Struggling to get budget approval working for final approver

[Ability_CN]

hi guys,

im struggling to get what should be a simple flow to work.

Basically, im trying to make a flow so that if a PO request exceeds the budget approver's limit, it's the get a 2nd approval.

I'm falling at the 2nd approval stage after the response is approve.

Any help appreciated.

I'm getting this error:

[rzaneti]

Hi @Ability_CN ,

The shared image suggests that you had an issue somewhere in your 'Condition 3' (in itself or in any other action from 'If yes'/'If no' blocks). Could you please share an image from your 'Condition 3' action expanded, so we can see exactly in which action you are receiving an error?

[Ability_CN]

Sorry, yes I realised afterwards the error was further down.

i've since renamed some stuff.

[rzaneti]

Hi @Ability_CN ,

Thank you for the image! Your Approval action is causing the problem. Based on your image,  it is possible that one of the emails was incorrectly entered (it is "@a" only): 

If this is not the problem, you can set some a 'Compose' actions before the approval action and pass to each of them the dynamic contents that you are using into the Approval action. It will make easier to understand how Power Automate is reading these values and to identify any errors there.

Let me know if it works for you or if you need any additional help!

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[Ability_CN]

Sorry but my power automate skills are terrible.

How would I use compose?

[rzaneti]

Hi @Ability_CN ,

Sorry for the incomplete instruction! Here is an example about how to use the compose:

You just need to set the dynamic content (highlighted in blue) into the 'Inputs' field. Do it for each dynamic content that you are using in the Approval action.

As an additional context: the 'Compose' action is generally used for building arrays/objects in Power Automate. We are using here exclusively to allow you to visualize the output in an easier way, as it will just display the value stored into your dynamic contents after you run the flow. For example, when I run a flow containing the 'Compose' that I used in the example above, the output will looks like this:

So you will be able to visualize what is stored in the dynamic content of 'Name' property (which, in this case, is 'Employee1').

If you need any additional clarification about it, let me know and I will do my best to provide you with. Also, there is this article that I recently wrote about how dynamic contents work in Power Automate: it may be useful to understand how to use it: http://digitalmill.net/2023/07/31/using-dynamic-content-in-power-automate/  

[Ability_CN]

Ok so I added this in at the top

stuck it down here

But it seems to be cutting off the email

[rzaneti]

Hi @Ability_CN ,

You may allocate the 'Compose' inside the 'Condition 3', before the 'Waiting for 2nd approval', and set the dynamic content from 'Final approver'. After the flow run, check the values allocated to 'Compose'. 

Also, when adding the 'Final approver' as dynamic content, does Power Automate provide you with other options, like 'Final approver email'?

[Ability_CN]

So ive checked the data in the compose from the dynamic "final approver" and its returning all this info:

{
  "@odata.type": "#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
  "Claims": "i:0#.f|membership|<email>.co.uk",
  "DisplayName": "<Name>",
  "Email": "<Email>",
  "Picture": "https:///sites/Procurement/_layouts/15/UserPhoto.aspx?Size=L&AccountName=<email>.co.uk",
  "Department": null,
  "JobTitle": "-"
}

[rzaneti]

Hi @Ability_CN ,

You will need to include an expression to refer to the email that you have stored into 'Final approver' property. To  achieve it, we first need to identify the 'Final approver' logical name, and we can find it in the raw outputs from your trigger. If you don't know how to access the raw outputs, follow the steps below:

First, go to the 'flow details' page and click in one of the previous runs:

Once you do it, you will be in the 'flow run page', which may look like this:

Go to the 'When a new item is created ' trigger and click in it to expand the details. Then click in "Show raw outputs" in the OUTPUT section. In some cases, this button appears as 'Click to download':

It will display a sidebar on the right side of your screen containing this JSON notation (if you had the 'click to download' option, it will open the outputs in a new tab):

Find the "body" property. It is always after the "headers" property. Inside the "body" (and eventually inside the "value" property), you will see the properties related to your List record, and one of these will be the 'Final approver' (which may contain the same sub-properties that appeared in your 'Compose' output).

Once you identify the 'Final approver' property, copy it, as we will use it into the expression.

Now come back to your 'Compose' action in edit mode and insert the following expression as input: triggerOutputs()['body']['final_approver_property_name']['email'], replacing the text in red for the property name that you got from the trigger raw outputs. You will insert this expression in the 'Fx' input, and to find it, follow these steps:

- Click in the 'Inputs' field from your 'Compose' action

- It will display the dynamic content pane, that you used in the past to check the 'Final approver' content. Click in the 'Expression' tab (highlighted in green below)

- Enter the expression in the 'Fx' input (highlighted in yellow)

- Click 'OK'

Note: I wrote the expression above without check your raw outputs, so it is possible that it will fail. 

After that, run the flow again just to confirm if the 'Compose' is returning only your Approver's email address. If yes, apply the expression directly to your Approval action 'Assigned to' input. If not, please share an image from the raw outputs that you extracted from the trigger (displaying the whole body property, and removing any sensitive content). With that, I will be able to write the correct expression for you.