The Gap That
Existed Until Now
If you've worked with Business Central approval
workflows, you know the story. General journal batches had approval support
baked in. But item journals? Requisition worksheets? Planning worksheets?
Nothing. You either built custom workflows from scratch (not fun) or relied on
trust and process discipline to make sure someone reviewed those entries before
posting.
That meant inventory adjustments, consumption postings,
and purchase document creation from requisition lines could happen without a
second pair of eyes. And for organizations with audit requirements or
segregation of duties policies, that was a real problem.
With BC28, Microsoft has closed this gap. Let's walk through what's new.
What's New in
BC28:
Approval
Workflows for Item Journals
Item journals now support the same batch-level approval workflow that general journal batches have had for a while. You can send a batch for approval before anyone can post it. This applies to four journal types:
Once a batch has an active approval
request, the system locks it down. No edits, no deletes, no posting until the
approval is completed or canceled. The standard approval actions (Approve,
Reject, Delegate, Comments) show up right on the journal pages, along with the
workflow status.
Approval
Workflows for Requisition and Planning Worksheets
Requisition worksheets and planning
worksheets now have full approval workflow support at the batch level. Before
you carry out planning actions or convert requisition lines into purchase
documents, the batch can go through an approval cycle.
When an approval request is active
on a worksheet batch, the system prevents inserting, modifying, or deleting any
requisition or planning lines. The workflow status is visible on the worksheet
pages, and the same approval actions are available.
This is a big deal for procurement
teams. Think about it: someone generates a planning run, the lines get reviewed
and approved, and only then do they become purchase orders. No one accidentally
carries out action messages on lines that haven't been vetted.
How It Behaves
at Runtime
Here's what happens when a batch is pending approval:
If you try to modify a record that has an active approval request, BC will stop you with a message asking whether you want to cancel the approval first. It's the same pattern you already know from general journal approvals, just extended to new areas.
Setting It Up
Configuration follows the standard workflow setup
pattern. No surprises here.
1. Open the Workflows page
(search for it using Tell Me).
2. Select the Item Journal Batch Approval Workflow
or Requisition
Worksheet Batch Approval Workflow template.
3. Specify the template and
batch name in the event conditions.
4. Configure your approvers
and enable the workflow.
5. Open the relevant journal
or worksheet and choose Send
for Approval.
6. Track the status on the Approval Entries
page.
These are standard workflow templates, which means they
come ready to use. You're not building anything from scratch. Pick a template,
point it at your batch, set up approvers, and go.
Power Automate Support
Microsoft has also updated the workflow events and
responses to work with Power Automate. So if your organization uses Power
Automate for approval routing or notifications, you can plug these new
workflows into your existing flows. The integration follows the same pattern as
other BC workflow events.
