Tips & Tricks Series: Power Automate - Part 2 Approval Flows Increase User Productivity

Welcome to the Western Computer LinkedIn newsletter. This bimonthly series provides tips and tricks for helping you and your internal teams work more efficiently in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. With more than 37 years in business, Western Computer has deployed 1,250+ solutions, including more than 350 in the cloud. In this LinkedIn newsletter series, we share the expertise we have accumulated to empower Dynamics 365 Business Central users and enable them to work as proficiently as possible.

In the video Unlocking Automation in Business Central with Power Automate , Marcelo Borges —a Microsoft Dynamics Consultant at Western Computer—introduced the four types of automation offered by Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud in conjunction with Power Automate. You can create these automations in your environment to unlock a new set of potent tools to boost team collaboration.

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This four-part LinkedIn newsletter series further explores each automated workflow type—highlighting their key features and demonstrating how to use them within your daily operations. Part 1 discussed setting up Automated Flows. For Part 2, let’s explore Approval Flows:

How to Create Approval Flows

Approval Flows created in Power Automate integrate seamlessly with Business Central—showing up on the same list as regular Business Central workflows. They also come packed with all the power of Power Automate.

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Creating them is easier than ever. All you need to do is go to the entity you want to have approvals over, such as Item Cards, Customer Cards, and Sales Orders. Then select the <Create approval flow> action from the Power Automate action ribbon.

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When you hit <Create approval flow>, a new page opens to set up a flow from existing templates developed by Microsoft. You also have the option to start with a blank flow as shown in this screenshot:

?Start with the templates created by Microsoft—they have evolved and come with nice features such as approving by e-mail! ??

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Approve or Reject Workflows in Email

To approve or reject the Approval Flows, users are no longer required to open Business Central. The information is highly customizable and you can add any additional relevant information that you think is needed for the approver to assess each case—without any coding. You just change the Power Automate flow.

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Below, you can see an example of how an e-mail dispatched by Power Automate hits the approver’s mailbox:

With the integration between Business Central and Power Automate, you can not only customize things such as the text displayed on the requested e-mail, but also trigger other Power Automate actions as part of the approval process.

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Approval Workflow Samples

Here are a few examples of Approval Workflows that might work well for your business:

• When requesting approval of a customer, send an e-mail to inside sales, legal, and procurement to run additional checks. Additionally, call a Web Service API to check if the customer’s tax ID is valid.
• When requesting approval of an item, automatically block it to prevent further usage. If approved, unblock it, call an external API to get additional information about this item on the vendor website, and link to it on the Item Card.?
• When requesting approval of a sales document, make sure the requester is informed of the outcome. If the approval is rejected, show the reason why.

These are just some of the many ways you can gain productivity by using the Power Automate workflows. The next blog of this series explores Scheduled Flows so you can learn how to run reports and complete tasks based on their recurrence patterns.

To Learn More

Western Computer offers deep expertise across the Microsoft technology stack, particularly in Dynamics 365 Business Central Cloud. Our thought leaders can help you ensure your critical ERP application meets your business needs for today and beyond. For more information on where to find and how to use these Business Central tricks, check out the complete blog?on the Western Computer website . And for help in designing, deploying or supporting Microsoft Dynamics 365 solutions, contact Western Computer today. ?

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About Western Computer

Western Computer is a Microsoft partner that many companies across North America trust to design, deploy, and support Microsoft solutions. We offer deep expertise across the Microsoft technology stack, particularly in Dynamics 365 Business Central. Our thought leaders can help you ensure your critical ERP application meets your business needs for today and beyond. This includes building a roadmap that enables your organization to take advantage of technology that helps you grow and compete in your industry. We provide dedicated teams of senior-level experts to deliver and align project teams with the culture of our customers to meet your requirements for technical and industry expertise.