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In ProgressPeople Operations

Vacation Request and Approval

Form submission → manager approval → calendar block and confirmation, or a refusal with a reason.

This flow is being documented

Architecture and use case are already public. Build instructions and screenshots follow as the flow is finalised.

Use case

Leave requests live in email threads nobody can audit. A form plus the Approvals connector gives one trail, one decision and an automatic calendar block when approved.

Who uses it

All employees, with managers as approvers.

Real scenario

An employee requests 12–16 September. The manager approves from Teams; the days appear as out-of-office in the shared calendar and the employee gets a confirmation. If refused, the reason is included in the notification.

Time saved

Before

~25 min of back-and-forth per request

After

~1 min — approve from a Teams card

Time saved

~20 min per request

How it works

A Microsoft Forms submission starts the flow, an item is logged in the LeaveRequests list, Start and wait for an approval routes to the employee's manager from Office 365 Users, and the outcome branches to a calendar block plus confirmation, or a refusal notification carrying the approver's comment.

Step-by-step build

  1. 1

    Trigger: Microsoft Forms 'When a new response is submitted' with fields for dates, type of leave and notes.

  2. 2

    Get the response details and create an item in the LeaveRequests SharePoint list with Status = Submitted.

  3. 3

    Use Office 365 Users → Get manager (V2) to resolve the approver automatically.

  4. 4

    Start and wait for an approval (Approve/Reject) with the request details in the body.

  5. 5

    If approved: update Status to Approved, create an Outlook calendar event marked Out of office for the date range, and email the confirmation.

  6. 6

    If rejected: update Status to Refused and email the employee including the approver's comment.

  7. 7

    Post a short summary to the HR channel in Teams for visibility.

Copilot prompt

Paste this into Power Automate Copilot to scaffold the flow.

Copilot
Create an automated flow triggered by a Microsoft Forms submission for vacation requests. Log the request in a SharePoint list, resolve the requester's manager with Office 365 Users Get manager, start and wait for an approval, and if approved create an out-of-office Outlook event for the date range and send a confirmation email, otherwise notify the employee with the rejection reason.
Open in Power Automate

Screenshots

Captures are added as each step is published.

Trigger configuration
Main action pane
Expression editor
Result in Microsoft 365

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