Approval Workflow Setup for Purchase Documents

In Business Central, you can set up an approval workflow for purchase documents, such that the document will go through a process that requires someone to sign off on the data at a certain stage. Approval workflows might require multiple checks throughout the process and from a variety of different stakeholders. Business Central comes predefined with workflow templates that can be combined with the approval user setup to achieve the approval workflow business process. 

You can use the workflow templates to define workflows for purchase documents including quotes, orders, invoices, and credit memos. Workflows are carried out based on events and actions i.e. for every event, an action can be defined. The principle of actions and events can be used to define rules for workflows to meet common business process requirements. 

To set up an approval workflow for purchase documents; 

1. Define the users and approval levels in the Approval User Setup window
2. Define the workflow for the purchase documents by using the Workflow Templates
3. Setting up notifications for approval users.

Set up users in the Approval User Setup

• Search for Approval User Setup, and choose the related link.
• Create a new line on the Approval User Setup page, and then fill the fields as described in the following table.

• Repeat steps 2 and 3 for every user who you want to set up as an approval user.   

Define the workflow for the purchase documents by using the Workflow Templates

You save time by creating new workflows from the available workflow templates. 

• Search for Workflows, and choose the related link
• Choose the Create Workflow from Template action. The Workflow Templates page opens.
• Select a workflow template for Purchase Order Approval Workflow and then choose the OK button.
• The Workflow page opens for a new workflow containing all the information of the selected template. 
• Proceed to create the workflow by editing the workflow steps or add new steps. 
• On the header of the Workflow page, select the Enabled checkbox.

You can create unique workflows for your business process. For more information see, Create Workflows.

Setting up notifications for approval users

You can set up how you want an approver to be notified. The user can be notified by an internal note or by email. 

• Search for Approval User Setup, and choose the related link.
• On the Approval User Setup page, select the line for yourself, and then choose the Notification Setup action.
• On the Notification Setup page, in the Notification Type field, choose Approval.
• In the Notification Method field, choose Note.
• On the Notification Setup page, choose the Notification Schedule action.
• On the Notification Schedule page, in the Recurrence field, select Instantly.

Using the Approval Workflow

Now that we have set up the users and approvers, enabled workflow and notifications, we can see how the approval workflow works. In the image above we have two users set up - David and Mark. We have set Mark as David's approver. We have also set a Purchase Amount Approval Limit of 100 for David. 

To request approval of a purchase invoice, as David

• Sign in as David 
• Search for Purchase Invoices and choose the related link
• Create a new purchase invoice with a total invoice amount of 540. 
• On the purchase invoice, choose the Send Approval Request action 

Notice that the Status field has changed to Pending Approval. 

To approve the purchase invoice, as Mark

• Sign in as Mark
• On the Role Center, in the Self Service area, choose the Requests to Approve tile.
• On the Requests to Approve page, select the line about the purchase invoice by David, and then choose the Approve action.

The value in the Status field on Alicia’s purchase order changes to Released.

You have now set up and tested a simple approval workflow based on the first two steps of the Purchase Order Approval Workflow workflow. 

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  Approval Workflow Setup for Purchase Documents