Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Workflows & Approvals

Microsoft Dynamics 365 – Workflows & Approvals

Hello and welcome to this TMC videos, Dynamics 365 Workflows and Approvals. Workflows are automated processes to manage the approval process. For those transactions or activities that need to be controlled, workflows provide a way to turn today’s informal process into a formal repeatable one. Ever had an angry call from a vendor asking for payment? Your only response was, “You must have misplaced your invoice.” But it was actually sitting on someone’s desk waiting for their approval. With Workflows in Dynamics 365 that won’t happen again.

Get everyone involved, not just the accounting team

Provide all the information needed by the decision maker as part of the process. Getting started is simple as Dynamics 365 provides dozens of pre-configured workflow approval processes. From my Office 365 site I can simply click on the Dynamics 365 link. Once I am in Dynamics 365, I can use the search function to find workflows. The complete workflow system is comprised of a few different components. For now, let’s go to workflows.

Here, we can see that an existing workflow process can be configured, but note that it has not yet been enabled. New workflows can be configured using the new workflow from template button in the toolbar. Next, we can see from the available pre-configured workflows in Dynamics 365, various workflows are group together into similar functions. Scroll down to the purchase document section, then down to the sales area.

Setting up the vendor workflow

Let’s set up the vendor workflow. Use the search function again to find workflows. Start with the new template button. Scroll down to the purchase document section. The steps required for a basic vendor approval process are already created from the template. From the basic step, approval of the vendor is requested along with the various possible outcomes for a workflow. Approved, delegated, rejected, or canceled. Each step has its own condition statement, and the response defined for that step.

This is the event condition edit window. Here, I can define under what specific conditions I want this workflow to engage. From the ‘where’ list I can see the various data fields the Dynamics 365 holds for my vendors. In this case, the workflow will apply to all of my California vendors, where the state is CA. Next, we can edit the response to this event.

Here, there are three distinct responses; add a restriction to the record, create the approval request, and the notification, the sending of that request. With the event, conditions, and responses all defined, we can enable the workflow. Note the copy function, so that an existing workflow can be copied and edited, as well as the import-export process to work with the workflows. This is a quick view of the Dynamics 365 workflows being edited in Excel, using the export function.

Let’s walk through the steps of an approval workflow

In this case, for a vendor’s invoice. Start with creating the purchased invoiced transaction for the vendor, in this case, Fabrikam. Click their tile from the vendors page, and this takes us to the vendor page with their basic details and fact boxes on the right. Click on the purchase invoice button for the invoice. Finish entering the details from the invoice, and you can use the links button to create and attachment. Add the line details for the invoice, next, click the send approval request button to launch the workflow. If I tried to post this transaction now, I would get an error message. This transaction needs to be approved first.

Dynamics 365 provides immediate feedback to the employee

Dynamics 365 uses Azure active directory to manage the email that you sent out, based on the responses defined in the configuration of the workflow. Click on the purchase invoice 107217 link, and Dynamics 365 will open. This window shows the workflow summary right from the email link.

The approval entries window shows all of the in process work. From the vendor record, the fact boxes in the right hand column show that the vendor has an open invoice. Clicking the open invoice towel will [inaudible 00:04:33] down. Next, click on the document number link to open the invoice itself. Here, the document can be reviewed and approved. Note, that the approved controls are now displayed, and this document has been approved and completed the workflow process. Once a document has been approved, it can be posted.

The notifications for the workflow can be configured to include additional emails, in this case, about amounts being posted to specific GL accounts.

To summarize then, with Dynamics 365 workflow approvals will increase the clarity and frequency of stock communications, reduce delays and lost documents, and prevent mistakes before they can happen.

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