Caroline Sosebee is a Senior Software Engineer at ThreeWill. She has 30+ years of software development experience and a broad scope of general IT knowledge. At ThreeWill she has a proven track record of quality consultative and software development skills, focusing on the design and implementation of SharePoint solutions, both on-premises and in the Microsoft 365 cloud.
Recently I’ve been doing a lot of work with Power Automate and have taken advantage of the five benefits of Power Automate approval workflows. Power Automate is a part of the Microsoft Power Platform suite of tools. It is a cloud-based service that allows users to create workflows ranging from the simplest notifications to complex approval workflows. It is very user-friendly so even non-technical users can find their way around the interface. Accordingly, it is surprisingly easy to streamline approvals with Power Automate.
Power Automate approval workflows bring a lot of added value to processes by being very powerful, streamlining tasks, and adding often much-needed automation. Here are the five benefits of Power Automate approval workflows.
Benefits
Reduce Time and Effort
Implementing a Power Automate approval workflow immediately reduces the time and effort required for approvals. Users no longer send endless emails seeking approval. Instead, approval requests are automatically sent to the right person, eliminating typical delays from manual handling. The process becomes more efficient, resulting in cost savings.
Consistency
By using a standardized approach such as a Power Automate approval workflow for a task stream, you bring consistency to the approval process across the whole company. This approach also helps maintain compliance with any organizational procedures or regulatory requirements, and ensures fair treatment across all departments and teams.
Automatic Notifications and Reminders
Approval workflows use automatic notifications to eliminate manual emails. Reminders can be added to the flow to keep the task at the top of the user’s list. This helps prevent unplanned timeouts. Microsoft flows time out after 30 days of inactivity, even with a pending approval task. Setting your own timeout values within the flow can handle this. The timeout can be captured gracefully, and impacted users can be notified to restart the process.
Flexibility
Power Automate Approval flows are highly customizable and able to meet any need you might have. Do you need a log of the approval outcome for specific items for audit? Done. How about sending out reminders to complete the approval within a specified time. Yep, this can be done as well. There are many rules and conditions that can be configured to handle most any unique need you may have.
Multiple Approval Options
You can access and manage Power Automate approval tasks from multiple locations. Besides receiving an approval task email in Outlook, you can find all your tasks in the Approvals app in Teams. You can also manage them easily from mobile devices, helping users who are often out of the office and on the go. This allows them to act promptly on the approval and keep the process moving instead of being a block.
Summary
A Power Automate approval workflow brings numerous benefits to an organization. It reduces time and effort, adds consistency to the approval process, and maintains compliance with organizational procedures and regulatory requirements. It ensures fair treatment across all departments and teams. Automatic notifications and reminders eliminate manual emails and prevent unplanned timeouts. Power Automate approval workflows are highly customizable and offer multiple approval options. They are a flexible and efficient solution for any organization. Let us know if we can help you streamline approvals with Power Automate!
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