For a D365 F&O end user, workflows are pretty natural. You fire off your purchase order and it lands in the approvers’ job list ready to be approved, modified or rejected. It’s a straightforward and integral part of any mature ERPEnterprise Resource Planning software is used by businesses to manage day-to-day activities. solution.
But what pain do us consultants and administrators go through to make that process work so smoothly?! I give you… the Workflow Editor.
Accessing Workflows
The option to view/edit workflows is found in the Setup section of the applicable module menus, e.g. Procurement & sourcing > Setup > Procurement & sourcing workflows. If you can’t see this menu item, your user account does not have the relevant permissions.
The workflow editor will open when you create a new workflow, or click to edit an existing one (or just wish to view it). The workflow editor launches as a separate “ClickOnce” application, which you’ll need to login to with the same Microsoft credentials as your D365 F&O environment.
N.B. You’re also restricted to Microsoft Edge for running the editor.
Let’s have a quick look at the editor itself, alongside some of the functionality in the workflow editor using a basic purchase order workflow.
Workflow Editor Interface
- Workflow workspace
This highlighted yellow area is where you can drag and drop your workflow elements, form connections and build the flow. For larger workflows with a lot of elements and branches you can extend the workspace as needed. There will always be a Start and an End point.
- Elements
These are the available elements for the current workflow type. These vary from workflow to workflow, but always have standard controls such as conditional decisions and subworkflows.
- Taskbar
The taskbar provides another means to configure each workflow element; the other option being simply double-clicking on the workflow element in the workspace. Either way, the dialogue box gives control over settings for the element, such as custom notification messages, assigned users, and escalation rule, which I’ll cover in more detail in the next section.
The taskbar also allows you to cut/copy/paste/delete workflow elements and show/hide panels in the interface.
- Validation panel
This provides a list of errors and warnings about the current workflow. You will not be able to activate a workflow with any errors.
Building the Elements
Conditions
Conditions are the main elements you need to create different branches of your workflow, ensuring that the approval ends up in the right place. Below you can see the conditions form alongside a completed workflow:
You can set any number of conditions using fields from the purchase order form. In this instance, I’ve created a workflow that checks if the workflow is <£500 in value, or if it is intercompany. In either case, the True path goes straight to End and it auto-approves itself. If the purchase order is more than £500, then we have a manual approval step before connecting to the End point.
Approvals
This element is one of the most important parts of the workflow as it dictates who is approving the workflow, and the standardised instructions you send to the approver.
Within the properties of the approval you can set assignment and escalation criteria. Popular choices are to assign workflows to specific user groups, i.e Procurement managers, or to use the company hierarchy to send the approval directly to the submitters manager. Escalation and time criteria can also be added which will reassign based on more criteria.
Multi-step approvals are possible when required and can be added by clicking into the approval element and adding new approval elements.
Link Other Workflows
In some cases the workflow editor will be able to link to other workflows. In the first image you can see there is an element for a purchase order line workflow. If a purchase order approval first relies on approval of each line, then this element can be added to complete the line workflow for each line before continuing the purchase order flow.
The other option is the subworkflow element. Some workflows can get very large, especially in companies with lots of legal entities and approvers. In this case it is useful to create multiple smaller workflows and link them together using this element. The workflow editor can become painfully slow if too many elements are used in one workflow (which I’ve learned the hard way in the past!).
Other elements
- Manual decision: if a manual step is required to continue the path of a workflow this can be used. The user will need to select which path the workflow will take.
- Parallel activity: if the workflow needs to follow two paths at once, this can be used, i.e if you’d like two independent approvals and not consecutive.
- Tasks: used if there are elements of a PO that an assigned person needs to complete before sending it for approval.
This is just a brief look into the workflow editor. There are lots of options for your business to get approvals in the right places, however… try not to overcomplicate it!