Can I re-use the same approval columns across multiple workflows?

Doreen Ooi

Hi,

I've created a Request form and the form submitted needs to be approved by 7 approvers (depending on which team team & scope submitted in the form) So, I created 8 approval workflows. I would like to prevent from adding more columns for approval columns as there are only 7 approvers. Therefore I re-used back the approval columns across workflows. However, the approvers received duplicate alerts.

Here are the workflows I created.

Request form submitted for

a) Scope 1 & 2: Approval request sends to Supervisor 1, Manager 1 & Director 1

b) Scope 3 & 4: Approval request sends to Supervisor 2, Manager 1 & Director 1

c) Scope 5: Approval request sends to Supervisor 1, Supervisor 2, Manager 1 & Director 1

d) Scope 6 & 7: Approval request sends to Supervisor 3, Manager 1 & Director 1

e) Scope 8 & 9: Approval request sends to Supervisor 4, Manager 1 & Director 1

f) Scope 10: Approval request sends to Supervisor 3, Supervisor 4, Manager 1 & Director 1

g) Scope 11 to 15: Approval request sends to Supervisor 5, Manager 1 & Director 1

h) Scope 16: Approval request sends to Manager 1 & Director 1

Please advise on how do I go about this. I prefer not to have lots of approval columns in my sheet. Also, how do I prevent the approvers from receiving duplicate alerts when a form is submitted.

Ben Goldblatt

Hi Doreen,

Per the Approval Requests Help article: "If approval columns and values are re-used across workflows, you may receive duplicate alerts. To prevent this, use different approval values or add conditions after each approved or declined request."

If the goal is to minimize the number of approval columns but use the same values (Submitted, Approved, Declined, etc), to stop duplicates from sending you'll need to add separate Conditions to your workflows such that the emails will only send out when specified criteria is met. Click here for more information on using Conditions in automated workflows.

I hope that helps!

Ben