Make A Power Apps Approvals Form

One of the most common uses for Power Apps is creating a form for employees to fill-in and have it approved by multiple people. A quick of example of this is a Vacation Request app where time-off must by approved by a manager and by the human resources department. Building a form to collect information for this app would be straightforward but how can you send the form to each approver and get them to sign-off?

In this article I will show you how to make a Power Apps approvals form with multiple approvers, send approval requests via email and visualize the approvals progress with a progress indicator component.

I/T Equipment Requests App

The I/T Equipment Requests App allows employees of a company to ask for a new Desktop PC, Laptop, Monitor or Keyboard & Mouse. All requests must be approved by the direct manager of the employee and the I/T manager before they are fulfilled.

Create a new SharePoint list called ‘I/T Equipment Orders with the following columns:

Column	Type	Description
Equipment	Choices	Include these choices: Desktop PC – $1000 Laptop – $1500 Monitor – $300 Keyboard & Mouse – $80
Status	Choices	Include these choices: New Submitted Approved By Manager Rejected By Manager Approved By IT Manager Rejected By IT Manager
Request Date	Date	Date the original request was made
Employee	Person	Employee who made the request
Manager	Person	Manager of the person who made the request
IT Manager	Person	IT Manager of the company
Comments	Multiline Text	Employee can provide a justification for the request of new equipment

Start a new canvas app from blank in Power Apps Studio called IT Equipment Requests App. Connect your IT Equipment Orders SharePoint list to the app and add an Edit Form to the screen. Arrange the form’s fields in a single column as shown below.

Submit A New Request

An employee chooses the equipment they would like to request, writes a justification in the comments field and clicks submit to send the form to their manager for approval. The other fields of the form should be filled-in automatically to prevent data-entry errors.

Status Field

The request status should be ‘New’ prior to submission and then switch to ‘Submitted’ when the employee clicks a button. Use this code in the Default property of the Status card

If(
    frm_Request.Mode=FormMode.New,
    {Value: Coalesce(varStatus, "New")},
    ThisItem.Status
)

Then create a submit button at the bottom of the form and include this code in the OnSelect property.

Set(varStatus, "Submitted"); SubmitForm(frm_Request);

Now the request form should look like this.

Request Date

The request date should always be the day the employee submitted the form. Type this code into the Default property of the Request Date card.

If(frm_Request.Mode=FormMode.New, Today(), ThisItem.RequestDate)

Employee Field

The employee field should automatically populate with the name of the person who is submitting the form. To write person type data to the SharePoint list we must use some special code in the Default field of the Employee card.

If(
    frm_Request.Mode = FormMode.New,
    {
        '@odata.type': "#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
        Claims: "i:0#.f|membership|" & User().Email,
        Department: "",
        DisplayName: User().FullName,
        Email: User().Email,
        JobTitle: "",
        Picture: ""
    },
    ThisItem.Employee
)

Manager Field

The manager of the employee making the request can be found by using the Office365Users connector. Add this connector to your app and use this code in the Default property of the Manager card

With(
    {wManager: Office365Users.ManagerV2(User().Email)},
    If(
        frm_Request.Mode=FormMode.New,
        {
            '@odata.type':"#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
            Claims:"i:0#.f|membership|" & wManager.mail,
            Department:"",
            DisplayName: wManager.displayName,
            Email: wManager.mail,
            JobTitle:"",
            Picture:""
        },
        ThisItem.Manager
    )
)

IT Manager

The IT Manager field should default to the name of the company’s IT Manager. We will hard-code this information into the app but in the real-world this information would likely be obtained from another SharePoint list holding the names of people in key company roles. Put this code in the Default property of the IT Manager card.

If(
    frm_Request.Mode=FormMode.New,
    {
        '@odata.type':"#Microsoft.Azure.Connectors.SharePoint.SPListExpandedUser",
        Claims:"i:0#.f|membership|" & "[email protected]",
        Department:"",
        DisplayName: "David Johnson",
        Email:"[email protected]",
        JobTitle:"",
        Picture:""
    },
    ThisItem.ITManager
)

Preventing Data Entry In Fields

We do not want employees to change the default values in Status, Request Date, Employee, Manager and IT Manager fields. Turn off the ability to make edits by updating the DisplayMode property to this code in each of their cards

DisplayMode.View

The I/T Equipment Requests App should now look like this.

Finishing Touches

A few more lines of code are needed to make the form submit a new request. Write this code in the following properties of the form

DefaultMode:
FormMode.New

Item:
varRequest

OnSuccess:
ViewForm(frm_Request);
Set(varRequest, frm_Request.LastSubmit);

Finally, we want to make the Submit button disappear when the form has been submitted. Put this code in the Visible property of the button.

Form_EquipmentRequest.Mode=FormMode.New

Now an employee can submit the form.

Approvals By Managers

When an employee creates a new request an email is sent to their direct manager asking for a approval. The manager clicks on the link in the email which opens Power Apps to the filled-in request form.

Two new buttons appear on the screen: ‘Approve’ and ‘Reject’. Approving the form will send an email to the IT Manager. If they also approve the employee will receive a notification that their request was approved. Or, if either of the managers click Reject then the employee will get an email stating that the request was denied.

App OnStart Setup

To facilitate the sending of email with links to open the app place the following code in the OnStart property of the app. You should use your own App Play URL rather than the one I’m showing here.

// store the app play url in a variable
Set(varAppID, "https://apps.powerapps.com/play/d475e8ac-6b20-3ad2-e1e1-45cecad28c1d?tenantId=g1b6b210-30a6-4b5d-7e47-cg3d4f7c11ff");

// lookup the request by id number and store in a variable
Set(varRequest, LookUp('IT Equipment Orders', ID=Value(Param("recordid"))));

// open the app in view-only mode if a matching request id is found
If(IsBlank(varRequest), NewForm(frm_Request),  ViewForm(frm_Request));

Email When A New Request Is Submitted

To send emails directly from Power Apps add the Office365Outlook connector. Then write this code in the OnSuccess property of the form. This code will send an email to the manager when a new request is submitted.

ViewForm(frm_Request);
Set(varRequest, frm_Request.LastSubmit);
If(varRequest.Status.Value="Submitted",
    Office365Outlook.SendEmailV2(
        varRequest.Manager.Email,
        "IT Equipment Request - Approval Required",
        "An I/T equipment request was made for a "&varRequest.Equipment.Value&" by "&varRequest.Employee.DisplayName&".  <a href="""&varAppID&"?recordid="&varRequest.ID&""">Click here</a> to approve/reject the request."
    )
)

The email generated by the code above will appear like this in the manager’s inbox.

Approve & Reject Buttons

The approve and reject buttons should replace the submit button at the bottom of the form when the request is being reviewed. Place two buttons at the bottom of the form as shown in the image below.

When the approve is clicked an email will be sent to the next person in the approvals process. Copy and paste this code into the OnSelect property of the approval button.

If(
    varRequest.Status.Value="Submitted",
    Set(varRequest, Patch('IT Equipment Orders', LookUp('IT Equipment Orders', ID=varRequest.ID), {Status: {Value: "Approved By Manager"}}));
    Office365Outlook.SendEmailV2(
        varRequest.ITManager.Email,
        "IT Equipment Request - Approval Required",
        "An I/T equipment was made for a "&varRequest.Equipment.Value&" by "&varRequest.Employee.DisplayName&".  <a href="""&varAppID&"?recordid="&varRequest.ID&""">Click here</a> to approve/reject the request."
    ),

    varRequest.Status.Value="Approved By IT Manager",
    Set(varRequest, Patch('IT Equipment Orders', LookUp('IT Equipment Orders', ID=varRequest.ID), {Status: {Value: "Approved By IT"}}));
    Office365Outlook.SendEmailV2(
        varRequest.Employee.Email,
        "IT Equipment Request - Approved",
        "Your I/T equipment was approved for a "&varRequest.Equipment.Value&" by "&varRequest.Employee.DisplayName&".  <a href="""&varAppID&"?recordid="&varRequest.ID&""">Click here</a> to view the request."
    )
)

Oppositely, when the reject button is pressed the approvals process will stop and the employee will be notified about the declined request. Copy and paste this code into the OnSelect property of the Reject button.

If(
    varRequest.Status.Value="Submitted",
    Set(varRequest, Patch('IT Equipment Orders', LookUp('IT Equipment Orders', ID=varRequest.ID), {Status: {Value: "Rejected By Manager"}}));
    Office365Outlook.SendEmailV2(
        varRequest.Employee.Email,
        "IT Equipment Request - Rejected",
        "Your I/T equipment was rejected for a "&varRequest.Equipment.Value&" by "&varRequest.Employee.DisplayName&".  <a href="""&varAppID&"?recordid="&varRequest.ID&""">Click here</a> to view the request."
    ),

    varRequest.Status.Value="Approved By Manager",
    Set(varRequest, Patch('IT Equipment Orders', LookUp('IT Equipment Orders', ID=varRequest.ID), {Status: {Value: "Rejected By IT Manager"}}));
    Office365Outlook.SendEmailV2(
        varRequest.Employee.Email,
        "IT Equipment Request - Rejected",
        "Your I/T equipment was rejected for a "&varRequest.Equipment.Value&" by "&varRequest.Employee.DisplayName&".  <a href="""&varAppID&"?recordid="&varRequest.ID&""">Click here</a> to view the request."
    )
)

The email sending feature has now been completed. All that is needed is this final piece of code to show the buttons only when the request is being reviewed by a manager. Put this code in the Visible property of both buttons.

(varRequest.Status.Value="Submitted" And User().Email=varRequest.Manager.Email) Or (varRequest.Status.Value="Approved By Manager" And User().Email=varRequest.ITManager.Email)

Go ahead and test the app to make sure the send email and approve/reject features we implemented work.

Progress Indicator Component (Optional)

The approvals form will be functional at this point but it could still benefit from some additional styling. I have created a component to visualize the status of an Approval which you can download for free from the Power Apps Community.

If you would like to add the component to your app click here and then import it into your Power Apps environment. The component looks like this

Insert the vertical progress indicator component next to the request form and place this code into the Items property. This tells the component how to behave as it changes statuses.

Table(
    {
        Title: ComboBox_Employee.Selected.DisplayName,
        Subtitle: "Initial Requester",
        Icon: Icon.Person,
        Image: Blank(),
        Status: If(ComboBox_Status.Selected.Value = "New", Blank(), "Success"),
        IsCurrent: ComboBox_Status.Selected.Value = "New"
    },
    {
        Title: ComboBox_Manager.Selected.DisplayName,
        Subtitle: "Manager",
        Icon: Icon.Person,
        Image: Blank(),
        Status: If(
            ComboBox_Status.Selected.Value in ["Approved By Manager", "Approved By IT Manager", "Rejected By IT Manager"],
            "Success",
            ComboBox_Status.Selected.Value = "Rejected By Manager",
            "Fail",
            Blank()
        ),
        IsCurrent: ComboBox_Status.Selected.Value = "Submitted"
    },
    {
        Title: ComboBox_ITManager.Selected.DisplayName,
        Subtitle: "IT Manager",
        Icon: Icon.Person,
        Status: If(
            ComboBox_Status.Selected.Value = "Approved By IT Manager",
            "Success",
            ComboBox_Status.Selected.Value = "Rejected By IT Manager",
            "Fail",
            Blank()
        ),
        Image: Blank(),
        IsCurrent: ComboBox_Status.Selected.Value = "Approved By Manager"
    }
)

After updating the items property the app appears as shown below. Please note, the progress indicator has the ability to show the person’s Office 365 user image but I have chosen to simply use icons instead.

We no longer need to show the form’s fields for Status, Employee, Manager and IT Manager because they are visualized by the component. Go to the the Visible property for each of their cards and set it to false. Now the app user can understand the status of the approval process much more quickly.

Here’s how the progress indicator shows for each status. (I have unhidden the status ComboBox temporarily in this picture to change the status).

Questions?

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