How to block a requestor from also approving his own request?

Good morning SmartSheet Community!

We currently have a form for employees to submit Internal Sales Order, in which they must add their functional approver (usually their manager). This request is then sent for approval to 3-4 people/teams.

We have an issue with one type of request where the requestor is adding himself as functional approver and also happens to be one of 3-4 people/teams to approve these Internal Sales Order.

So my question: is there a way to build an alert or modify the approval workflows to prevent requestor email address from being = to Functional Approver email address or involved in the automated approval workflows (included in "Send to specific people")? I hope this makes sense, otherwise see below screenshots. Thanks in advance for your help!

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Accepted answers

JDen

Also, just thought that we could add a condition in each approval workflows that says the IF column (Requestor email = Functional Approver email) must return "NO". This way it stops the approval workflows.

Then we could set up an update request workflow based on that same IF column (Requestor email = Functional Approver email) which is triggered when field equals "YES" asking the requestor to update functional approver name and email address.

OK so I just answered by own question, perhaps this can help someone else. Of if you can think of another way, happy to hear.

All comments

Andrée Starå

Hi @JDen

Not sure I follow completely, but one way could be to use the Form Logic, so the options for Functional Approver updates depending on who the Requester is.

Make sense?

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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JDen

Hi Andrée,

The functional Approver must stay free text as it could by a lot of different people, which changes regularly so we want to avoid maintenance. I can't think of a way to stop it at the submission level, but I just thought right now, that we could have a IF formula (Requestor email = Functional Approver email) with a status in another column and then send an alert whenever the formula returns YES. Not ideal though, so if you can think of something else that would be great.

JDen

OK so I just answered by own question, perhaps this can help someone else. Of if you can think of another way, happy to hear.

Andrée Starå

@JDen

Excellent!

I'll get back to the post if I think of some other way to solve it.

✅Remember! Did my post(s) help or answer your question or solve your problem? Please help the Community by marking it as the accepted answer/helpful. It will make it easier for others to find a solution or help to answer!

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