Adding a fillable field to Approval

Crabe

We are looking for a way that our approvers can add a comment to Approval notices they receive. Is there a way to add or include a fillable field directly into the Approval notice?

Our other option is to have the Approver approve/deny from the Approval notice and then to automate a request update that has the "Comment" field available for them to fill in. But this causes some repetition that may cause confusion - especially as it causes two emails rather than 1.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Crabe

Just to follow up on the work-around we came up with...

I ended up creating an automated workflow so that when certain triggers are met: REQUEST AN UPDATE>SEND TO CONTACTS IN A CELL (in this case, the Dept Head email address) sends an email with the information from the necessary fields - created by using {{field }} in the body of the email message. This way, rather than selecting via Message include Specific Fields, we can ensure that the fields are not editable by the recipient.

We created fields on the sheet to capture the information we need to receive from the Department Head - and INCLUDED them in the message: Comments, Agreement/Non-Agreement. We also added a RECORD A DATE option - so that we can capture the date the notification is sent to the Department Head in the sheet in order to create a due date for them to respond.

When the Department Head Receives the notification/Request for Update - while the information for their review isn't in the prettiest format, it gives them what they need to conduct a review and fill out the Comments field and select the drop-down: In Agreement or Not In Agreement. Once they submit the update, we've set up automations to capture the response date, update the status field, and send a notification to our team that the department has responded.

One of the bonuses of using Request An Update automation is that the row will now show the view pending update icon so we can quickly view and follow up on any pending requests.

It would be great to be able to format the static field information within the message a bit better - but for now, we believe that this will do the trick and allow our departments to provide a response and insight on requests.

rebecca.collins

Following this question!

Darren Mullen

@Crabe No… unfortunately It's a big issue with approval requests.

I personally just never use them because of this and instead use a different flow that links the user to a Dynamic View if you have that option, or a an approval report… Pretty much a different interface.

Other options are to use a pre-filled form to create the approval response in another sheet, then pull in the result back into your current sheet.

Have used this option too.

Crabe

Just to follow up on the work-around we came up with...

I ended up creating an automated workflow so that when certain triggers are met: REQUEST AN UPDATE>SEND TO CONTACTS IN A CELL (in this case, the Dept Head email address) sends an email with the information from the necessary fields - created by using {{field }} in the body of the email message. This way, rather than selecting via Message include Specific Fields, we can ensure that the fields are not editable by the recipient.

We created fields on the sheet to capture the information we need to receive from the Department Head - and INCLUDED them in the message: Comments, Agreement/Non-Agreement. We also added a RECORD A DATE option - so that we can capture the date the notification is sent to the Department Head in the sheet in order to create a due date for them to respond.

When the Department Head Receives the notification/Request for Update - while the information for their review isn't in the prettiest format, it gives them what they need to conduct a review and fill out the Comments field and select the drop-down: In Agreement or Not In Agreement. Once they submit the update, we've set up automations to capture the response date, update the status field, and send a notification to our team that the department has responded.

One of the bonuses of using Request An Update automation is that the row will now show the view pending update icon so we can quickly view and follow up on any pending requests.

It would be great to be able to format the static field information within the message a bit better - but for now, we believe that this will do the trick and allow our departments to provide a response and insight on requests.