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I have this flow

  1. when a file was changed
  2. start an approval process and wait
  3. Next I have a decision
    4.1 Outcome contains Approved ->do something (send email)
    4.2 Outcome does not contain Approved -> do something else (send email with comments)

I need to understand the approval process and I do not have multiple email accounts to test this. SO what is the difference between start an approval and wait vs Start an approval

And within each of the above I have wait for all the responses Wait for all to approve wait for one approval

What I need is to the flow to send all the responses (approved or rejected) to the person that change the file BUT I need those replies to go out imediately and not to wait for everybody to respond. Which approval type does that ?

2 Answers 2

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I feel for you if you have to configure and test a workflow like this without a test account. Something to take up with management. Or at least ask a co-worker to be allocated to help out with an extra account!

As for you question:

Start and wait for an approval: Everyone must approve When send to multiple people it will finalize with Reject outcome when the first rejects

Start and wait for an approval:Wait for all responses It will wait for all responses, and you can build the logic around what are the outcomes of each response. So perhaps do something if majority have approved.

Your flow

So in your scenario I recommend to build branches in the flow so that you start an approval in each branch (and that can basically be any type then), then the file creator can be notified after each approver has either approved or rejected. Once everyone has responded in every branch you then continue with the logic of the flow based on the combined responses of each branch.

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You asked several questions, I'll try to answer them one at a time.

What is the difference between start an approval and wait vs Start an approval?

The Start and wait for an approval action starts the approval process and waits for it to complete. This means your flow will not execute any additional actions until the approval process has completed.

The Create an approval action starts the approval process but it does not wait for it to complete. This means your flow can execute additional actions while users are in the process of the review, however you will not be able to get their responses without using the Wait for an approval action. Using this action will block your flow until the approval process has completed.

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Within each of the above I have wait for all the responses Wait for all to approve wait for one approval...

The first two options (the one's that start with Approve/Reject), as you would expect, give the reviewer two options: Approve and Reject. Everyone must approve means that the approval process will not complete until all reviewers have approved, or one reviewer has rejected. First to respond means that that the approval process will complete after the first response, regardless of whether it is Approve or Reject.

The second two options (the one's that start with Custom Responses), enable you to configure which options will be presented to the reviewer. Wait for all responses means that the approval process will not complete until all reviewers have selected one of the custom responses. Wait for one response means the approval process will complete after the first response, regardless of what custom response was selected. The last time I checked, the use of these options required a premium license.

enter image description here

What I need is to the flow to send all the responses (approved or rejected) to the person that change the file BUT I need those replies to go out immediately and not to wait for everybody to respond. Which approval type does that ?

Unfortunately, none of the actions natively support what you want. If you have multiple approvers, you won't get their responses until all of them have submitted their responses or, in the case of Approve/Reject, the first user rejects.

You can implement a flow that does what you want but it's tricky. You could start an approval for each individual user on a parallel branch, that way you'll get their response as soon as they submit it. You can then determine the overall result of the approval after each of the branches have finished.

Update

I learned something new since I posted my answer, you can do what you want with an Apply to each loop. Please see Flow of the Week: Send parallel approval requests to a dynamic set of approvers. The trick is to set the Concurrency Control.

enter image description here

I hope this helps.

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  • I am trying to wrap my head around the way the approval item works. It seems that it is some sort of gateway that needs one answer or all the answers to allow the flow to move to the next step. If there is one user in the entire flow then the gate opens as soon as the user responds. I am considering using three flows for three users, they will work independently and they will send emails to the each of the users in the other flows to let them know the outcome. Is there any way to centralize these results ? I am thinking to change a column in the doc library, ex: " User X approved" column ?
    – MiniMe
    Commented Feb 17, 2022 at 15:58
  • @MiniMe Please see the update I just added to my answer. Commented Feb 17, 2022 at 16:32
  • Interesting ...I will try to see if that could be a solution. I will post another idea soon
    – MiniMe
    Commented Feb 17, 2022 at 17:24

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