Power Automate approval actions: A comparison of Start and wait, Create, and Wait for an approval

If you’re responsible for building flows in Power Automate, you’re certain to be asked to create an approval process at some point. This blog post will cover:

• Comparison of the three approval action types, descriptions, and business use cases
• How to create a basic approval flow using Power Automate
• Dynamic content differences between Power Automate approval actions

Let’s start by comparing your three approval action options.

Comparison of Power Automate approval actions

One of the actions available in Power Automate is the Start and wait for an approval action. This action starts the approval process and waits for it to be completed before executing any additional actions. Actions that follow are typically response-dependent, such as creating an item or updating a status if approved or rejected.

Another action available in Power Automate is the Create an approval action. This action starts the approval process but does not wait for it to be completed. Instead, you can use the Wait for an approval action to wait for the approval to complete that was started by the Create an approval action. You might use these actions…

• …if you want to have steps between creation and waiting. For example, if you wanted to customize the email that is sent to approvers, you would disable Enable notifications on the Create an approval step, then add a Send an email action afterwards but before the Wait for an approval step. This gives you complete control over the look and feel of the email request, rather than sticking to the default Power Automate branded message.
• …if your approval process will take more than 30 days and your flow will time out before it’s finished. Create an approval creates the approval in Microsoft Teams (or Power Automate) and approvers can approve it there when they’re ready. Your flow won’t fail as You may not necessarily wait for an approval in the flow itself.

Here is a table that summarizes the differences between the various actions:

Action	Description	Business Use Case Example
Start and wait for an approval	Starts the approval process and waits for it to be completed.	A manager wants to automate the approval process for leave requests. They use the Start and wait for an approval action to ensure that the request is approved before the employee’s calendar is updated.
Create an approval	Starts the approval process but does not wait for it to be completed.	A team lead wants to automate the approval process for expense reports. They use the Create an approval action to create the approval record and send notifications, but they don’t want to wait for the approval to complete before executing the next step in the flow. In this case, the approval response may not affect the following steps, but just needed to be requested and logged.
Wait for an approval	Used to wait for an approval to complete that was started by the Create an approval action.	A project manager wants to automate the approval process for project proposals. They use the Create an approval action to create the approval record, send their own custom notifications as a Planner task, an email, or a chat message, and then use the Wait for an approval action to wait for the approval to complete before executing the next step(s) in the flow.

Create an approval and Wait for an approval can be used consecutively to achieve the same result as only using the all-in-one action of Start and wait for an approval. For example, let’s say you use Microsoft Teams to manage your team’s projects. You can use Power Automate to automate the approval process for project proposals. You can create a flow that uses the Create an approval action to create the approval record and send notifications to the approvers. Once the approvers have approved the proposal, you can use the Wait for an approval action to wait for the approval to complete before executing the next step in the flow. This ensures that the project proposal is approved before any additional actions are taken but also gives you the added benefits of flexibility down the road like adding steps between creation and waiting, as well as additional dynamic content that may be helpful (see the dynamic content section below).

How to create a basic approval flow using Power Automate

Here is a step-by-step guide for creating a basic approval flow in Power Automate using reimbursement requests as an example:

1. Select the When an item is created trigger for SharePoint. This trigger will start the flow when a new reimbursement request is created in the list.
2. Add the Start and wait for an approval action to your flow. This action will start the approval process and wait for it to be completed before executing any additional actions.
3. Configure the Start and wait for an approval action by specifying the approvers, the approval type, and any other relevant details. For example, you can specify that the approval should be sent to the employee’s manager and the Accounting department, and that the approval type should be Approve/Reject – Everyone must approve.
4. Add any additional actions that you want to execute after the approval process has been completed. You’ll almost always have a Condition control that checks to see if the response was Approve or Reject. Then, for example, you might use the Send an email action to notify the employee that their reimbursement request has been approved, and maybe Update item to set the SharePoint item’s status as Approved.

Here is a side-by-side comparison that shows the steps for a flow that uses start and wait for an approval, and a different one that shows using create an approval, send an email, then wait for an approval:

Start and wait for an approval	Create an approval, send an email, then wait for an approval
1. Add the Start and wait for an approval action to your flow.	1. Add the Create an approval action to your flow.
2. Configure the Start and wait for an approval action by specifying the approvers, the approval type, and any other relevant details.	2. Configure the Create an approval action by specifying the approvers, the approval type, and any other relevant details. In this example, we would disable the Enable notifications setting so we can send a custom notification.
3. Add any additional actions that you want to execute after the approval process has been completed such as a response-dependent (Condition control) secondary level of approvals.	3. Add the Send an email action to your flow to notify the requestor and/or approver(s) of the request details and action required.
	4. Add the Wait for an approval action to your flow.
	5. Configure the Wait for an approval action to wait for the approval to complete before executing any additional actions like a response-dependent (Condition control) status column update.

Not only do you use these approval actions in different scenarios, but your choice also affects the dynamic content you can use later in the flow. Let’s take a look at that next.

Dynamic content differences between Power Automate approval actions

The choices you make for which approval actions affect which dynamic content is available to you in later steps. Here’s an example of the dynamic content panel for a step following Create an approval:

Here’s a listing of all the dynamic content alphabetically listed and which actions provide it for you.

Dynamic content	Description	Start and wait for an approval	Create an approval	Wait for an approval
Approval ID	The name of the approval	✓	✓	✓
Approvers	All of the approvers
Approvers Approver email	The email address of the approver		✓
Approvers Approver ID	The ID of the approver		✓
Approvers Approver name	The name of the approver		✓
Approvers Approver tenant ID	The tenant ID of the approver		✓
Approvers Approver user principal name	The principal name of the approver		✓
Approvers Item			✓
body		✓	✓	✓
Completion date	Date the approval was completed	✓		✓
Details	Additional details about the request	✓	✓	✓
Item link	A link to the item to approve	✓	✓	✓
Item link description	Description of the link to the item	✓	✓	✓
Outcome	The outcome of the approval	✓		✓
Request date	Date the approval request was sent	✓	✓	✓
Respond link	The link to respond to the approval		✓
Response summary	A summary of the responses	✓		✓
Responses	All of the responses	✓		✓
Responses Approver email	The email address of the approver	✓		✓
Responses Approver ID	The ID of the approver	✓		✓
Responses Approver name	The name of the approver	✓		✓
Responses Approver response	The response from the approver	✓		✓
Responses Approver tenant ID	The tenant ID of the approver	✓		✓
Responses Approver user principal name	The principal name of the approver	✓		✓
Responses Comments	Comments added by the approver	✓		✓
Responses Item		✓		✓
Responses Request date	Date the approval request was sent	✓		✓
Responses responder		✓		✓
Responses Response date	Date the approval response was sent	✓		✓
Teams Adaptive Card	An adaptive card that can be posted to users to respond from within Microsoft Teams		✓
Title	The title of the approval	✓	✓	✓

One of the most valuable differences here, in my opinion, is the inclusion of Respond link. It’s only available for the Create an approval action. This allows you to send custom reminders with links that take users directly to the item(s) they still need to approve. You could also consider just sending users directly to the Approvals app in Microsoft Teams to put eyes on all their outstanding requests.

Conclusion

As you can see, a simple action choice comes with a lot of potential for creating rich processes. And with all of the options provided through dynamic content, we can customize the approval process quite a bit. In most cases, you’ll probably use Start and wait for an approval. But as you develop more flows, you may find yourself wanting a greater degree of customization and flexibility so you opt for the Create an approval + Wait for an approval approach.

What sort of approval processes are you working on automating with Power Automate? Let me know in the comments or on LinkedIn.

References and further reading

• Differences between flow approval actions – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn
• Get started with Power Automate approvals – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn
• Trigger approvals from lists created with Microsoft Lists – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn
• How to – Top scenarios with approval flows – Power Automate | Microsoft Learn