Walkthrough: Setting Up Document Approvals
You can automate the process of requesting approvals for documents such as sales or purchase orders. When you set up document approvals, you can establish an approver and substitute approver for each user. You set the sales, purchase, and request limits for each user so that when users create a document that is above their limits, they are prompted to send an approval request. Approval requests and other notifications are sent using an SMTP server. You must set up notifications so that approvers are alerted when they have a document waiting for approval.
About This Walkthrough
This walkthrough illustrates the following tasks:
Setting up a new user who has Windows authentication logon credentials.
Applying document approval settings for two users.
Setting up email notification.
Prerequisites
To complete this walkthrough, you will need:
Microsoft Dynamics NAV with the CRONUS International Ltd. demonstration database installed. For more information, see Demo Install Option.
An SMTP server that both users have access to.
Story
Sean Bentley is a power user at CRONUS International Ltd.. CRONUS has several departments that handle documents, including sales and purchasing. Sean has been asked to set up document approvals to automate the process of requesting an approval. He decides to test the approval process on a single computer before setting it up for CRONUS employees. He creates two document approval users in Microsoft Dynamics NAV. One is himself, whom he also sets up as the Approval Administrator. In this walkthrough, you will set yourself up as the other user. Sean then sets approval limits for the users and designates the templates that must be used for approvals. Finally, he sets up notifications to alert users when an approval is ready for consideration.
Setting up the Sample Data
Sean adds a new user to Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
If you want to perform this walkthrough, but do not have permission to add users in your domain, then you can add a user on the local computer instead, as the following procedure describes.
To add a user to the domain
Choose Start, and in the Search programs and files box, enter Edit local users and groups, and then choose the related link.
Expand Local Users and Groups, and then select Users.
Open the shortcut menu for the Users folder, and then choose New User.
-or-
On the Action menu, choose New User.
Add the information for the user. Give the user the name Sean. You must clear the User must change password at next logon check box.
After creating a user, Sean must add this user to Microsoft Dynamics NAV. To do this, he follows the procedure in How to: Create Users.
Applying Document Approval Settings for Users
Sean adds himself as a salesperson, because he is responsible for the sales orders that the order processor has created. In this walkthrough, he is to approve the documents that are sent for approval by the order processor. Sean sets himself as the document approver and also sets sales and purchase limits that require approval for the user who he created previously.
To set up document approvals users
In the Search box, enter Salespeople, and then choose the related link.
In the Salespeople window, on the Home tab, in the New group, choose New.
In the Code text box, add the initials SB (for Sean Bentley), and in the Name text box, enter the name Sean Bentley.
In the E-Mail field, enter an email address that you can use to test if the procedures in this walkthrough are working. Choose the OK button.
In the Search box, enter Approval Setup, and then choose the related link.
In the Approval Setup window, on the General FastTab, in the Approval Administrator field, specify Sean.
On the Home tab, in the Process group, choose User Setup.
In the Approval User Setup window, on the Home tab, in the New group, choose New. In a blank User ID field, choose the field, select the row for the user who you want to add, and then choose the OK button.
For Sean, complete the user setup with the information in the User 1 column in the following table. Then, use the information in the User 2 column to set up yourself as the second user who you created.
Note
You must set up an approver before you can set up users who require that approver's approval. Therefore, you must set up User 1, who acts as the approver in this scenario, before you set up User 2.
| Approval settings | User 1 (Sean) – Salesperson and Document Approver | User 2 (you) – Order Processor |
|---|---|---|
User ID |
Provide the user ID that you assigned this user. |
Provide the user ID that you assigned this user. |
Salespers./Purch. Code |
User 1 |
|
Approver ID |
User 1 |
|
Sales Amount Approval Limit |
Select the Unlimited check box. |
5000 |
Purchase Amount Approval Limit |
Select the Unlimited check box. |
5000 |
Request Amount Approval Limit |
Select the Unlimited check box. |
5000 |
User 1 email address |
User 2 email address |
Setting Up Notifications
In Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Sean applies notification settings to make sure that he is notified when an approval is ready. He sets Microsoft Dynamics NAV to automatically request a comment when a user rejects an approval request. Finally, he completes the SMTP mail setup so that mail is sent when an approval request is sent.
To set up email notification
In the Approval Setup window, sSelect the Request Rejection Comment check box.
Expand the Notification FastTab, and in the Notify User about list, select all check boxes, and then choose the OK button.
In the Search box, enter Approval Templates, and then choose the related link.
Select a line, and then on the Home tab, in the Manage group, choose Edit List.
On the P-Quote and S-ORDER lines, select the Enabled check box.
Choose the OK button.
To set up SMTP mail
In the Search box, enter SMTP Mail Setup, and then choose the related link.
In the SMTP Server text box, enter the name of your SMTP server.
In the Authentication box, select Basic.
Add the user ID and password for your SMTP server.
This is generally the administrator ID and password for the SMTP server that you and your user are registered on. You can also use Anonymous authentication.
Choose the OK button.
For more information about SMTP email systems, see Configure SMTP E-mail (IIS 7).
Next Steps
After you have completed the document approvals setup, you can try sending and approving, rejecting, or delegating approval requests. For more information, see Walkthrough: Approving Documents.