How to Automate Access Request Approvals / Responses?

Question

Hi,

I approve Jira tickets requesting access to an internal system. I respond to the tickets saying "approve" if the name of the person for whom access is requested is in the live Excel sheet that records the result of a Microsoft Form saved on SharePoint.

If the person's name isn't on this live Excel, I still respond saying "approve," but I also add within my response that the signed PDF needs to be submitted through the Microsoft Form. I attach the PDF to and include the link to the form in my response.

What's the easiest and fastest way to automate this?

Ballon Apps · Answer

The part that will save you the most time isn't the approval, it's the lookup. Automation has no native SharePoint connector, so unless you're willing to build and maintain a Graph API call in a web request action, the source of truth living there means you keep doing this by hand.

Two routes, in order of effort:

1. Get the list into Jira. An Assets object schema (Premium) or even a simple group works — then one automation rule can check "is the requested person in this list", and branch. That single change turns your manual comparison into a condition.
2. Then use the native Approvals feature instead of comments. Add an approval status, set the approver from a field or a group, and your decision is recorded as an approval (with who and when) rather than as free text in a comment — which also fixes the reporting side later.

For the exception path, keep it as a second transition: if the name isn't found, transition to a status that asks for the signed PDF as an attachment before it can move on.

Disclosure: I build Marketplace apps, but none of them help with the SharePoint side, so this is just an answer — no pitch.

Questions? Reply here or in the comments.

Rob Hean · Answer

Curious if you've looked into other things ways of handling this?

E.g. define a group of users that contains everyone who gets access without a pdf and then just skip approval, and do the same for the pdf group but require it?

@Christopher Yen has some good ideas on process improvement... You could also consider adding a form to the request type that solicits their signature/etc.

Would also be curious to know more in the process.. e.g. if someone is added to the Excel sheet via a MS form, couldn't that form just be moved into Jira as a request? E.g. if the mgr has to fill out a form to give them approval, then you have to manually look it up, you could just skip the ms form entirely.

Christopher Yen · Answer

Hi @Brooke Chavdar

I'm not sure what's available in terms of the lookup in excel but to start simple you could use either Canned Responses to template your approval or approval + PDF instructions. Another route would be to create an automation rule/flow either manually triggered or triggered by a field if you want to comment on the ticket with those responses and resolve the ticket.