Microsoft Lists with approvals...just doesn't work...need help

[jstander]

I created a list called "Content Scheduler with approvals," which automatically incorporates approvals. However, it has been a struggle from the beginning, with zero customization options, and this has pushed me to the point where I am looking at other products to replace this.

My first and most significant problem is that when approval is requested or even approved, the approval is canceled as soon as you change any fields in the item, and you lose all data. This is a significant problem because, firstly, when approval is requested, the publish status should be updated to "Draft needs approval." Similarly, when the approval request is approved, the status should be updated to "Ready to publish.". This is, unfortunately, not possible because a status change resets and deletes the approval activity! This makes no sense, and we cannot properly track the status of the content. Does anyone know how to fix this?

 

Secondly, approvals only work in Teams, so users are only notified of approval requests in the "Activity" section. Sorry, but nobody uses this feature, so these requests get lost and buried quickly in the activity thread, and interaction is terrible. We want to send an email notification, but I have not found a way to enable this. Do you have any ideas here? Do I have to start from scratch and build a custom approval app myself?

Any help would be appreciated.

[#2]

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your concerns about the "Content Scheduler with approvals" list. It sounds like the current setup is causing significant frustration, especially with how approvals are handled and the lack of customization options.

Regarding your first issue, where approval resets after changing any fields, this indeed seems counterproductive. One potential solution would be to create a custom Power Automate flow to manage the approval process. By doing this, you could:

Ensure that any status changes (e.g., "Draft needs approval" or "Ready to publish") are automatically updated based on the approval process, without resetting the approval itself.
Track approval history more effectively by storing it in a separate field within the list, so changes to the item don’t overwrite it.
If you're open to modifying the list's structure, Power Automate gives you more flexibility and control over how the approval process interacts with status updates, avoiding the issue of losing data when fields are modified.

For your second concern—notifications only being available in Teams—there is a workaround here as well. While Teams notifications are the default for approvals, you can set up custom email notifications via Power Automate. This way, users can receive approval requests directly to their inbox rather than relying solely on Teams' "Activity" feed, which as you mentioned, can often be overlooked.

To summarize:

1. You may not need to rebuild the entire approval app from scratch. Instead, a custom Power Automate flow can allow you to keep using Microsoft Lists while solving both the approval reset issue and the notification problem.

2. If the default system still doesn’t meet your needs, building a more tailored solution (either through Power Apps or another platform) might be the best way to ensure full control over the workflow and user experience.

I hope this helps! If you need guidance on setting up Power Automate or further assistance, feel free to reach out.