Create approvals in Microsoft teams

What is Approvals?

Microsoft Teams has an option called “Approvals“, which is used to streamline all the requests and processes with the teams or partners. Using this feature, you can create new approvals, view the previous ones, and see all the pending or previous in a centralized way.

• Approvals hub – In the Approval hub, you will see all of the approvals that you received or sent. This includes the completed ones as well. You can see the Approvals across all of your systems, which includes Power Automate, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and SharePoint.
• Approvals from chat – Using approval from chat, you can send an approval from your Teams chat. You can set it up through the compose box, and then you can see the approvals card available in your chat.
• Note: Only people in the chat should be added as approvers.
• Approvals card – The approval card can give you a real-time summary of your approval’s status. You can see who has sent you the response and who still wants more time.
• Basic approval – A basic approval is typically used when you are starting it from a hub or chat. Here, you can see all the approvals stored and sorted in a common data service. Here, only people on the approvals and the tenant admin can have access.
• Workflow approval – When the users create an approval from Power Automate, it will appear in the approvals list in the application. This can be considered a workflow approval because you can create a fresh new flow and also select a trigger like a system driven event.
• Notifications – You can customize the notification settings, which are available on the Notifications page within the Microsoft Teams app.
• Endless options – You can use Approvals for a number of things such as expense report approval, Avail discount to your customer, request time off; all can be done within Microsoft Teams application.
  

How to create an approval?

Follow the below-mentioned steps to create an approval from the Approvals hub:

• First, open the Approvals app in the Microsoft Teams application.
• Nest, choose a new approval request.
• Fill in the name of your approval request and who needs to approve it, additional information; also, you can add an attachment if you want.
• Now, select Send, and you can view the request in some time. Select, Sent in the hub to view the request.
  

How to create an approval from a chat?

Follow these steps to create an approval from your Teams chat:

• Check if you have installed Approvals in your Microsoft Teams app.
• Now from the chat window, choose (…) more options, and then select Approvals from the list of apps.
• Fill in the name of your request, add who needs to approve your request, add additional information and attachment (optional).
• In case there are approvers, select All must approve from the options.
• Lastly, select Send. The status of your request can be viewed in the chat; alternatively, it can be in the “Approvals app hub.”

How to create an e-sign approval?

Creating an e-sign approval request in Approvals has a few steps mentioned below:

• Select the Approvals icon when you are creating a new message using Microsoft Teams.
• Under the Request type, select the dropdown arrow to select the e-sign provider, similar to Adobe Sign.
• If required, enter your login credentials. Once you are logged in, you can add the details of your request.
• Now, select Add attachment, then Upload if from the option “from my computer” to attach a file, which requires a signature.
• Nest, add the email addresses, and then set roles for the recipients.
• Turn on “Must complete in order” If the recipients have to respond in a certain order,
• Lastly, select Send to complete the e-sign approval.

Discover templates in Approvals

By using templates in Approvals, both you and the team can create and send the approval requests. You have to use the preset fields for templates such as discount requests or the expense reports; all are available in Microsoft Teams.

If you are a team owner or admin, here is what you can do:

1. Manage the templates – You can create and manage templates from the Approvals hub. To do this, select Manage templates>New templates if you want to customize the templates.
2. Scope – If you are an admin of the templates, you can select any one from these options based on your needs: Org wide, Specific people, and Team wide.
3. Basic settings – Basic settings are best for each template. You can choose an icon then add a name, category, and description.
4. Form design – Using this section, you can add the form details for the users to enter when you are filling the template.
5. Workflow settings – You can select here who needs to approve your request and also give the custom responses.

Create approvals with templates

Using Approvals in Microsoft Teams, you can use the templates if you want to create a new approval request. Here is how you can do this:

• Go to the Approvals hub, and select a new approval request.
• In the dialog box, select Templates, here you can choose an appropriate template.
• Add the required information like the name of the request, recipients, and other details if required.
• Now, select Send. You will be able to see the request after some time by selecting Sent in the hub.

Create organization-wide templates

If you are a team owner or an admin, you can create the templates for your organization or teams with Approvals in Microsoft Teams. Below are some simple steps to do this:

• First, go to the Approvals hub, then choose the overflow icon (…)>Manage Templates.
• Now, select New template. You can select a template from the list, or you can create one from scratch.
• Customize all the basic settings, which include design, and then specify the recipients in the workflow settings.

Before you publish the new template, choose Preview to view and verify the details.