Adding Recipients

The add-on provides a few different ways you can add recipients:

Option 1: Add a static recipient

Scenario: Jessica needs to approve every request that is made.

Steps to add a static recipient:

Click the 'Add static recipient' icon.
Enter the recipient's email address.
Click Save.

Image showing how to add a static recipient

Option 2 (a): Add a dynamic recipient

Scenario: Some requests need to be approved by Jessica, others need to be approved by John.

Steps to add a dynamic recipient:

Add a question to your form that captures the recipient's email address. Tip: The question used can be a Short answer, Multiple choice, Drop down or Checkbox question type.
Click the 'Add dynamic recipient' icon and select the question that asks for the recipient's email address. If you make amendments to your form while the add-on is open, click the refresh icon to refresh dynamic recipient lists.
Click Save.

This video tutorial (at 2m:25s) includes an example of adding a dynamic recipient.

Image showing how to add a dynamic recipient

Option 2 (b): Add a dynamic recipient (that includes other info)

Scenario: Some requests need to be approved by Jessica, others need to be approved by John but it's easier for the form respondent to select something more familiar than the approver's email address (e.g their full name or department name).

Steps to add a dynamic recipient (that includes other info):

Add a Dropdown, Multiple choice or Checkbox question to your form.
Add options that include the email addresses between < and > symbols. For example, if you need the approval to go to a particular department, enter the department name followed by the recipient's email address between < and > symbols. Similarly, you could replace the department name with a person's name. The add-on will detect the < and > symbols and use the email address in between.
Once the question has been added to your Form, within the add-on click the 'Add dynamic recipient' icon and select the question that asks for the recipient's email address.
Click Save.

Option 2 (c): Add a dynamic recipient look-up table

Scenario: If the form respondent selects their department as Finance the workflow should route to Jessica, and if the form respondent selects their department as Marketing the workflow should route to John.

Steps to add a dynamic recipient look-up table:

Add a question to your form that influences the recipient required. For example, if it is the requestor's Department or Line Manager, add a Drop down, Multiple choice or Checkbox question of all possible Departments or Line Managers. If you have a large number of Line Managers, see Tip 1 below.
Open the spreadsheet that is linked to your form
Create a new sheet (by clicking the + icon in the bottom left corner) and give it a relevant name.
Enter all potential response values (e.g Department names) in column A. Make sure the column A values exactly match the options from your Google Form question.
Enter the corresponding recipient email addresses in column B (or any column up to I).
Within the add-on sidebar, add a 'dynamic recipient'.
Select the question title that captures the information you entered in column A.
Click the 'More' icon , then click 'Add recipient look-up table'
Select 'Add look-up table'
Select the sheet that contains the look-up data
Select the column that contains the recipient's email addresses
Close the Recipient look-up table window, then click Save in the main screen.

This video tutorial (at 2m:56s) includes an example of adding a dynamic recipient look-up table.

Image showing how to add a dynamic recipient look-up table

Tip 1: If you want to create a workflow that sends requests to the requestor's Line Manager, you can: i) simply ask the requestor to enter their Line Manager's email address into a Short answer question, and use that question for your dynamic recipient; or ii) maintain a spreadsheet of Employees and Line Managers and use it as your look-up table in Step 3 above. When 'Collect email addresses' is enabled in your Google Form Settings, Google Forms will capture the email address of the requestor. This email address can be used by selecting the question title "Requestor's Email Address" in Step 7 above.

Tip 2: If you have an approval hierarchy that is determined based on the same form question you can use the same look-up table for additional recipients. In this case, you would add additional recipient email addresses in columns C, D, etc. For example, if you want two recipients, repeat steps 4 to 12 (above) but instead of entering the recipient email address in column B, enter it into column C. Refer to the images below.

Option 3: Add a group recipient

Scenario: You want it sent to the Finance team but only need one to approve.

Group recipients allow you to choose the number of recipients required to respond and the type of group (majority or unanimous). See below steps to add static or dynamic groups, aswell as tips on how to choose the right type of group.

Steps to add a static group recipient

Steps to add a dynamic group recipient

How to choose the right type of group

Tip 1: If you need one member of the group to respond, the type is not relevant.

Tip 2: If you need multiple members of the group to respond, choose the type based on the below:

Majority: If 5 members of the group are required to respond with 3 responding in favor and 2 responding not in favor, the group is considered to have responded in favor
Unanimous: If 5 members of the group are required to respond with all responding in favor, the group is considered to have responded in favor. If any respond not in favor, the group will be considered to have responded not in favor. In most cases you should choose this option.

Tip 3: Group recipients can also be used in conjunction with the 'Receives a Copy' role type to notify a group of people when the workflow is complete. In this case the number and type are not relevant. Note, if using the role type "Receives a Copy" and you need to notify groups with more than 10 people, we recommend using a Google Group or distribution list instead.

Tip: By default recipients are set up as approvers, however you can change the role of your recipient to another role type like 'Needs to Sign', 'Needs to Action' or 'Receives a Copy'.

What's next:

Learn how to set the recipient receiving order
Learn how to add recipient logic (routing conditions)
Learn how to change the role of your recipient