SharePoint and Microsoft Lists: Send Approval Requests with Quick Steps

SharePoint and Microsoft Lists: Send Approval Requests with Quick Steps

In this article, I will share some insights from the Microsoft 365 Community Conference session titled “Simplifying Business Processes with SharePoint Automation.”

When using the approval feature in SharePoint lists and document libraries, do you often find yourself manually selecting the same approver each time? If so, creating a Quick Step can help. By setting one up in advance, you can quickly send approval requests to a specific approver.

Demonstration of requesting approval using Quick Steps

To create a Quick Step, go to the command bar and select Automate > Quick Steps > Create a quick step.

Steps to make a quick step

Settings screen for the “Send an approval request” action

After creating a Quick Step, it can be run from the item’s dialog, the context menu, or the command bar.

Run from the item’s dialog

Run from the context menu

Run from the command bar

However, please note that the approval feature must be enabled in order to see the Approve action when creating a Quick Step. (This was something I learned during the session.)

Actions available when approval feature is disabled

Actions available when approval feature is enabled

Also, it is currently not possible to configure sequential approvals within a Quick Step.