Request Sign-Off
Common Use Cases
- Invoice approval: sign off before Finance processes a payment
- Contract review: route to Legal before it reaches the customer
- Budget approval: get a manager’s yes on a spending plan
- Policy sign-off: clear a policy before it publishes to the intranet
- Project charter: obtain sponsor approval before kickoff
- Meeting minutes: confirm action items with the project team
Benefits
- Zero setup: an approval flow with nothing to build in Power Automate
- Stays in the library: request and track without leaving SharePoint
- Automatic status column: Sign-off status is created for you
- Flexible response: approvers act by email or in Teams
- Multiple approvers: any one named approver can clear the request
- Out-of-the-box: native SharePoint, no custom code or add-ons
How It Works
- Launch point: select a document, then Automate then Request sign-off
- Pick approvers: name one or more people and write a short message
- First response wins: with several approvers, one approval clears it
- Status tracking: a Sign-off status text column records the state
- Notification: approvers get the request by email or Teams Approvals
- Same engine: runs on the built-in Power Automate approval logic
Limits and Nuances
- Check-out blocks it: enforced check-out hides the option until check-in
- One document at a time: submit per file, not a whole folder at once
- No conditional routing: no built-in multi-stage or rules-based approval
- Any-approver logic: it cannot require every approver to approve
- Plain text status: Sign-off status is a text column, not a workflow state
- Needs Power Automate: the underlying flow requires a valid license
Common Questions About Request Sign-Off
What is Request sign-off in SharePoint?
Request sign-off is a built-in approval flow in SharePoint document libraries. You select a document, open the Automate menu, choose Request sign-off, and name one or more approvers with a short message. SharePoint routes the request, records the result in an automatic Sign-off status column, and lets approvers respond by email or in the Microsoft Teams Approvals app. There is nothing to build in Power Automate first.
Where do I find Request sign-off?
It lives in the Automate menu of a document library. Select a single document, click Automate, then Request sign-off. If you do not see it, make sure a document is selected, that you are in a document library rather than a list, and that the library does not enforce check-out, which hides the option until the file is checked in.
What is the Sign-off status column?
When you send a request, SharePoint automatically adds a text column called Sign-off status to the library. It records each document as In progress, Approved, or Rejected. Because it is an ordinary text column, you can sort, filter, or group your library by it to see at a glance which documents are still waiting and which have been signed off.
Can I require more than one approver to approve?
Not with Request sign-off alone. You can name several approvers, but the flow uses any-one logic – the first person to approve clears the request. There is no out-of-the-box option to require that every approver signs off, or to route approvals in stages. Those patterns need a tailored Power Automate flow built on top of the same approval actions.
Why does Request sign-off not appear on my document?
The most common reason is enforced check-out on the library, which hides Request sign-off until you check the document in. It also only shows when a document is actually selected, and it is a document-library feature, so it will not appear the same way on a list. A valid Power Automate license is required for the underlying flow to run.
When should I use a custom approval flow instead?
Reach for a custom flow when you need stages, conditional routing by amount or department, or a requirement that everyone approves – things Request sign-off does not do. Greg Zelfond, the consultant behind LookBook 365, treats that boundary as a design decision: he starts clients on the out-of-the-box Request sign-off wherever it fits, and builds a tailored Power Automate approval only when the process genuinely outgrows it.