Struggling to finish a workflow - Manager's approval form

I'm learning how to use JotForm. What I would like is to create a form where people fill out; anyone who would like to purchase something for the company must have their manager's approval. There are 5 different managers for 5 departments. So far, I have the form that has the following fields: Name, Last Name, Email, Name of Manager, Manager's email and a big field for instructions.

I have created the workflow but I'm stuck. I want the workflow to look like: employee fills out form, then goes to their correct manager for approval or denial. If approved, email goes to Office Manager who purchases the item needed. I have the workflow with most of these already set up.

I'm stuck at the part where form goes to manager. How can I make the form after being filled out by employee go to the correct approver (the correct manager)?

Could we set up a Zoom call soon? Maybe on Monday?

Thank you!

Vanessa

PS: Also, I would like to add my co-worker as my collaborator. I know how to do it with the form but I'm not sure how to do it with the workflow.

Hi Vanessa,

Thanks for reaching out to Jotform Support. Currently, we don't offer Zoom call to provide help with the form's Workflow process. We'll work on this together and make sure the submitted form will go to the correct manager's email address for approval.

The Workflow's Approval element can only detect Email form field, or an email address can be added to be an approver. To make this work, we'll enable the Calculation Values on the Manager's email address Dropdown form field and add the email addresses of the managers.

With the help of the Update/Calculate Field conditional logic, we'll pass the email address to a hidden Email form field. That hidden Email form field will be set as the approver of the Approval element. Let's walk through this using a cloned copy of your form:

Adding a form field and enabling Calculation Value:

1. In the Form Builder, go to the Build tab in the orange navigation toolbar.
2. Click the Add Element +, and under the Basic tab, add an Email form field.
3. Label the Email form field as the Manager's email address.
4. Delete the Manager's email address Dropdown form field.
   
5. Click the Properties (gear icon) on the Who's your Manager? Dropdown form field.
6. Under the Options tab, enable the Calculation Values.
7. Input the managers' email address right beside their names.
   

Creating condition:

1. Go to the Settings tab in the orange navigation toolbar and select Conditions from the left panel.
2. Select Update/Calculate Field condition that'll pass the Calculation Values from the Dropdown form field to the Email form field. A sample is shared in the screenshot below:
   
   

Setting an approver:

1. Go to the Workflow and click the pencil icon.
2. In the Workflow Builder, go to the Build tab.
3. Click the Settings (gear icon) on the Approval element.
4. On the Approvers sections, click the Form Fields dropdown.
5. Then select the Manager's email address Email form field.
   

Below is a screencast of how this works:

This is the link to my cloned form, https://www.jotform.com/build/251916942602963, if you'd like to take a closer look at it. My form can also be cloned by following this guide on How to Clone an Existing Form From a URL.

Give it a try and let us know if you’ve got other questions.