Do you know the feeling: a purchase invoice lands as a PDF in an inbox, gets forwarded to a colleague who is on holiday, and then vanishes into an email thread while the payment deadline draws closer? Manual invoice rounds by email and on paper delay your bookkeeping and blur who is responsible. No one can see who still needs to approve, and the approval history lives in scattered emails. Digital invoice approval in Business Central clears up exactly that bottleneck.
What is digital invoice approval in Business Central?
Digital invoice approval means that approval of purchase invoices and credit memos takes place inside the system itself \ email trails. Once an invoice is registered, an approval request is sent automatically to the right approver through an invoice approval workflow. The approver views the document, approves or rejects it, and posting can continue. Everything happens in the same solution you already work in \u2014 Business Central (formerly Dynamics NAV).
It fits neatly with electronic invoicing, so both the incoming invoice and the approval itself are digital all the way through.
Checklist: how to choose the right solution
When you need to select invoice approval for your ERP, it comes down to matching the solution with your actual working routines. Run through this checklist before you decide:
Approver chain: Can you build a chain where the invoice is passed on from approver to approver in the right order?
Amount limits per user: Can each approver have their own limit, so large invoices automatically require an approver higher up?
Minimum number of approvers: Can you require more than one person to approve certain documents?
Holiday substitutes: Can a colleague step in as a substitute when the approver is away, so nothing grinds to a halt?
Forwarding: Can approval requests be forwarded to the right person if an invoice has landed in the wrong place?
How to implement it step by step
A good rollout is equal parts setup and training. We recommend this order:
Setup: Define when approval is required and how the approver chain fits together.
Assigning approvers: Connect each user with their amount limit and any substitutes.
Permission sets: Control what each person is allowed to do \u2014 for example Can Forward, Can Reject and Can See All, so roles and responsibilities are clear.
Training: Show approvers where the actions are and what their everyday work will look like.
In the documentation on flexible setup you can see the setup framework in more detail.
Everyday life for the approver
For the person approving purchase invoices in Business Central, it should be simple. Approval actions and fact boxes are visible by default, so the approver immediately sees the most important information about the document. Comments can be written directly on the document \u2014 for example a note about an account number \u2014 and everyone has access to the approval history. That way it is always clear who approved what, and when.
VisionApproval \u2014 and how to move forward
VisionApproval is our app for streamlined approval directly in Business Central. It gathers the approver chain, amount limits, substitutes and forwarding in one place, so you avoid invoices that disappear in the inbox. If you want to dive into how the flow works, you can read more in the documentation for VisionApproval.
The best thing is to try it with your own eyes. Order demo access, or have a chat with us about how digital invoice approval fits your specific working routines. We will help you get off to a good start.
