Customer Workflows in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations

Customer workflows are now available in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations when making changes to specific fields. Starting in version 8.0.4, you can make changes to a customer record and submit them for approval before committing the change. With this functionality, changes can be controlled to ensure proper setup and configuration for all records.

This post will review how to use the workflows as well as the setup and configuration.

When the "Enable customer workflows" parameter is marked "Yes" and a "Workflow approval for proposed customer change" is set up, a Proposed Changes page will open any time there is an edit to one of the specified fields on the customer record. This page will compare the original value to the new value being proposed and your changes have not yet been submitted.

Every change made on one of the enabled fields will add to the list of Proposed changes. If any changes do not want to be kept, use the "Discard Changes" button to remove those fields from the proposal. Use Discard all changes to remove all changes from the proposal.

After all the changes are complete, click the Workflow > Submit button to submit the changes to the workflow. The status of the page becomes "Changes pending approval" and the workflow engine will route the approvals.

Similar to any workflow in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, the approve/reject/delegate functions are available for all reviewers. Once the workflow is complete, the fields are updated with the proposed values.

To set up the customer workflow, follow these steps:

1. Go to Accounts receivable > Setup > Accounts receivable parameters.
2. On the General tab, set the Enable customer approvals option to "Yes."
3. In the Data entity behavior field, select the most appropriate value for how changes from data entity imports are handled.
   • Allow changes without approval – An entity can update the customer record without processing it through workflow
   • Reject changes – Changes can't be made to the customer record. The import will fail for the fields that are enabled for the workflow.
   • Create change proposals – All fields will be changed except the fields that are enabled for the workflow. The new values for those fields will be added to the customer as proposed changes, and the workflow will be started automatically.
4. In the list of customer fields, select the Enable check box for every field that must be approved before changes can be committed.
5. Go to Accounts receivable > Setup > Accounts receivable workflows.
6. Select New.
7. Select Proposed customer change workflow.
8. Set up the workflow so that it matches your approval process. The Workflow approval for proposed customer change element will apply the changes to the customer.

A list of fields available to require approval is listed.

This feature is a great way to keep your customer master data properly maintained while allowing users to propose the edits they feel are necessary. Look for it on version 8.0.4 and later!