Actually, yes there is a better way to do this, and the answer is Custom Functoids. If your example above is very close to the real case you have to deal with I've got even better news. I've been doing a series of posts on my blog about Custom Functoids and building a library of Custom Functoids one at a time. The latest is an If … Else functoid which I just posted tonight, you can find the post here:
http://www.timrayburn.net/2006/09/30/TimRayburnCustomFunctoids+If+Else.aspx
In the case you describe since the source side is Y/N you could literally just put that value as the boolean check (I use System.Convert.ToBoolean which will figure out that "Y" means true) and then put the constants "Approved" and "Denied" as constants for the second and third parameters. The result becomes if "Y" then "Approved" is output, else "Denied" is output.
Even if your input values don't directly map to booleans, it would still save you alot of functoids and increase readability of your maps.
Tim Rayburn
Principal Consultant, Sogeti USA LLC
http://www.TimRayburn.net