As an experiment, I’m trying to build a workflow by which certain files saved in SharePoint Online can be revised, then sent through a review/approval process. It’s one possible solution in a document management system (in SharePoint Online) I’ve been asked to investigate.

This is my first try at using the Check out files/Check in files functions for SPO. What I envision is having the workflow initiator make initial revisions to a file, then sending it for review/approval by one or more parties.

Checking out the file to the initiator, then checking it back in, is no problem. But I’m not sure how to handle subsequent checkouts/ins. It seems that the next reviewer has to take some action in the workflow (i.e., respond to an assigned task) for the next checkout to be “theirs.” Otherwise the file gets checked out to the initiator again.

So right now I envision the workflow requiring the next reviewer to respond to a task (maybe with an express approval so that they simply need to reply to the task assignment email), then have the workflow check out the file, which (I assume) checks it out to that reviewer since they took the last action in the workflow. Then the reviewer must respond to a second task in order to prompt the workflow to check in the file and move on to the next step.

Is this correct? Or is there another way to handle it? I don’t really like making each reviewer respond to two separate tasks. I wish there was a way for the Check out files function to be assigned to someone else so that SPO checks the file out to that person rather than to whomever completed the previous task. But as I say, this is my first time trying this functionality and I may be missing something.