Approval workflows: what can standard do?

Many people think that approving invoices and purchases requires an add-on to Business Central. Standard can do a good deal, and for the rest there is Power Automate. Here is how it works: workflow templates, approval users with amount limits and substitutes, and when you should look towards Power Automate. We stick to what Microsoft documents. It is important to decide the rules before you set them up.

What a workflow is

A workflow in Business Central is a list of steps on the Workflow page. Each step consists of an event with conditions and a response with options. You choose from fixed lists of the scenarios the standard code supports, for example that a purchase order is sent for approval, and that it is released on approval. System tasks such as automatic posting can also be included as steps.

Example: when a buyer sends a purchase order for approval, an approval request is created for the approver set up for the user. If it is approved, the order is released. If it is rejected, it goes back to the buyer with a comment.

Templates

You do not have to build from scratch. Microsoft supplies workflow templates for, among others, sales and purchase documents, customer and vendor cards, journal batches and item cards. You create a workflow from a template and adapt it. Workflows can be exported and imported, so you can move them between environments.

The template is a starting point. Typical adaptations are amount conditions and which fields trigger approval. Only enable the workflow once the test has been completed.

Learn also has a step-by-step walkthrough of a workflow for approving purchase orders. It is a good place to start if you have not built a workflow before.

Approval users

Before a workflow with approval can work, the users must be set up on the Approval User Setup page. Here you specify, among other things:

The amount limits apply in local currency. Decide therefore how purchases in foreign currency are handled, and who is the approver during absence.

Approver ID: who approves the individual user's requests.
Amount limits for sales, purchase and requests, or unlimited approval.
Substitute: who steps in when the approver is not there.
Approval Administrator: the one user who can release a stuck workflow.

Groups and notifications

If several people need to approve, you create a group on the Workflow User Group page. Learn warns that the same user should not be both requester and approver, because then the requests are approved automatically. Use Approval User Setup Test to check the setup.

You also decide how users are notified: as email or note, and how often. Email requires that email is set up in Business Central.

If there are only a few approvers, a substitute and an administrator can prevent cases from getting stuck when someone is on holiday.

When Power Automate

Microsoft writes that if a scenario requires an event or a response that standard does not support, you can use Power Automate, get an app from Marketplace or have a partner customise the code. Microsoft's release plan for 2023 release wave 1 describes templates for approval through Power Automate, where approvers can respond in Teams or on mobile. Check Learn for what applies in your environment, and that you have the right Power Automate licences.

It is not Learn that decides whether Power Automate is the right solution for you. Assess whether you need more steps, external systems or approval in Teams, and whether the licences are in place.

Start small

Choose one document, for example purchase orders above an amount limit, and run it through with test users. Check the substitute, the notifications and what happens when someone rejects. Only then expand. Which amount limits and control points your internal control requires is a management question and possibly a question for your auditor.