{"id":110853,"date":"2017-06-29T05:50:06","date_gmt":"2017-06-29T12:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-automate\/actionable-messages-approvals\/"},"modified":"2017-06-29T05:50:06","modified_gmt":"2017-06-29T12:50:06","slug":"actionable-messages-approvals","status":"publish","type":"power-automate","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-automate\/actionable-messages-approvals\/","title":{"rendered":"Respond to your approvals from your inbox and Set an Approval Expiry"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hello Flow Community! Today, we&#8217;re going to talk about some expanded approvals functionality.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Actionable Messages<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With the launch of our <a href=\"https:\/\/flow.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/introducing-modern-approvals\/\"><u>modern approvals experiences<\/u><\/a>, we sent you an email whenever you received a new approval request. This email led you to the Approvals Center on the Flow website. Now using the <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/outlook\/actionable-messages\/\"><u>Actionable Messages<\/u><\/a> platform, you can respond to your approvals (Approve or Reject) and provide an optional message directly from your inbox!<\/p>\n<p>For example, suppose your employee has sent you a travel request. You can reject it and tell him\/her why directly from your email.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/flowblogimagesandfiles.blob.core.windows.net\https://www.microsoft.com/images\/ActionableMessages\/pic0.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Note \u2013 Actionable Messages is available only on the Outlook web app and on the desktop version of Outlook 2016. For the latter, you can install the <a href=\"https:\/\/support.microsoft.com\/en-us\/help\/4016803\/april-11-2017-update-for-microsoft-office\">latest update<\/a> to\u00a0get Actionable Messages functionality.<\/p>\n<p>As we discussed in a previous <a href=\"https:\/\/ms.flow.microsoft.com\/en-us\/blog\/sent-requests-flow-mobile\/\"><u>post<\/u><\/a>, you can also respond to your approvals on your mobile phone using the Flow mobile app (available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/flowblogimagesandfiles.blob.core.windows.net\https://www.microsoft.com/images\/ActionableMessages\/pic1.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Setting an Approval Expiry and Automatic Escalations<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With this week\u2019s release, you can also set an expiry for approval requests. By setting an expiry, you can expire and thereby remove approvals assigned to an individual and take specific actions like escalate to the individual\u2019s manager or provide an automatic rejection.<\/p>\n<p>For example, imagine that you want to escalate an approval for travel requests\u00a0to an individual\u2019s manager if they haven\u2019t responded to a request within 7 days.<\/p>\n<p>Starting with the Flow <a href=\"https:\/\/flow.microsoft.com\/en-us\/galleries\/public\/templates\/d62b2527bb5343d689d5107b0922e57b\/start-approval-when-a-new-item-is-added\/\">below<\/a>, choose the ellipsis next to the Start an approval action and select the <strong>Settings<\/strong> option.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/flowblogimagesandfiles.blob.core.windows.net\https://www.microsoft.com/images\/ActionableMessages\/pic2.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>In the Settings dialog, set a duration for the action using the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ISO_8601\"><u>ISO 8601<\/u><\/a> format. In this case, the duration would be PT7D. For 12 hours, use PT12H, 1 day -&gt;PT1D,\u00a01 week -&gt;\u00a0PT7D, 2 weeks -&gt; PT14D, 1 month -&gt; P1M.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/flowblogimagesandfiles.blob.core.windows.net\https://www.microsoft.com/images\/ActionableMessages\/pic3.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Now configure the escalation portion of the flow. After the Start an approval action, add another Start an approval action and assign it to the first approver\u2019s manager.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/flowblogimagesandfiles.blob.core.windows.net\https://www.microsoft.com/images\/ActionableMessages\/pic4.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>After the second Start an approval action, add a condition and inform the item creator when something has been approved or rejected.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/flowblogimagesandfiles.blob.core.windows.net\https://www.microsoft.com/images\/ActionableMessages\/pic5.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Once you\u2019ve added all the necessary actions and conditions. Configure the order of how actions will be executed. Ensure that the Start an approval 2 action\u00a0runs after the first Start an approval action <strong>has timed out<\/strong> and that Condition 2 runs after the Start an approval 2 action has succeeded. To configure when an action should run, select the ellipsis next to an action and choose <strong>Configure run after.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/flowblogimagesandfiles.blob.core.windows.net\https://www.microsoft.com/images\/ActionableMessages\/pic6_a.png\"\/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/flowblogimagesandfiles.blob.core.windows.net\https://www.microsoft.com/images\/ActionableMessages\/pic7a.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Lastly, select the first Condition and set it to run after Condition 2 <strong>is skipped<\/strong>. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/flowblogimagesandfiles.blob.core.windows.net\https://www.microsoft.com/images\/ActionableMessages\/pic8.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Thanks for reading. We hope you enjoy the added functionalities as well as this tutorial on how to begin to use them.<\/p>\n<p>Please share your feedback about the modern approvals experience in the comments below.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With modern approvals and Outlook&#8217;s Actionable Messages, you can now respond to your approvals directly from your inbox! Learn more about the new functionality and how to set approval expiry and escalations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","power-automate-category":[2752,2836],"power-automate-tag":[2456,2681,2778,2835],"coauthors":[2911],"class_list":["post-110853","power-automate","type-power-automate","status-publish","hentry","power-automate-category-product-updates","power-automate-category-walkthroughs","power-automate-tag-approvals","power-automate-tag-modern-approvals","power-automate-tag-sharepoint-and-flow","power-automate-tag-walkthrough"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Respond to your approvals from your inbox and Set an Approval Expiry - Microsoft Power Platform Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/power-platform\/blog\/power-automate\/actionable-messages-approvals\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Respond to your approvals from your inbox and Set an Approval Expiry - Microsoft Power Platform Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With modern approvals and Outlook&#039;s Actionable Messages, you can now respond to your approvals directly from your inbox! 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