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Building approval workflows with Power Automate

Many business processes require formal sign-off. While Tallyfy itself manages task assignments and completions, Power Automate provides a separate approvals feature that you can integrate with Tallyfy to manage more formal sign-offs. This is particularly useful when decisions need to be tracked with a dedicated audit trail, involve complex routing, or include stakeholders who might not be daily Tallyfy users.

Introduction to Power Automate approvals for Tallyfy

Power Automate approvals allow you to create automated workflows that request and track formal sign-off. When an approval action is triggered in a flow connected to Tallyfy, it sends a request to designated approver(s).

How do these relate to Tallyfy? You can use Power Automate approvals for more formal sign-off steps around your Tallyfy processes. For example, an internal Tallyfy process might culminate in a document that needs external client approval; Power Automate can handle this external approval loop and then update the Tallyfy process accordingly based on the outcome.

Types of approval actions in Power Automate for Tallyfy scenarios

When building approval flows for Tallyfy items, you’ll primarily use actions from the “Approvals” connector:

  • Start and wait for an approval: Most common. Initiates an approval for a Tallyfy-related item and pauses the flow until a response.
    • Common Types within this action:
      • Approve/Reject - First to respond: If sent to multiple people for a Tallyfy item, the first response determines the outcome.
      • Approve/Reject - Everyone must approve: All must respond. If one rejects, the Tallyfy item is often considered “Reject.”
      • Custom Responses - Wait for one response / Wait for all responses: Define custom action buttons beyond Approve/Reject for Tallyfy item approvals.
  • Create an approval and Wait for an approval (separate actions): For advanced scenarios like parallel approvals related to a Tallyfy process.

Building a simple approval flow for a Tallyfy scenario

Let’s create a flow where a Tallyfy task completion triggers a manager approval if a financial threshold in a Tallyfy form field is met.

Scenario: A team member completes a “Submit Budget Proposal” task in Tallyfy. This task includes a form field for “Proposed Amount.” If this amount exceeds $5,000, it requires manager approval via Power Automate, and the Tallyfy task is updated with the result.

  1. Trigger: Tallyfy - “When a task is completed”.

    • Create a new automated cloud flow.
    • Select the Tallyfy trigger: When a task is completed.
    • Blueprint ID (Highly Recommended): Select the specific Tallyfy procedure template containing the “Submit Budget Proposal” task.

  2. Action: Tallyfy - “Get task details”.

    • Add this to retrieve all Tallyfy form field data.
    • Task ID: Use Task ID dynamic content from the trigger.

  3. Control: “Condition”.

    • Add a Condition control (see using conditional logic).
    • Value 1: Select dynamic content for “Proposed Amount” form field from “Get task details”. You might need an expression like float(outputs('Get_task_details')?['body/forms/ProposedAmount/value']) to convert text from Tallyfy to a number.
    • Operator: is greater than.
    • Value 2: 5000.

  4. IF YES Branch (Amount > $5,000):

    • Action: “Get manager (V2)” (Office 365 Users connector).

      • User (UPN): Use Completed By User Email from Tallyfy’s “Get task details” to find the submitter’s manager.

    • Action: “Start and wait for an approval”.

      • Approval type: Approve/Reject - First to respond.
      • Title: Use dynamic content from Tallyfy, e.g., Budget Proposal Approval: [Task Name from Get task details] - Amount: $[Proposed Amount from Get task details].
      • Assigned to: Use Mail from “Get manager (V2)”.
      • Details (Optional): Provide context from Tallyfy, e.g., Please review proposal for [Task Name]. Submitted by [Completed By User Name from Tallyfy]. Link to Tallyfy Task: [Link to Tallyfy Task].
      • Item Link (Optional): Direct URL to the Tallyfy task.

    • Control: “Condition” (to check approval outcome).

      • Add another Condition control.
      • Value 1: Dynamic content Outcome from “Start and wait for an approval”.
      • Operator: is equal to.
      • Value 2: Approve.

    • IF Approval Outcome is “Approve”:

      • Action: Tallyfy - “Update task” (or Add comment to task).
        • Task ID: Task ID from the initial Tallyfy trigger.
        • Comment/Note: Budget proposal approved by manager [Manager Display Name] on [Completion Date from approval].

    • ELSE (Approval Outcome is “Reject”):

      • Action: Tallyfy - “Update task” (or Add comment to task).
        • Task ID: Task ID from the initial Tallyfy trigger.
        • Comment/Note: Budget proposal rejected. Reason: [Comments from approval].
      • (Optional) Action: “Send an email (V2)” to the Tallyfy task submitter.

  5. Save and test your flow. Complete a Tallyfy task that meets criteria. (See managing and monitoring flows for testing tips).

Responding to approvals for Tallyfy items

Approvers can act via:

  • Email: Actionable buttons for the Tallyfy item.
  • Power Automate Portal: Under Action items > Approvals.
  • Microsoft Teams: If you integrate approvals with Teams, responses can be made directly in Teams for Tallyfy items.

Sequential and parallel approvals for Tallyfy (introduction)

For more complex Tallyfy processes:

  • Sequential approvals: Request moves from one approver to the next for a Tallyfy item.
  • Parallel approvals: Requests for a Tallyfy item are sent to multiple individuals simultaneously.

These patterns allow modeling sophisticated approval routings for your Tallyfy processes.

Tips for Tallyfy approval workflows using Power Automate

  • Clear criteria: Define what Tallyfy event triggers an approval and who approvers are.
  • Context is key: Use data from Tallyfy tasks or form fields in the approval request to give approvers context for the Tallyfy item.
  • Close the loop: Always update the original Tallyfy task or process with the Power Automate approval outcome for visibility within Tallyfy.
  • Tallyfy first: For simpler approvals within a Tallyfy workflow, use Tallyfy’s own task assignment. Use Power Automate for complex routing, multi-level approvals, or when involving external stakeholders not in Tallyfy.

Middleware > Power Automate

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