Using Approvals and Microsoft Forms - Can we use the Approval to edit a field in the Excel file?

Susan Fioribello

A new challenge for my In-Kind form process, is it possible to edit a field in the Excel spreadsheet using the existing Approval?

Recap: I have a flow that is triggered when a form is submitted. The submission triggers a 2 step Approval process ending in the Donor receiving an Acknowledgement email.

Before the email is sent, we occasionally need to adjust the estimated value. For example, we received a gift of about 50 games and toys. The donor put the estimated value as $100 instead of $1,000.

Currently, when this happens, we open the Excel workbook, make the edit, then finish the approval process. I added a step, so the Estimated Value field now pulls from the Excel sheet instead of the form.

Question: Is it possible to edit the field inside the Approval so there is no need to access the Excel workbook?

Alex Wong

@Susan Fioribello
you cannot “edit” info in the approval step.

You can, however, utilize the “comment” field int he approval step to have the approver input the right estimated amount for the gift and use that info in your later step.

There is a catch though, you cannot “require” the comment field to be entered, so whoever is approving this approval step need to ensure they enter the info before clicking on the approve button. Also, the comment field is “FREE TEXT”, meaning the approver need to make sure they type in the information correctly, OR ELSE that incorrect info will be used in your later step (confirmation email to donor).

It is possible to handle the “catch” above, by utilizing a do until loop on the approval process where you are checking the comment field provided and if it doesn't match what you expect (amount only, i.e. 1000, no currency symbol, no comma, just a number), then the loop continue and will send another approval again, until it is answered correctly. Not hard to code in flow, but not that easy neither. You can give it a try