Workflow on vendor master data fields in D365FO

In D365FO you can enable workflow on vendor (and customer) master data. In the parameters you can select fields that must be approved before changes on that fields are made definitive. As example I use the default bank account field for vendor approval workflow, also because later in this article I make a remark about workflow on this specific field that you need to be aware of.

In the Accounts Payable parameters you can enable the workflow and select the fields that needs to be approved:

For these changes the ‘Proposed vendor changes’ workflow will be used:

When the workflow is enabled in the parameters, on the vendor master data you will see a remark by the selected fields that approval is required by a change:

For the vendor in the print screen above the Bank account field is empty. If I select a value bank account 23319916 in this field (based on the existing bank accounts for this vendor), a pop up follows that a proposed change is added:

When this screen is closed on this vendor now two extra buttons are available at the top: Proposed changes (a list of changes for this vendor which are not definitive yet) and the Workflow button:

The bank account field has still the old value, only in the proposed changes screen you can see the new value that is wanted. When you want the change to be made definitive, you submit the change into the workflow. When the workflow approval is given and the workflow is completed, automatically the approved new values are added in the vendor fields:

So now the vendor works with the new settings on the bank account field and the change is approved by workflow.

Be aware of bank account changes itself

A couple of times I had conversations with my clients about risks of vendor payments. Some om them said that they have managed it by enabling this workflow on te bank account field in the Accounts Payable parameters. But be aware: even if there is workflow on this field, you can still make changes without workflow in the bank account settings of this vendor itself. By example the current value for bank account number and IBAN on the bank account that I used for the approval by workflow is:

And even when workflow is enabled on the vendor default bank account field, I can change the bank account number or IBAN on this bank account without workflow approval needed:

(Remark: all bank accounts and IBAN’s in this article are taken from the site RandomIban.com where I always take my test bank accounts from. So no relationships between this bank accounts and me or my clients).

I also can create a new bank account for this vendor without workflow approval needed:

And in open transactions of the vendor I can change the bank account value from the approved default bank account to the new created bank account without workflow approval:

I can tell you that one of my clients was really surprised when they said that they had eliminated the risk by using the vendor bank account workflow and I showed in their environment exactly the same as above...

But at the end, the vendor workflow is a good start to be sure that only approved changes will be used as standard. Be aware that the workflow does a check on the default bank account of the vendor and that you need to use some additional functionalities as well (by example a check that I have described in another article: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/list-page-changed-vendor-bank-accounts-d365fo-hylke-britstra/ )

Data entity behaviour

What about the data entity behavior field in the parameters for workflow?

These settings are used by import changes on the fields with workflow enabled. What must the system do by import changes on fields with worklow?

By example I use the reject changes value:

Now by the Excel add-in I publish a change on the vendor bank account field where workflow is enabled. The system will give an error and will not import the changed bank account:

Now I change the parameter into ‘Allow changes without approval’:

Again I change the bank account by the Excel add-in. Even when the workflow is on for the bank account, based on the Excel import no workflow is needed and after publishing the new default bank account value is saved on the vendor without approval:?

The third option in the parameters is ‘Create change proposals’ and that will enable the same proposals as manual changes described as above: