Procurement and sourcing workflows
Some organizations require that purchase requisitions and purchase orders are approved by a user other than the person who entered the transaction. To set up an approval process, you can create a workflow.
A workflow represents a business process. It defines how a document flows through the system and indicates who must complete a task or approve a document. There are several benefits of using the workflow system in your organization:
- Consistent processes – You can define the approval process for specific documents, such as purchase requisitions and expense reports. Using the workflow system helps to ensure that documents are processed and approved in a consistent and efficient manner.
- Process visibility – You can track the status, history, and performance metrics of a specific workflow instance. This helps you determine whether changes should be made to the workflow to improve efficiency.
- Centralized work list – Users can view a centralized work list to view the workflow tasks and approvals assigned to them across all workflows they participate in. This is available on the Work items page.
The types of workflows that you can create
The following workflow types are available for Procurement and sourcing.
| Type | Use this type to |
|---|---|
| Purchase requisition review | Create review and approval workflows for purchase requisitions. |
| Purchase requisition line review | Create review and approval workflows for purchase requisition lines. |
| Purchase order workflow | Create review and approval workflows for purchase orders. |
| Purchase order line workflow | Create review and approve workflows for purchase order lines. |
| Vendor add application workflow | Create review and approval workflows for adding new vendors via vendor requests. |
Important
When you are adding a new workflow, you might also see the following obsolete workflows listed in the Create workflow dialog box. These are related to the confirmation of receipt functionality that was available in Dynamics AX 2012, but which has now been deprecated. These workflows are currently unsupported.
- Delivery due date notification workflow
- Invoice received notification workflow
- Product receipt failed notification workflow
- Unconfirmed product receipt rejection notification workflow
Creating a workflow
To create a workflow, go to Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Procurement and sourcing workflows and create a new workflow by selecting the type of workflow you want to create.
In the workflow canvas, you can drag workflow elements into the designer and link the elements into a flow. The workflow elements should be configured. For approval and task workflow elements, you can configure which participant should take action.
Types of participants
You can assign an approval step to the following groups of participants.
| User group | Description |
|---|---|
| Participant | Assign the approval step to members of a group or role. |
| Hierarchy | Assign the approval step to users in a specific organizational hierarchy. |
| Workflow user | Assign the approval step to users of this workflow. |
| Queue | Assign the approval step to a work item queue. |
| User | Assign the approval step to specific users. |