Google Tasks to Teams Approval Tasks

Overview

FlowLibs - Google Tasks to Teams Approval Tasks adds a lightweight approval gate on top of Google Tasks. On a 15-minute schedule it scans a Google Tasks list for items whose title is tagged with an approval marker (default [APPROVE]), runs a Teams/Outlook approval for each one, then records the decision as a new Google Task and posts the outcome to a Microsoft Teams channel.

Why it matters: Google Tasks has no native approval concept. Routing tagged tasks through Microsoft Approvals adds a sign-off step and a visible audit trail, all without leaving the team's existing Google Tasks workflow.

Connector constraint: The Google Tasks connector exposes only create and read operations — it has no update / complete / patch / delete task operation. This flow therefore records each decision as a new Google Task ([APPROVED] ... / [REJECTED] ... with the reviewer's note) plus a Teams post, rather than mutating the original task. Going live, the original-task write-back can be added if/when the connector gains an update op, or via a custom connector with Google OAuth.

Use Case

A team uses Google Tasks for day-to-day to-dos, some of which need a manager's sign-off before they proceed (e.g. publishing content, committing spend, approving a deliverable). They tag those tasks by prefixing the title with [APPROVE]. This flow turns each tagged task into a formal Microsoft Approval and broadcasts the decision to the team's Teams channel — giving Operations and Project Managers an approval gate and audit record without adopting a new task tool.

Flow Architecture

Environment Variables

Connectors & Connections

Connector	API name	Actions used
Google Tasks	shared_googletasks	ListTasks CraeteTask
Approvals	shared_approvals	StartAndWaitForAnApproval
Microsoft Teams	shared_teams	PostMessageToConversation

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.

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.

Change the tag

Set flowlibs_GTApprovalTag to any marker your team prefers (e.g. [NEEDS-SIGNOFF]).

Route by list or approver

Point flowlibs_GoogleTaskListId at a dedicated Pending Approval list, or extend the flow to map list -> approver for multi-approver routing.

Multi-approver

Swap the single approval for a first-to-respond or everyone-must-approve Approvals type.

Original-task write-back

When the Google Tasks connector adds an update op (or via a custom Google OAuth connector), replace the decision-record task with a real mark complete / reopen + append note on the source task.

Dedup / in-flight tracking

Add a Dataverse table keyed by task id to avoid re-requesting approval for a task already in flight across polling cycles.

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.

@and(equals(item()?['status'], 'needsAction'), startsWith(coalesce(item()?['title'], ''), variables('varApprovalTag')))

@equals(outputs('Start_Approval')?['body/outcome'], 'Approve')

@first(outputs('Start_Approval')?['body/responses'])?['comments']

@concat('[APPROVED] ', item()?['title'])

Customize & download