Vendor Approval Process Using Microsoft Power Automate and SharePoint list

In today's business landscape, developing a streamlined and efficient vendor approval process is crucial. It not only ensures that you work with the best vendors but also guarantees smooth operations in your supply chain or service delivery. Here's a step-by-step guide on how you can structure a comprehensive vendor approval process. We will learn these things -

Vendor invitation
Registration Form automation
Approval Automation

Building the Vendor List

The very first step is to create a Vendor List in SharePoint. Create a list including columns like -

Email - (Renamed List title columns, don’t be confused if I am using the title in flow)
Vendor Name - Type: String,
Manager - Type: Person,
Phone - Type: String,
Status - Type: Choies,
Business Details - Type: String,
GST Number - Type: String,
Address - Type: String.

Where the manager column will include approver manage as a person in SharePoint. You can refer to this image.

Creating the Power Automate Flow

Our focus is to provide a real-time response to vendor registration, ensuring no delay in our collaboration processes. With the robust capabilities of Microsoft Power Automate, we're implementing an automated cloud flow designed for precision and speed.

The magic begins the moment a potential vendor enters our ecosystem. Our selected trigger, 'When an item is created', ensures that as soon as a vendor registers or submits their details, our automated process springs into action. This instantaneous response not only reduces manual intervention but also exemplifies our commitment to efficient and timely processes.

Let's start our flow for vendor approval. Create Automated Cloud flow using Microsoft power automate flow. And select trigger ‘When an item is created’.

Select SharePoint Site and targeted list for this process. In our case, I used my demo site ‘Sandy’ and List name – ‘Vendors’. Throughout this demo, I will use the same list and site. You can refer to yours accordingly.

Step Name - ‘When Item is created’

Inputs

Site Address - Sandy
List Name - Vendors.

The subsequent action is to write an email to the vendor and attach the registration form in order to obtain the necessary information. The manager will provide their approval based on such information. For the same – Add send an email (V2) from the outlook connector.

And add email content that we need to send to vendor like the given image.

We are using Title here for storing emails. So we mapped columns like -

To - Email (Topic)
Subject - ‘On-Boarding Form’
Body -
Hi @{triggerBody()?['VendorName']} ,
 
Please complete the form using the below link . 
<a href="https://forms.office.com/r/9LmmBSuB7w"> On-Boarding Form </a>
 
 
Thanks 
HR Team

Create a vendor registration form using Microsoft forms and name is "Vendor Form"

Add inputs

Vendor Name - String
Phone - String
Business Details - String
GST Number - String
Address - String

Add a new step to receive a response from the Vendor form.

Add a new step and apply to each to get a response from ‘Vendor Form’ and add new step ‘Get response details’

Form Id: ‘Vendor Form’
Response Id: Id (using dynamics content when an item is created)

Then add a new setup under apply to each section to update form that vendor will submit. and map columns like -

Site Address - Sandy (as per my local environment, you can update according to your environment)
List Name - Vendors
Id - ID (select ID using dynamics content under when item is created section)
Title - Title (select Title using dynamics content under when item is created section)
Vendor Name - Vendor Name (select Vendor Name using dynamics content under when the item is created section)
Vendor Phone - Vendor Name (select Phone using dynamics content under when the item is created section)
Status Value - ‘Submitted’
Business Details - Vendor Name (select Business Details using dynamics content under when the item is created section)
GST Number - Vendor Name (select GST Number using dynamics content under when the item is created section)
Address - Vendor Name (select Address using dynamics content under when the item is created section)

Once you update an item in the SharePoint Vendor list by data submitted by the Vendor using Vendor form. It’s time to fetch data back so it can be utilized in approval submission.

Add an action Step ‘Get Item’ from SharePoint connectors. Add details in input fields -

Site Address - Sandy (as per my local environment you can update according to your environment)
List Name - Vendors
Id - ID (select ID using dynamics content under when item is created section)

Now add approval action step using action ‘Start and wait for an approval’. Add inputs as given below -

Approval Type - ‘Approve/Reject - First to response’
Title - Approval Request for Vendor – Vendor Name (This title you can use as per your approval process and dynamics content using pick from ‘Dynamics content’ box from section ‘Get Item’)
Assign To - Add Email address of manager who will approve it.

Details - (You can add details as per requirement, which needs to be sent to manager for approval. For example we are using sample details like given below) -

Vendor Details are here

Name - @{body('Get_item')?['VendorName']}
Email - @{body('Get_item')['Title']}
Phone - @{body('Get_item')?['Phone']}
Business Details - @{body('Get_item')?['BusinessDetails']}
GST Number - @{body('Get_item')?['STWNumber']}
Address - @{body('Get_item')?['Address']}

Now the last step of the flow is updating the SharePoint ‘Vendor List’ list for approval and reject process result.

Add a ‘condition’ step, add ‘Response’ using the dynamics box in the first condition box add condition ‘is equal to’, and in value condition part set ‘Approve’.

Now in ‘if Yes’ the true value case of condition box send email to vendor for approval confirmation using action step ‘Send an email (V2)’ from Outlook connectors. and then update SharePoint Vendor List Item for ‘Approved’ status.

To - Title (In Vendor List we are using TItle as Email of Vendor)
Subject - Approval Request for vendor @{triggerBody()?['VendorName']} is approved
Body - Your request has been approved by @{body('Start_an_approval')['responder']['displayName']}. Comments (if any): @{body('Start_an_approval')?['comments']}

You can select dynamics value using ‘Dynamics Content’ Box.

Now in the ‘If No’ part of the condition box also send an email to the vendor that your request is rejected using the same process. Add action step ‘Send an email (V2)’ from Outlook connectors. And step inputs like -

To - Title (In Vendor List we are using TItle as Email of Vendor)
Subject - Approval Request for vendor @{triggerBody()?['VendorName']} is rejected
Body - Your request has been rejected by @{body('Start_an_approval')['responder']['displayName']}. Comments (if any): @{body('Start_an_approval')?['comments']}

You can select dynamics value using ‘Dynamics Content’ Box.

This is how you can set up an automated process for vendor approval.

Testing Steps

Step 1. Add a vendor in SharePoint ‘Vendor List’ just add an email address so one email will be sent to the vendor for submitting his details. Also add Manager who will approve vendor in Manager column.

And email will be sent vendor with Vendor form.

Step 2. Vendor will fill the form using given link. Vendor will fill those columns -

Vendor Name, Phone, Business Details, GST Number, Address and submit form.

Record will be updated in vendor list using flow -

Step 3. Approval will be summitted to person who added as manage in that list. In example I added my user so I got approval request in microsoft Teams with details -

Approval Request for vendor - sandeep Mishra
Vendor Details are here
Name - sandeep Mishra
Email - [email protected]
Phone - Demo Business
Details - Demo business Details
GST Number - sdsd32323223
Address - Demo Address

Once the manager approves or disapproves, the vendor will get a notification by email.

Conclusion

Developing a streamlined and efficient vendor approval process is crucial. It not only ensures that you work with the best vendors but also guarantees smooth operations in your supply chain or service delivery.

In this tutorial, we've seen how you can structure a comprehensive vendor approval process using Microsoft Power Automate and SharePoint list. We've broken down the process into the following steps:

Vendor Invitation
Registration Form Automation
Approval Automation
Building the Vendor List

We've explored each step in detail, starting with creating a Vendor List in SharePoint, setting up an automated cloud flow using Microsoft Power Automate, and automating email communication with vendors. We've also demonstrated how the approval process works and how it integrates with Microsoft Teams for notifications.