Parallel Branches with flows in Power Automate

Parallel branches have been available in Power Automate (Microsoft Flow) for some time, but I hadn't had the opportunity yet to use them in a production build.  Let's do a super quick refresher today on how to use them.

The Use Case

I needed to implement three parallel approvals, as well as different actions that would occur after approval or rejection in each branch.  I also needed to gather the responses for one overall condition at the end.  This was part of a larger 3 stage serial approval process.

The Set Up

I suggest that you don't set up all of your approvals serially with the intent of moving them around into parallel branches.  If you have the opportunity to start fresh or you are starting from scratch that's the easiest to handle!

However, don't sweat it if you do have a flow you'd like to adjust.  We'll go over how to easily handle that at the end.

Let's do this!

First, create an approval as you would normally by adding the action wherever you need to in your flow.

Next, locate the + button above your approval to Insert a new step.  From here, select Add a parallel branch.

In branch that appears, add actions you'd like to run in parallel, such as another approval.  Go ahead and add any additional actions such as conditions and updating items.  If you want to get fancy and all a third parallel branch, be sure to click the Insert New Step button at the top of the branches and not directly above the actions in one of the branches.  This isn't extremely obvious at first.

When you're ready, let's bring the branches back together using the New Step button.  The branches automatically come together once you choose an action.  Remember, all the actions in each branch have to complete successfully before any actions outside the branches will execute.

Simple, easy, straightforward! As I mentioned, if you're reformatting an existing flow to make your serial approvals run in parallel you can't drag your existing steps next to each other to dynamically create a parallel branch.  However, you get around this by adding a branch and choosing a placeholder action such as Initialize Variable.  After you have that, just drag your approvals into the branch and delete your placeholder.


Photo by Karolien Brughmans on Unsplash