Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 – Workflow 2.0 – Email Notifications for Alternate Approver, Delegation and Escalation

In Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016, it is now possible to have email notifications sent to the alternate approvers, delegated approvers and escalated approvers, letting them know a workflow has been assigned to them and is pending their approval.

For example, after setting up the SMTP/Exchange information in the Workflow Setup window and verifying the test email is working, I setup the Purchase Order Approval workflow type to have one step condition:

"Where Purchase Order Work.Subtotal is greater than and includes 500.00000"

Also, in the Workflow Maintenance window for this Purchase Order Approval workflow type, I have marked the option for Use alternate final approver and selected a Windows AD account for this approver.

I have also marked the Always require at least one approver option on this workflow type.

With this setup, if the Purchase Order Work.Subtotal of a purchase order submitted for approval is greater than or equal to $500.00, it will require approval from my designated approver for that one workflow step. However, if the Purchase Order Work.Subtotal of the submitted purchase order is less than $500.00, then it will be assigned to the designated alternate final approver, as I have the Always require at least one approver option marked. If I didn't designate an alternate final approver, it would default to the overall workflow manager of this Purchase Order Approval workflow, for approval.

Is my workflow step has Derek to be the step approver and Ross to be the alternate final approver, based on my setup example, if the submitted purchase order has a Purchase Order Work.Subtotal of $500.00 or more, approval would be pending from Derek, otherwise approval would be pending from Ross.

Another option along with approving and rejecting workflows is delegating a workflow to another user for approval. Using this same example, approvers have the option to Approve, Reject or Delegate whether directly in the Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 application or using the approval notification sent to them by Workflow 2.0. When choosing to delegate, you can send the workflow to another Windows AD account for approval, and they will receive an email notification letting them know that a workflow is pending their approval, the same as a regular approver would receive.

Lastly is the Escalation approver. In the Workflow Maintenance window, for each workflow type, you can mark the option under When a task is overdue, to state what you want to happen to the pending workflow that needs approval if the task is overdue. By default, the pending approver will have 24 hours from the time of submission to approve a workflow assigned to them, then it will look at the overdue options, if that option is selected. The options are:

--Take No Action

--Escalate to the Next Approver

--Escalate To: <enter Windows AD account here>

--Automatically reject the overdue task

In this case, if we choose the Escalate to: option and select a Windows AD account to escalate to, if the assigned approver doesn't either approve, reject or delegate the assigned workflow in the allotted time, it will look at what overdue option is marked, and proceed with that process.

For this example, I'm marking the Escalate to: option and selecting Sarah to escalate to, so that when I save changes, any workflow that isn't taken action on, by the assigned approver, in the allotted time, will go to this escalation approver for approval.

The escalation approver also will receive an approval email notification letting them know a workflow has been assigned to them and is pending their approval.

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