Approval Reminder - "Do Until" loop not stopping

[JannB]

Hi Team,

I need your help with making a Approval Reminder happen within my flow. 

I am trying to implement an Approval Reminder, sending an email every 2 days if the approver hasn't hit the "Approve" or "Reject" button. But once the approver hits the Approve or Reject button, I need the flow to go to its next steps straight away. 

But the problem is that the workflow does not move forward once the approver has hit "Approve" or "Rejected", let's say 30 minutes after he received the notification. The "Do Until" loop keeps waiting for the 2 day delay and the flow does not move forward. This would result in the workflow having a minimum runtime of 6 hours when there are three approvers involved. 

How can I get the flow to move forward straight away? Is the "Do Until" the right solution for this?

The flow below showing the 1st approval only to keep it simple:

New Designer: 

Old Designer: 

Thank you for helping.

Best wishes

Jann

[Andrew_J]

@JannB 

Have you followed the below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_wIwAo6paY

As with your flow in the NEW UI it hard to tell if you have.  Can you take a look and then just send some screen shots if you have or if not modify it to suit the video example.

Regards,

AndrewCan you

[JannB]

Hi,

yes that is the very video I based this reminder on. But it was the same issue. Then in the forum, I came across a solution in this forum without the condition so I have tried that as well. 

It appears that the Do Until only breaks out until it has finished the delay.

I have attached screenshots of the old designer in my original post.  

[sandeepstw]

Hi @JannB ,

To avoid the delay caused by the "Do Until" loop, you can utilize the "Delay until" action instead. This will allow the flow to proceed immediately after the approver hits the "Approve" or "Reject" button.

Here you will find delay until example - 

https://d365demystified.com/2020/06/17/pause-a-flow-using-delay-and-delay-until-power-automate/

Please mark as solution if it helps. 

Thanks,

Sandeep Mishra

[JannB]

Hi Sandeep,

will this still send a reminder every 2 days? 

So my requirement is: Send a reminder every 2 days until the document was approved or rejected. That is why I thought the loop is the choice.

Am I correct in the assumption that the loop does only check once (at the beginning of the loop), which would mean that a 2 day delay would cause it to need 2 days for it to check whether the variable was set to true?

[sandeepstw]

Considering the issue with the loop causing repeated approval requests, I recommend implementing a SharePoint list to track the approval status. This way, once an approval request is sent and not approved, you can trigger email notifications based on the status of SharePoint list

[JannB]

The loop does not create repeated approval requests.

The loop is there to send an email every 2 days to the approver. Once the Approver hits "Approve" or "Reject", I require the loop to stop and and the flow to move on immediately. 

In your suggestion:

Would it be possible to put a dynamic timestamp into this? So if the variable is set to true? If so, how?

[sandeepstw]

I believe there are no issues with your workflow. Once the approver approves it, the rest of the process should be completed smoothly. However, if you're employing a loop to send reminders, you'll need a status check to determine whether to send a reminder or halt the process based on the updated status. 

[sandeepstw]

Please mark as solution if it helps. Thanks

[JannB]

The issue is not resolved, as the loop still waits for the 2 days which is not ideal. 

Is there a trigger I can use within the Do Until Loop that breaks it immediately when the approver approved or rejected? 

[sandeepstw]

Hi @JannB ,

You can establish an approval process efficiently without the need for loops. And use a SharePoint list to monitor reminder statuses for each approval task. This process can be automated to run at scheduled intervals. By retrieving data from the SharePoint list, reminders can be generated accordingly. After the approver completes the approval task, the status can be updated within SharePoint, facilitating seamless tracking of the approval process.

Hope this will help!

[JannB]

Hi Sandeep,

that sounds like a solution that would work much better. 

Would you be able to lead me the way of an example what this would look like? (As I am at the very beginning of exploring SharePoint and PowerAutomate)

[sandeepstw]

Share you email, I will share steps in document. 

[sandeepstw · Accepted solution]

Hi @JannB ,

Here is a step-by-step solution to establish an approval process with reminder notifications using a SharePoint list and Power Automate.

Set up a SharePoint list to store approval tasks. Include columns for Title (task description), Approver (email address), Status ( Pending, Approved, Rejected), and ReminderSent (Yes/No).

Create a Power Automate Flow (Approval Process) which Start the flow with a trigger that suits your needs, such as "When an item is created" in the SharePoint list.

Add the "Start and wait for an approval" action. Configure it to send an approval request to the approver specified in the SharePoint item. After the approval action, add a Condition to check the outcome of the approval.

Depending on the outcome (Approved/Rejected), use the "Update item" action to update the Status column in the SharePoint list.

Create a Power Automate Flow (Reminder Process) and use a "Recurrence" trigger to run the flow at scheduled intervals ( like daily).

Add the "Get items" action to retrieve items from the SharePoint list where Status is Pending and ReminderSent is No.
Loop through each item using an "Apply to each" action.
Inside the loop, add a "Send an email" action to send a reminder to the Approver.

After sending the email, use the "Update item" action to set ReminderSent to Yes for the item.

In the original approval flow, after the approval process is complete, add another "Update item" action to reset the ReminderSent column to No. This ensures that reminders can be sent again if needed.

Hope this will help. 

[JannB]

Will this work for Document Libraries as well? 

[sandeepstw]

Yes, please mark as solution. I think you are almost set. 🙂

[JannB]

Hi Sandeep, Give me a few more hours, it's just soooo busy here atm. I will try it this afternoon. 

[sandeepstw]

HI @JannB ,

I hope you are doing well. I hope this solution is working for you and please mark it as a solution for our hard work!

Thanks,

Sandeep Mishra

[JannB]

@Sandeep,

I am held up by other issues, I promise I will implement it and share the flow (screenshots) with you and mark as solution as soon as it is all successful.

I do appreciate your help here!

[JannB]

Hi Sandeep, 

current situation: 

I have a Document Library: 

Here, we will be applying the workflow (3 approval stage with a switch)

So now, I am following your steps, trying to make it suitable for this library:

Document Approval Reminder:

Is this the right approach so far?