There are two ways to approve purchase invoices in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central: the approval workflows built into Business Central, or a dedicated approval engine such as Cliqo. This guide walks through both, so you can pick the one that fits your team.
Option 1: Business Central's built-in approval workflow
Business Central ships with workflow templates, including one for purchase invoices. Setting it up takes four steps.
1. Set up your approval users
Open Approval User Setup and add a line for each person who will request or approve invoices. For each user you can set:
- Approver ID: who this user's requests go to next (used for approver chains).
- Purchase Amount Approval Limit, or tick Unlimited Purchase Approval for your most senior approver.
- Substitute: who covers when the approver is away.
Every approver needs a Business Central user account and a licence. Approving documents is possible with a Team Members licence, but it still has to be bought and assigned to each person.
2. Create the workflow from a template
Search for Workflows, choose New Workflow from Template and pick Purchase Invoice Approval Workflow. In the workflow steps you decide:
- The conditions that start the workflow, such as invoices for a certain vendor or above a certain amount.
- The approver type: Salesperson/Purchaser, Approver (from Approval User Setup) or a Workflow User Group.
- The approver limit type: Approver Chain, Direct Approver, First Qualified Approver or Specific Approver.
3. Set up notifications
Decide how approvers hear about new requests: in Business Central or by email. Email notifications are sent by a job queue entry, so check it is running, or approvers won't be told anything is waiting.
4. Enable and test
Switch the workflow to Enabled. On a purchase invoice, choose Request Approval and then Send Approval Request. The approver opens Requests to Approve in Business Central to approve or reject it. Test with a few real invoices before you roll it out.
Where the built-in workflow works well, and where it doesn't
| Works well | Gets harder |
|---|---|
| Included with Business Central, no extra subscription | Every approver needs a Business Central licence |
| Simple amount limits and approver chains | Routing individual invoice lines by dimension or budget |
| Teams where approvers already work in Business Central | Occasional approvers who just want to approve from Teams |
| One process, rarely changed | Changing the workflow needs someone who understands the workflow designer |
Option 2: invoice approval with Cliqo
Cliqo is a standalone approval engine for Business Central. Approvals happen in Cliqo and Microsoft Teams, and approved documents integrate back into Business Central automatically.
- Connect Cliqo to Business Central. Cliqo connects to your tenant using secure OAuth through Microsoft Entra ID.
- Bring in your people. Users come from Entra ID, and people who only approve don't need a Business Central licence.
- Build your rules. Route on header or line data, budgets and dimensions, with your own vendor and G/L account groupings. Drag rules into the order you want them checked.
- Test the workflow. Run it end to end without notifying real approvers, then go live.
- Approve in Teams. Invoices synced from Business Central, keyed into Cliqo or read from a PDF by Invoice Capture are routed to approvers in Microsoft Teams. Once fully approved, Business Central updates automatically.
Which should you choose?
Start with the built-in workflow if you have a handful of approvers who already work in Business Central and simple limits. Look at an approval engine when you have many occasional approvers, need line-level routing, want approvals in Teams, or also want requisitions and expenses on the same rules. Our side-by-side comparison goes into more detail.