure run after, uncheck If succesful and check "has failed" and "has timed out". Also on the 3 dots but at first approval, click Settings and set Duration at 5 days.

 edit: you can test it with P0Y0M0DT0H2M at first approval, at Settings (2 minutes).

[Anonymous]

My problem is related. I have a flow that is triggered whan a new file is uploaded to the "Awaiting Approvals" folder on SharePoint. It successfully sends out the approval and works great if it receives an Approval or Rejection. But now I need to change the process so if the approval is not received in 30 minutes, I need to escalate the approval to a higher level manager. I've set up the successful and timeout branches after the approval action, but when I click on the action's menu and pick Settings, all the actions on the flow disappear and I'm left with a blank edit pane. I've tried this on Edge, IE, and Chrome. I've tried from the Flow application in Office 365 as well. All to the same effect. I'm sure it's a security setting that is preventing me from doing this because when someone from IT tried it on the same flow, he was able to get to the settings panel.