Approvals in Microsoft Teams is a way to streamline all of your requests and processes with your team or partners. You’ll be able to create new approvals, view the ones sent your way, and see all of your previous approvals in one place.
- Approvals hub – This is where you’ll see all of your approvals that you’ve sent or received, including the ones that are already complete. Approvals show up across all of your systems, including Power Automate, SharePoint, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
- Approvals from chat – Send an approval right from your Teams conversation. Set it up from the compose box, then see the approvals card in your chat. Note that only people in the conversation can be added as approvers.
- Approvals card – The card gives a real-time summary of the approval’s status. See who’s responded, and who still needs a little more time.
- Basic approval – A basic approval is what you’ll typically use when you start from the hub or a chat. All approvals are stored in the Common Data Service, where only people on the approval and a tenant admin can access them.
- Workflow approval – When you create an approval through Power Automate, it’ll appear in your list of approvals in the app. This is considered a workflow approval, as you can create a new flow and select a trigger such as a system driven event from one of the 350+ connectors provided, or your own LOB connector.
- Notifications – Customize your notification settings in the Notifications page within Teams.
- Endless options – Whether you need an approval to file an expense report, give a discount to a customer, or request time off, use Approvals to get it all done within Teams.
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To create an approval from the Approvals hub:
- Open the Approvals app in Microsoft Teams.
- Select New approval request.
- Fill in the name of the request, who needs to approve it, any additional info, and add an attachment if needed.
- Select Send. You’ll be able to view the request later by selecting Sent in the hub.
Note: Approvals you create through Power Automate will appear in the hub, too.
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To create an approval from a Teams chat:
- Make sure you have Approvals installed in Microsoft Teams.
- From the chat window, select (…) More options, then select Approvals from the listed apps.
- Fill in the name of the request, who needs to approve it, any additional info, and add an attachment if needed.
- If there’s more than one approver, you can select All must approve if you want.
- Select Send. You’ll be able to view the request in the chat, or in the Approvals app hub.
Note: When you create an approval from a Teams chat, you can only add approvers that are already in the chat.
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To create an e-sign approval request in Approvals:
- When creating a new message in Microsoft Teams, select the Approvals icon.
- Under Request type, select the dropdown arrow to choose an e-sign provider such as Adobe Sign or DocuSign.
- If needed, enter your login information. Once logged in, add the details for the request.
- Select Add attachment, then Upload from my computer to attach a file that requires a signature.
- Add email addresses and set roles for recipients.
- If recipients need to respond in a certain order, turn on Must complete in order.
- Select Send to complete.
Note: E-sign approvals you create in a chat message or Teams channel will also appear in the Approvals hub. More e-sign providers will be available soon.
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With templates in Approvals, you and your team can create and send approval requests. Use preset fields for templates like discount requests or expense reports – all in Microsoft Teams.
If you’re a team owner or admin, here’s what you need to know:
- Manage templates – You can create templates from the Approvals hub. Select Manage templates > New templates to customize them.
- Scope – If you’re an admin, you can select from these three options that best fit your needs: Org wide, Specific people, and Team wide. If you’re a team owner, you can only select Team wide when creating new templates for the team you own.
- Basic settings – For each template, select an icon and add a name, description, and category.
- Form design – This section is where you can add form details for users to enter when filling out the template.
- Workflow settings – You can select who needs to approve the request and give custom responses.
Important: Remember to keep the original template on the Forms site so your team won’t lose access when using a template for an approval request.
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With Approvals in Microsoft Teams, use a template to create a new approval request:
- In the Approvals hub, select New approval request.
- When the dialog box appears, select Templates and choose the appropriate template.
- Add information such as the request’s name, recipients, and extra details.
You may not be able to add or remove recipients if a team owner or admin has already selected specific recipients for the template.
- Select Send. You’ll be able to view the request later by selecting Sent in the hub.
Note: If you’re creating a new request in a chat message or a channel, select the Approvals icon and the dialog box will appear for you to select Templates.
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If you’re a team owner or admin, create templates for your organization with Approvals in Microsoft Teams:
- In the Approvals hub, select the overflow icon (…) > Manage Templates.
- Select New template. Choose a template from the list or create one from scratch.
- Customize the basic settings, form design, and specify recipients in the workflow settings.
- Before publishing the new template, select Preview to view the details.
Note: As a team owner or admin, you can edit the pre-existing templates in the list. You can also turn off pre-existing templates that don’t fit your organization’s needs.