Lab 4 · M3 Build Approval Flows

Approval Flow

Trigger a flow whenever a SharePoint task is created, route it through a Power Automate approval, and branch on the outcome to update the item's status.

30 min Requires Lab 3

Exercises

01
Exercise 1 — Build the approval flow
Task 1.1 — Create the trigger
  1. In https://make.powerautomate.com, select + Create → Automated cloud flow, name it Task approval.
  2. Search triggers for SharePoint, choose When an item is created, select Create.
Task 1.2 — Point it at your list
  1. Rename the trigger step to New task (use Copilot with the prompt Rename the trigger to New task if the inline rename doesn't stick).
  2. Select your Power Automate SharePoint site (paste the URL if it isn't listed) and the Tasks list.
Task 1.3 — Add the approval action
  1. Add an action, search approval, and choose Start and wait for an approval under Standard approvals.
  2. Approval type: Approve/Reject – First to respond. Rename the step to Approval.
  3. Title: insert dynamic Title from New task. Assigned To: your tenant user ID. Details: dynamic Description. Item Link: See More → Link to item.
Task 1.4 — Branch on the outcome
  1. Add a Condition action. Left side: dynamic Outcome. Operator: is equal to. Right side: Approve.
Task 1.5 — Update the item on each branch

In both the True and False branches, add an Update item (SharePoint) action against the same site and Tasks list:

BranchStep nameId / TitleApproval Status Value
TrueSet task to approveddynamic ID / Title from New taskApproved
FalseSet task to declineddynamic ID / Title from New taskDeclined
  1. Select Save, then use the <- back button to return to the flow list.
Task 2.1 — Trigger it
  1. In the Tasks list, add an item: Title Approval test, Description Test, Owner Name MOD Administrator, Deadline Today, Status New.
Task 2.2 — Progress and verify
  1. Under My flows → Task approval, open the new run to confirm it's waiting on the approval step.
  2. In a second tab, open the Approvals tab, select Approval test, select the checkmark, Confirm, then Done.
  3. Back in the flow run history, expand the Condition step to confirm it took the True branch.
  4. In the Tasks list, confirm Approval test now shows Approval Status Approved.