Start and wait for approval step - Send to another approver if first approver doesn't reply

[mvw1985]

Hi all,

I hope someone can help me.

In a power automate flow I have added a Start and wait for approval step. This all seems to work fine but what if the person who needs to approve is on a holiday, sick, or just ignoring the approve/decline task? Can I add a step that after certain days (e.g.) of non responding, this approval request is forwarded to someone else? 

Or are other solutions/workarounds available to make sure an approval doesn't get lost?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Kind regards, Marielle

[v-wenjuan-msft]

Hi @mvw1985 ,

Suppose your flow send an approval and wait one day for approvers to respond. If no response after one day, the action will time out and send a new approval and assign to new person for further check. If the first approval received answer within one day, then send an email (or any other action you like but in my demo I send an email for example).

Here is my demo:

1. Set "Start and wait for an approval"'s timeout to P1D. You can refer to below link if you want set the timeout to longer or shorter: How to set expiry/ timeout for Approval flows in Power Automate - Debajit's Power Apps & Dynamics 36...

2. add parallel branch and set "configure after" to determine which branch the flow will go on.

Community Support Team _ Wenjuan Zou

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it.

[mvw1985]

Hi, 

Thanks a lot, this helps.

But I still have a question.

If the first approver doesn't respond within 3 days I want the start and approval step to go to the next person. If they approve, the flow can go on.

But if the first approver approves, the flow can also go on. So the steps must come together in the 'Condition' step because either way, 1 of these 2 approvers approve. How do I connect the paralel branches to the next 'Condition' step? (which action do I need to choose from the list 'choose an operation'?)

See image below.

[v-wenjuan-msft]

Click here to add an action to merge branches:

[mvw1985]

The thing is that the action already exists. So how do I connect/attach both branches to this next, already existing, action?

[v-wenjuan-msft]

Hi @mvw1985 ,

You can add an (whatever) action as per my previous advice first, and then drag the action to the merged body, and delete the (whatever) action.

Community Support Team _ Wenjuan Zou

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it.

[mvw1985]

Hmm I don't know exactly what you mean. But look at the image below. I want to connect both actions 'Start and wait for approval 4' and 'Send an email V2' to the next step 'Apply to each 8'. How do I do that???

[v-wenjuan-msft · Accepted solution]

1. Click "+New step" to add an (whatever) action

2. drag the action below to it:

3. Delete the action you add in step 1:

4. That's it.