Reassigning an Approver

[GillyG]

Hi There!

How can I remove person from a workflow approval and add new approver? ie: re-assign it to someone else whilst they are away on leave without having to re-start a whole new approval?

GG

[v-qiaqi-msft]

Hi @GillyG,

Do you want to reassign the approval to another person?

Actually, only the approver could make it possible. Only the approver could reassign the request when they make the response.

[GillyG]

Hi there,

That really isn't much help if the person is away for a while or leaves that role ..... we would essentially need to restart the approval workflow if there are multiple approvers that need to sign the document/task before it's acted on.

[v-qiaqi-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @GillyG,

Well, I think you could achieve this by accessing to Dataverse data. Power Automate approval tasks is stored in Microsoft Dataverse. 

You just need to create a new record within Dataverse table named Approval request and mark existing approval record as inactive.

Here is a detailed video telling you how to achieve this:

Reassign any task in Power Automate approvals - YouTube

[GillyG]

Wow .... I am so NOT doing that!

It's way more complicated than just creating a new approval workflow with the new approver!

[v-qiaqi-msft]

Hi @GillyG,

Yeah...

If you don't mind creating a new one, this will be the solution.

So, just choose freely based on your needs.

[JAinslie]

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I'm looking to do the same thing, I've had a look at the video but it doesn't go into detail on the actions you need & expressions. It's a walkthrough, but of an already completed flow so it's not great for creating from scratch. 

Is there a more elegant solution now it's a year and a half later or is this still the way it has to be done? If it needs to be done this way, is there a guide that is more useful for someone to start from the beginning with?

[srivatsa]

Here service account comes handy. While creating the approval we can add service account as part of the approver. In any case if the user is out of office or away from system, we can login with service account and reassign the task to other person. With this approach not required to restart the flow.

[thefirstwml]

Hi, I am also hoping to find an easier solution without paying for premium service. I want to confirm, your suggested approach is to send an approval request to the original approver AND a service account / administrator , where approval is accepted as "first to approve"? The service account/admin approval request can be re-assigned to a new approver but the original approver never changes.