Welcome to the 12th Edition of the Microsoft 365 for Construction newsletter: *Document Approval Workflows*

Back in the day, hard-copy documents were put into folders and physically walked around the office for review and approval. This manual process ensured that everyone on the sign-off page obtained physical signatures, and you could see where the approvals were based on whose desk the folder resided on. It worked well, especially for those managers who did not like technology. Still, there were issues such as the extra steps in obtaining external/offsite team members' signatures, inefficiencies in printing and scanning documents, and the additional effort of having to file and maintain hard copies of the approved records. As web-based construction management systems have become more prominent, electronic approval workflows have become the norm.

In this newsletter, I'll explore what workflow solutions are available across Microsoft 365 applications that are commonly used in the construction industry. I'll provide the pros and cons of each application, observations, and how Construction Viz can help bridge the gap for your construction projects.?

If you find these newsletters insightful, please subscribe and share them with other like-minded professionals. Also, please sign up for our Microsoft 365 for Construction Linkedin Group, where we share ideas and lessons learned from the field. As with most companies, we also have a company page to follow.

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Before jumping into the world of Microsoft 365 workflows, I like to share a funny IT/construction video. This video collection is for those who work remotely ??

Opinions on new tech and the overall theme of the newsletter.

When you think of an approval workflow, the needs may vary greatly depending on an organization's size, process controls, resources, and layers of management. In most cases, the key features of an approval workflow should include the following:

• Ability to create steps in a workflow with statuses and reviewers.
• Ability to assign a workflow to a form or a file.
• Automated notifications of tasks due and completed.
• Ball in court view to see progress in the workflow.
• Ability to create workflow templates that can be reused.

Realistically, few applications can check all those boxes unless they are custom-built solutions. However, Microsoft provides Power Automate, which is part of the Power Platform, to build pretty much any workflow you can think of, but there is a cost, so make sure to check out the pricing.

Microsoft 365 features and technologies that may benefit your construction projects.

Workflows in Microsoft 365 come in many different flavors and depend on your specific needs. The out-of-the-box workflow options depend on where you store your files in Microsoft 365.

Teams

Teams is a centralized communication hub in Microsoft 365 that is often used to manage projects. If you use Teams to store project documents, you can add the Workflows app (from the Apps button on the left-hand navigation). You can create a new flow from the Workflows app or use an existing template to send approval emails when a new file has been uploaded or when?a column has been changed.?

?Pros: Workflows is integrated into Teams and you can edit/activate the workflow from within the Workflows app.

?Con: Workflows is a front end to Power Automate, so it might be a bit intimidating if you aren't a developer. Also, there are potential additional costs, so check pricing.

SharePoint

SharePoint is an enterprise content management system where any content can be stored, organized, and searched. SharePoint offers several different options for approval workflows for your documents.

• Alerts. Alerts have been available in SharePoint for some time. Alerts can be added to a single file, folder, or an entire library. They are a simple way to get notified when a new file has been uploaded and/or changed. You can add multiple users to receive alerts, and you can schedule when those alerts are sent out. The user will receive an email with a link to the document. From there, you could sign the file in the browser, download and sign it, and/or change a column value to acknowledge the file is approved.

?Pro. Easy to set up. Easy to add additional users.

?Con. Users may be overwhelmed with the amount of emails they receive if there are many changes. There are no alerts for deletions. The configuration options and email are limited and not customizable. You will still need to add an approval column in the SharePoint list/library to display the approval status.

• ?Automate. The Automate menu option is available from a library, folder, or file. Automate includes different options depending on the location you choose to automate from.

From the list or library: If you select Automate from the library, you can create and manage rules. When you create a rule, you can send a notification when data in a column changes, a new file is added, or a file is deleted. You can select manage rules to edit a rule and choose to whom the notification is sent.

?Pro. Easy to use and similar to an Alert but with fewer options.

?Con. You cannot schedule when a notification is sent to a user. The configuration options are minimal. The email that is sent includes a button to open the file in the file properties view, which can be a little confusing to non-SharePoint users. You would still need to add a SharePoint column to capture an approval status.

Automate from the file. If you select Automate from the file, you can Request sign-off.

Request sign-off displays a pre-configured Power Automate workflow that allows you to select an Approver and add a message. The workflow will send an email and add an approval to the Approvals app in Teams.

?Pro. Easy to set up. Adds a column called Sign-off status to the SharePoint library to see the status.

?Con. This is a one-time workflow event that is set up per record. You cannot customize the message or the approval email unless you edit the workflow in Power Automate.

• SharePoint 2013 Workflows. From the More option in the file menu (three dots next to a file/ellipsis), there is an option for Workflows. Workflows is actually SharePoint 2013 Designer. Before Power Automate, SharePoint 2013 Designer was the tool for building websites and workflows. It's still available in Microsoft 365 but will no longer be supported in 2026, so I do not recommend using it.

OneDrive

OneDrive is a file management solution that allows users to save documents to folders, open files on the web or in the native application, and map file locations as another drive. Just like SharePoint, an Automate option is available which opens a Power Automate menu at the folder and file level (click the three dots/ellipsis). You can add a flow and/or create a new one.

?Pro: Ability to access Power Automate directly. Some Power Automate workflow templates are available.

?Con: If you are not a developer, it can be confusing trying to create a workflow. Also, there are potential additional costs, so check pricing.

Others

Other third-party tools and add-ons such as Adobe Sign, DocuSign, and SharePoint eSignatures, can capture digital signatures and create workflows. These tools are not out of the box and require additional setup and costs.

New features and functionality of Construction Viz, our construction project management solution for Microsoft 365.

Construction Viz was designed to be as flexible as possible, knowing that each client, project, and project manager manages work differently. Also, because Construction Viz is deployed to Microsoft 365/SharePoint, we focused on incorporating as many of the features and apps available in Microsoft 365 into Construction Viz as possible. In Construction Viz you can add documents to forms such as RFIs and Submittals but you can also use forms such as the Document Binder as traditional file folders but with the added capability of workflows and many other features already baked in. There are four workflow features/components in Construction Viz forms that stand out for managing document approval workflows:

• Review components. You may want to organize reviews into groups, such as internal vs. external reviews or initial vs. final reviews. For this reason, we made the review component as flexible as possible in that you can name them whatever you want and add as many as you need to a form app for your specific processes within each application.
• Ad-hoc workflows. Within a review component, users have the ability to add as many reviewers as they need. Each reviewer has their own status, due date, response date, response status, and electronic signature. Unless you are an admin, we included controls that only the person assigned for review can provide their response date, status, and e-signature. Also, automatic emails can be sent out each time a user is added. We've also included an email component allowing users to send email notifications to individual users and distribution groups manually and every email that is sent is captured in an email log.

• Power Automate workflows. If you are bold enough to build your own PA workflows, you can copy and paste the workflow URL into Construction Viz, link to an application, and create your own button to trigger the workflow.

• Reporting - Dashboards, Views, and Ball in Court.

Once a reviewer has been assigned to form, there are several notifications that alert the user of upcoming tasks.

?Dashboards. Each form application includes a dashboard that displays all records by status and those records assigned with drill-down capability.

?Views. Each form application includes a toggle to see all of the forms that have been assigned to you as well as the ability to create your own custom views.

?Ball in Court. All form applications include a log view of all of the records that have been assigned to you with indicators of whether they have been responded to or not. ?

??New lightweight workflow. While Construction Viz includes a manual workflow option and the ability to utilize Power Automate, we are also building a new lightweight workflow builder to fill any gaps. We will be announcing this feature in future blogs.

Future events, training, webinars, final thoughts, your take, and wrap-up.

Upcoming Webinar

If you are interested in finding out more about Construction Viz, check out this upcoming webinar:

Free Webinar Friday, September 27th 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PDT

Manage Your Construction Projects with Construction Viz and SharePoint Online

So, you have Microsoft 365 SharePoint Online, but you only use it to store documents.

Find out how Construction Viz delivers a construction management solution to YOUR Microsoft 365, with all data securely stored in YOUR SharePoint Online lists and libraries.

Sign up for the free online webinar to learn how Construction Viz can help you manage your projects and maximize your? Microsoft 365 investment

Final Thoughts

Depending on the application you use to manage your file, there are different approaches to delivering workflows in Microsoft 365. If your workflows are simple enough, such as assigning a single review to a person to approve, you are in luck with out-of-the-box workflows within SharePoint. But, if you are looking for something more complex with multiple reviewers, statuses, and steps, you will most likely need to build a workflow solution in Power Automate.

There are many courses on Power Automate, especially on LinkedIn, to help get you started. If you don't have the time to learn Power Automate, I suggest contacting a professional consultant who knows construction and IT, like Lydon Solutions, to recommend and implement the best workflow solution to meet your needs.

Wrap Up

Thanks for reading the twelfth edition of our LinkedIn Newsletter. I hope that the information provided helps you decide on the best technologies to get you up and running with workflows.

Please subscribe and share if you find the newsletter valuable. You can follow our Lydon Solutions LinkedIn company page here and join our new Microsoft 365 for Construction group here where you can ask questions and share ideas with the larger team.

Also, check out our Lydon Solutions website for more content and request a free one-hour consultation or a demo of Construction Viz here.