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Automate the Approval request for Imported purchase invoice

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Posted on by Tymay

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Hi Community,

We integrate purchase invoices from EXCEL either via Edit in Excel or Configuration Package. We would like to automate the Request for Approval for all the imported Purchase Invoices so that users are not required to edit every one of the Purchase Invoice to click on the Request for Approval.

What is the best method we can achieve this requirement?

Appreciate all recomendations.

Thanks,

May

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YUN ZHU 95,729 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Hi, first of all, standard functions cannot be done.

And starting from BC20.3, we can release and reopen multiple purchase documents. (Maybe you have Workflow and the system doesn't allow you to do this.)
Generally available: Release and reopen multiple purchase documents in Business Central
https://yzhums.com/27393/

If you consider customization, you can add a field, such as Integrate purchase invoices (Boolean), add this field in Edit In Excel and Configuration Package, and it cannot be edited on the page. Then add an action to approve all Integrate purchase invoices. Just an idea, maybe there are better proposals.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.

ZHU

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Tymay 297 on at

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Hi Zhu, thanks for your reply. We actually do not need them to be auto approved. What we need is upon import, the system auto request for approval and send a notification to the approval; set the status to Pending Approval. Currently users have to go into each of the document to click Request for Approval upon import which is quite inefficient.

Thanks

May

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Greg Enns 1,106 on at

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I like Zhu's solution. You'll just want to modify it slightly to fit your needs.

Create the field as Zhu suggested.

Modify the Import process to mark the field as true during creation/modification of the PurchInvoice.

Create a copy of the current approval workflow.

Triggered by the modification (or "insert"?) of a Purchase Invoice

Filtered to only run when Zhu's suggested custom field is marked as true.

Add a step in the workflow to Uncheck the custom field (So that if a user has to make edits later--the workflow will not get triggered automatically.)

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Greg Enns 1,106 on at

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Quick note...If you are able to run the custom workflow OnInsert of the imported PurchInvoice, then you would not need to do step 4 since Insert only happens once. :)

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Inge M. Bruvik 1,111 Moderator on at

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I would consider creating a customized import and have that import function trigger an Power Automate approval flow.

At least if this is something you will do on a regular basis.

Whats coming in this release wave is the possibility to trigger a business event that can launch a power automate flow.

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YUN ZHU 95,729 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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I agree with Greg. But please note that customization is unavoidable.

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