How do we automate approvals and intake with Power Automate?

Key facts

• The Approvals connector supports approve or reject, custom responses, everyone-must-approve and first-to-respond patterns.
• Approvals appear in the Teams Approvals app and in Outlook, so approvers do not need a new tool.
• Store each request and decision in a SharePoint list or Dataverse for tracking and audit.
• Cloud flow runs have a maximum duration, so long approvals need timeout and escalation logic.
• Map the process on paper before building; most delays come from unclear rules, not technology.

Start by mapping the process

Before opening Power Automate, write down how the request should work: who submits it, what information is required, who approves at each stage, what rules decide routing, and what happens after approval or rejection. Include exceptions, such as approver out of office or amounts above a threshold.

This step usually exposes inconsistent rules that people have been working around by email. Agree on them with the process owner first.

Choose the intake method

Intake is where requests enter. Pick the simplest option that captures what you need.

Build the approval flow

A typical cloud flow triggers when a new item is created, looks up the right approver, starts an approval and waits for the result.

• Use Start and wait for an approval with approve or reject, or custom responses such as Approve, Reject and Request changes.
• Choose everyone must approve for joint sign-off, or first to respond for a pool of approvers.
• Look up approvers from the request, a managers field in Entra ID, or a SharePoint configuration list, rather than hard-coding names.
• Write the decision, approver, comments and timestamp back to the request record.
• Notify the requester at each stage through Teams or email.
• Use conditions or parallel branches for multi-stage or threshold-based routing.

Handle timeouts and exceptions

Approvals stall when approvers are busy or away. Set a timeout on approval actions, send reminders, and escalate to a backup approver or manager when the timeout passes. Cloud flow runs have a maximum run duration, so long-running approvals need a design that restarts or tracks state in the request record rather than waiting indefinitely in one run.

Add error handling with scopes and run-after settings so failures alert the flow owner instead of silently stopping.

Make it production-ready

Flows that a team depends on deserve the same care as any business system.

• Build inside a solution and deploy from a test to a production environment.
• Run under a service account or service principal, with co-owners named.
• Check that connectors used are allowed by your Power Platform DLP policies.
• Document the process, the flow logic and who to contact when something breaks.
• Report on volumes, approval times and bottlenecks from the request list.

Measure and improve

Track how long each stage takes and where requests get stuck. Common improvements after the first month are clearer intake fields, better routing rules and shorter approval chains. A small automation that works reliably beats an ambitious one that people work around.

How Accred Consulting approaches it

Accred Consulting builds approval and intake automation around the real process. Discovery maps the request, routing rules, exceptions and volumes with the process owner, then the proposal sets scope, fixed price and timeline. The US-based specialists assigned to your engagement design the intake form or app, build Power Automate flows with approvals, escalations and error handling, and deploy them through solutions under service accounts. In one engagement, an insurance brokerage of about 70 employees replaced shared-inbox intake with a 5-stage Power Apps workflow in 7 weeks. Handover includes documentation and knowledge transfer, with optional support retainers.

Track record: 475+ client projects, 2,000+ migration workstreams and 210,000+ users migrated by a US-based team. Company facts · Case studies

Related questions