How to Use the Approval Action in Power Automate

Introduction

Microsoft Power Automate allows you to automate approval processes for business activities such as invoice approvals, leave requests, document reviews, and purchase requests.

The Approval action helps you send approval requests to specific users and process their responses automatically. Instead of manually sending emails and tracking responses, you can create a flow that manages the approval process.

What Is the Approval Action in Power Automate?

The Approval action is used to request approval from one or more users. Approvers can review the request and respond with options such as Approve or Reject.

Power Automate provides actions such as:

Start and wait for an approval: Creates an approval request and waits for the approver's response.
Create an approval: Creates an approval request without waiting for the response in the same action.
Wait for an approval: Waits for a previously created approval to receive a response.

These actions are available through the Approvals connector.

Types of Approval

Power Automate supports different approval types depending on your business requirements.

Approval type	Description
Approve/Reject – First to respond	The first approver to respond determines the outcome.
Approve/Reject – Everyone must approve	Every assigned approver must approve the request.
Custom Responses – Wait for one response	Allows you to define custom response options.
Custom Responses – Wait for all responses	Collects responses from all assigned approvers.

Example: Create an Invoice Approval Flow

Suppose an organization uses a SharePoint list to store invoice details. When a new invoice is submitted, the finance manager must review and approve it.

If the invoice is approved, its status should change to Approved. If the invoice is rejected, its status should change to Rejected.

Step 1: Create an Automated Cloud Flow

Open Power Automate.
Select Create.
Choose Automated cloud flow.
Enter the flow name: Invoice Approval Flow.
Select the SharePoint trigger When an item is created.
Select your SharePoint site and invoice list.

This trigger starts the flow whenever a new invoice item is created.

Step 2: Add the Start and Wait for an Approval Action

Select New step.
Search for Start and wait for an approval.
Select the action from the Approvals connector.
Configure the following fields:

Field	Example value
Approval type	Approve/Reject – First to respond
Title	Invoice Approval Required
Assigned to	[email protected]
Details	Please review the invoice and approve or reject it.
Item link	Link to the SharePoint invoice item
Item link description	View Invoice Details

Use dynamic content from the SharePoint trigger where appropriate. For example, include the invoice number and amount in the approval title or details.

Step 3: Add a Condition

After the approval action, add a Condition action.

Configure the condition as follows:

Left value: Outcome from the approval action
Operator: is equal to
Right value: Approve

The flow now follows different paths depending on the approver's response.

Step 4: Update the Invoice Status

If Yes — Approved

Add the SharePoint Update item action.

Site Address: Your SharePoint site
List Name: Your invoice list
ID: ID from the trigger
Invoice Status: Approved

Populate any other required SharePoint columns with their existing values.

If No — Rejected

Add another Update item action in the No branch.

Site Address: Your SharePoint site
List Name: Your invoice list
ID: ID from the trigger
Invoice Status: Rejected

You can also add a rejection notification email to inform the invoice submitter.

Complete Flow Structure

The overall flow looks like this:

When an item is created in SharePoint
Start and wait for an approval
Condition: Is the outcome equal to Approve?
If Yes: Update invoice status to Approved
If No: Update invoice status to Rejected
Optionally, send an email notification

Step 5: Test the Flow

Save the flow.
Create a test invoice in SharePoint.
Check whether the approval request is sent to the assigned approver.
Open the request in the Approvals section of Power Automate or through the approval notification.
Approve or reject the request.
Verify that the SharePoint invoice status is updated correctly.

Conclusion

The Approval action in Power Automate helps organizations automate decision-making processes and reduce manual work. By combining approval actions with SharePoint, conditions, and email notifications, you can create a workflow that tracks approval decisions and updates records automatically.

This approach can be used for invoice approvals, purchase requests, employee leave requests, document reviews, and many other business processes.