Intermediate

Google Sheets Approval Tracker

When a row in a Google Sheet is marked Submitted, the flow launches a Teams/Outlook approval, writes the decision, approver, and timestamp back to the row, and emails the requester the outcome. Adds an auditable approval gate to a lightweight Google Sheets request log.

Google SheetsApprovalsOffice 365 Outlook

Unique name

FlowLibsGoogleSheetsApprovalTracker

Publisher

FlowLibs (flowlibs)

Version

1.0.0.0

Components

3 env vars + 1 cloud flow

Request access

Provided as-is, without warranty of any kind. Review and test each pattern in a non-production environment before deploying it to live automations. See our Terms.

What it does

Overview

This flow adds an auditable approval gate to a Google Sheets request log. When a row is marked Submitted, it launches a Teams/Outlook approval, writes the decision, approver, and timestamp back to the row, and emails the requester the outcome. Why it matters: Google Sheets is a common lightweight tracker but has no real approval engine. Power Automate Approvals add routing, reminders, and an audit trail with write-back.

Why you'd use it

Use Case

A team logs requests (spend, access, content) in a Google Sheet and needs documented approvals.

Step-by-step

Flow Architecture

When row modified

Google Sheets — When_row_modified

Polls the request log; fires when a row's Status is set to Submitted.

Start Approval

Approvals — StartAndWaitForAnApproval

Launches an Approve/Reject approval routed to the mapped approver.

Update Row

Google Sheets — UpdateRow

Writes the decision, approver, and timestamp back to the row.

Email Requester

Office 365 Outlook — SendEmailV2

Emails the requester the approval outcome.

Solution config

Environment Variables

Schema name	Type	Default	Description
flowlibs_GSheetId	String	<configure>	Spreadsheet (file) ID of the request log.
flowlibs_ApproverMap	String	<configure>	JSON map of request Type to approver email.
flowlibs_StatusColumn	String	Status	Header of the status column the trigger watches.

Auth dependencies

Connectors & Connections

Connector	API name	Actions used
Google Sheets	shared_googlesheet	GetRow UpdateRow
Approvals	shared_approvals	StartAndWaitForAnApproval
Office 365 Outlook	shared_office365	SendEmailV2

Note — All connections are referenced as solution connection references; the flow is portable between environments as long as a connection is mapped at import time.

Tweaks & variations

Customization Guide

Almost every realistic variant of this flow can be implemented by changing environment variable values. A few cases require small edits inside the flow definition — those are called out explicitly below.

Tiered approval: Route by amount or role so larger requests need a higher-level approver.
Reminders: Nudge pending approvers who have not yet responded.
Reject reason: Capture a rejection reason and write it back to the sheet.

Helpers & literals

Key Expressions

The flow is intentionally light on Power Fx / WDL gymnastics — the heaviest expressions are the branch-name concatenation and the approval outcome check. They are listed below in the order they appear in the flow.

EXPR.01Resolve approver

Looks up the approver email for the request Type from the JSON map.

workflow definition language

@json(variables('varApproverMap'))?[body('Get_Row')?['Type']]

EXPR.02Approval outcome

Approve or Reject outcome written back to the row.