I’m going to show you how you can easily create a workflow when a new item is created in Dynamics 365 Business Central. What I’m going to do is create a new workflow from a template. I’ll also modify it so it’s activated automatically when someone enters a new item into my system. Let’s take a look at it.

Creating a Workflow from a Template

So, I want to create a new workflow from a template. I’ll click on this; this is the template I want to use, and this is the workflow created for me from the template. However, the template states, on the first step, that it is activated when someone requests approval. What I want to do is automate that so that if anyone puts a new item in my system, an approval request is automatically generated and sent out to approvers.

What I did is I created this approval workflow from a template, but I changed the first line. The first event is activated when the item record is changed. I’m looking at the description field so that when the description field is changed or added to, it will generate an approval request. We can also look at the approvers on this. The approver is going to be the direct approver of the user who entered the new item; that information is here.

Testing the Workflow

I’m going to enter a new item as David; his direct approver is Alicia. So, let’s see how that works. I’m logged in as David, and I’m going to create a new inventory item. I’ll use this template; here’s my new item. As soon as I put a description in, it’s going to activate the workflow. I have my item here, and if we look at the approvals, we can see that one was automatically generated for this particular item. The approver ID will be Alicia because this item is currently in an unapproved state. I cannot process transactions with this item.

Approval Process

Let’s go ahead and look at the approval. I’m logged in as Alicia now, and I can see that I’ve got the request to approve that item here. I can open the item, take a look at the item. I can go ahead and approve it here, or I can reject it or delegate it. I can add a comment to my approval, but I’m just going to go ahead and approve it, and that’s done. Now that the new item can be used in my business on purchase orders, on sales orders, on inventory transactions. This is an easy way to get control of your item master file and make sure that only good items are added to your item.