In depth: Workflows within Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Welcome to ‘In Depth’, our latest blog series where we focus on specific features of a product or service. In this blog, we take a look at Dynamics NAV and workflows – and what workflows can do for you and your business!

Workflows are a brand new feature that was unveiled in the latest release of NAV: Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016.

They allow you to design and execute business processes within the NAV interface. These workflows help you work more efficiently and effectively, because they help you automate things that don’t need to be done by a human – helping you spend more time on the things that matter.

They use a conditional process not too dissimilar to some of your favourite formulae in Excel (if, else etc)

For example, you can set up a workflow that lets users know automatically if a package has been delayed, or if a customer’s credit limit has been exceeded.

Typically, workflows come in three flavours:

Approval
Approval is something that cannot be advanced without a key stakeholders’ approval. A task, item or document remains ‘unapproved’ until the person with the appropriate permissions approves. (i.e. Purchase orders, invoice payment, quotation approval, etc)

Notification
Tells users that something has happened and that need to take some kind of action. (New Sales Lead)

Process Automation
Automating something that doesn’t require human interaction to accomplish (i.e. pulling together a sales report, based on sales figures, and publishing each Monday morning)

You can breakdown a workflow simply into an event and response. Taking these themes, here’s a simple example:

When a new customer is entered into the system (event), send an email (response) to the salesperson responsible for that area of the business, to make them aware of the new customer.

More complex examples involve multiple events and responses in one sequence:

If a supplier bank details need to be updated, for security reasons NAV’s workflow would initiate and ensure an approval process is followed before the bank details are updated.

Similarly, if a customer credit limit needs to be increased the system would recognise that an approval process would need to be initiated prior to accepting the increase.

Or; if a purchase order (PO) exceeds £500, put the PO on hold until it’s approved by the designated approver.

As standard, Dynamics NAV 2016 features 20 Workflows you can use as templates. You’ll be able to tweak them to suit the requirements of your business. For example, you’ll be able to alter the last example above, to multiple approvers instead of one, or with multiple value points (e.g. above £5,000, above £50,000, etc).

The real power of Workflow lies in the ability to create your own. NAV 2016 empowers businesses with the tools they need to create any workflow they need to accommodate any business requirement. You’ll be able to streamline your business processes through automation.

If you want to learn more about Workflows and Microsoft Dynamics NAV, why not give us a call on +44 (0)203 004 4600 or register for our Dynamics NAV OCR & Workflow webinar on the 7th June.

Join us on 7th June for our Dynamics NAV Workflow webinar

You can learn more about workflows in our Dynamics NAV OCR & Workflow webinar on the 7th June. In the webinar you will learn about:

• Document management and approvals – using NAV’s standard document approval functionality for streamlining invoice payments.
• Workflow templates – how to use and modify them to achieve process automation
• NAV’s OCR capabilities – how an electronic invoice can be easily imported into NAV’s Purchase Ledger and process, without manual entry of data

Start your journey to improved productivity and business growth by registering for this webinar.