How To Send Approval Reminder Email Using PowerAutomate

Sometimes approver forgets to complete the request so, in that case, we can send the reminder email to remind them that approval is not completed yet.

Introduction

• In this blog, we will see how we can send an approval reminder to approvers after a specific time interval.
• Sometimes, it happens that approvers forget to approve the request, and that request does not move forward to other approvers. This situation also takes lots of time and it delays the request approval.
• So, it is good to remind the approvers after some time if they haven't completed the approval process.

Pre-requisites

• Here, I have one demo list 'Employee Details' with 'Emp Country' and 'Emp State' columns. We need to focus on PowerAutomate so, the list could be as per your requirements.

Requirements

• My requirement is that when an item is created in the list, my flow should be triggered and send an approval email to the approvers. If approvers are not completing the request within 5 minutes (for example, you can set days or hours) a reminder should trigger and after every 5 minutes, it should send to approvers so, that approvers can notice that approval was missed by them.
• If approval is completed then the flow should move forward.

Let's fulfill our requirements,

• Go to the flow app.
• Create a new automated cloud flow.

• Next, enter your flow name and select trigger When an item is created and click on the 'Create' button.

• Select the site address and the list name in the 'When an item is created' trigger.
• Next, add a variable to track whether the approver has completed the approval or not. 
  • Variable Name: ApproverStatus
  • Type: String
  • Value: Waiting

• Next, add the 'Create an approval' action and add the necessary details. I have added it for testing only. Also, add the 'Wait for an approval' action and add the 'Approval ID' in it.

• To send reminder emails we will need a parallel branch that will check whether the approval is completed or not.

• Add 'Do until' which will check that the 'ApproverStatus' value is Waiting or Completed.
• If the ApproverStatus value is Completed, it will exit from the Do Until loop and if the ApproverStatus value is Waiting it will send an email as a reminder after a specified time.

• Here, in the 'Do Until' loop added the Delay action. Delay action will wait for a specified time and move to the next step. In Delay action, I have specified 5 minutes for the test. We can specify the hour/week/day etc.
• I have also added a condition to check the ApproverStatus variable value and if ApproverStatus variable value is Waiting that means approval is not completed yet and we need to send a reminder email to the approvers.
• Configure all the actions as below screenshot.

On the left side of the parallel branch, add the 'Set Variable'. This will update the 'ApproverStatus' variable value after the approval is completed.

Please refer to a full screenshot of the flow below:

Save the flow and you are ready to go. Here is the test result.

Please Note

• As we know that a flow instance timeout limit is 30 days, so, after 30 days running flow instance will be completed automatically.
• If you are sending a reminder email to approvers and they did not complete the approval request within 30 days, our running flow instance will be completed and flow will end.
• So, I would suggest that to keep running your flow. You can refer to this blog that how a new flow instance will be created when the running instance gets timed out after 30 days.

Please let me know if you have any questions!