Approval Automation in Bulk?

Steven Espejel

Is there a way to bulk send approval requests to a department head so they can review multiple requests through a single email? Current automation workflow appears to send individual email based on each submission. If a department head had multiple submissions 20-30, then they would receive that many emails. Is there a way to bundle all of those requests into one email that allows them to link out to review all of the submissions one by one?

Brian_Richardson

Sure thing! You can setup the report with a “Approver has any of Current User” type filter for when they view it, but the report that you email out will need to include everything as it obviously has no idea what name to use for the filter if it’s exporting. Or you’ll need to do a report for each approver if you want to email an attachment.

Or you could skip the export report email entirely and just tell the approvers to check their reports, maybe send them a reminder periodically.

Brian_Richardson

Not through an automation, but you could do a couple of things to make bulk approvals easier on your department head.

If you setup a report for them, filtered for the items that need approval, they can simply change the approval dropdown column directly on the report and make any comments etc to the row, all in one spot for everything outstanding. You can also setup the report to email to them on a schedule as a reminder (the email will not have approval buttons in it, it's a snapshot export of the report). In the text of the email I would include a link back to the report so they can easily find it for editing.

Note that, for the approver to be able to edit in the report, you'll need to also share the sheet to them as Editor. If that's a problem, then alternatively you can setup a Dynamic View for them that they can use to approve items in bulk.

If you want to make it very fancy, you can place either the report or the Dynamic View on a dashboard, and create a chart or two from the sheet (like…# requests by approval status) and give them that dashboard and instruct them to check it regularly. Then they'll have all their info in one spot and be able to do approvals too.

Steven Espejel

Thank you for the feedback. Appreciate the response. I suspected as such but wanted to triple check myself before making the call that this wasnt a possibility through the automation. I think the report is my best bet forward, as I need to implement this for a number of approvers as we're heading into our planning cycle for next year. Thanks again!

Brian_Richardson

Sure thing! You can setup the report with a “Approver has any of Current User” type filter for when they view it, but the report that you email out will need to include everything as it obviously has no idea what name to use for the filter if it’s exporting. Or you’ll need to do a report for each approver if you want to email an attachment.

Or you could skip the export report email entirely and just tell the approvers to check their reports, maybe send them a reminder periodically.