Every comparison in this series has ended the same way: somebody has to say yes. The purchase order from Round 8, the check run from Round 14, the new vendor, the journal batch — sooner or later, each one waits on an approval. So for the final round of our GP vs. BC Face-Off, we’re looking at the approval process itself: GP’s Workflow module versus Business Central’s approval workflows — plus the Power Automate engine BC gets for free.
How You Do It in Dynamics GP
GP’s answer is Workflow (often called Workflow 2.0), and credit where due: it’s a real approval engine, built right into the product. Per Microsoft’s Workflow Administrator’s Guide, it can route documents, master records, and batches — purchase orders, requisitions, vendor changes, GL batches, and more — through multi-step approvals with conditions.
Step 1: Set up the plumbing. Workflow approvers in GP are Windows accounts — your Active Directory domain users. Email approvals are one of Workflow’s best features (approvers can act on a message right from Outlook using an Edit this Task link), but they only work after you configure email for workflow, and remote approvals typically mean exposing web services. This is server work, not user work — your IT team or partner sets it up.
Step 2: Build the workflow. Go to Administration > Setup > Company > Workflow > Workflow Maintenance. Pick the workflow type — purchase order approval, vendor approval, and roughly a dozen others — then create the workflow, name it, and add steps. Each step gets a condition (say, orders over $5,000) and an assignment: a specific user, or a workflow role like Workflow Manager.
Step 3: Mind the module quirks. Some areas need housekeeping first. To use the purchase order approval workflow, Microsoft’s Purchase Order Processing guide notes you must first turn off the older Activate Approvals option in PO Enhancements Setup — GP has two generations of PO approvals, and they don’t run together.
Step 4: Submit and approve. Users submit from the document window, which shows a message bar with the status and a history pane. Approvers act in GP or from the email. It works well — we’ve set it up for plenty of clients. But it lives and dies with your domain, your email configuration, and your server.
How You Do It in Business Central
BC splits the job into two friendly pieces: built-in approval workflows for the everyday cases, and Power Automate when you want to go further.
Step 1: Set up approval users — in the browser. Per Microsoft’s purchase approval walkthrough, you add each person on the Approval User Setup page: who their approver is, a substitute, and optional amount limits (Sean approves up to $10,000; his boss handles the rest). Notifications go out as email or internal notes, on the schedule each user picks. No domain accounts, no server plumbing — users are just BC users.
Step 2: Turn on a workflow from a template. BC ships with workflow templates — purchase order approval, sales document approval, vendor approval, journal batch approval, and more. Create a workflow from the template, adjust the event conditions and responses on the lines if you want (only orders over $5,000, for example), and flip the Enabled toggle. That’s the whole rollout.
Step 3: Submit and approve — from anywhere. The requester clicks Request Approval on the document. The approver gets a notification, opens Requests to Approve, and approves, rejects, or delegates — from the browser, the mobile app, or the email. Out for the week? Requests route to your substitute.
Step 4: When you outgrow the templates, Power Automate is included. Your BC license includes Power Automate, and approval flows you build there show up right in BC’s workflow list. That’s where the fun starts: approvals that land as actionable cards in Microsoft Teams, flows that update a SharePoint file and ping a Teams chat when something’s approved, multi-service processes that GP’s engine was never designed to reach. Approvers can respond from their inbox, Teams, or the Power Automate app on their phone.
Side by Side
| Dynamics GP | Business Central | |
|---|---|---|
| Approval engine | Workflow module, built in | Approval workflows, built in |
| Approvers are | Windows / Active Directory accounts | Business Central users |
| Setup lives in | Workflow Maintenance + server email config | Browser: Approval User Setup + templates |
| Amount limits | Step conditions | Per-user limits + step conditions |
| Approve from | GP client, Outlook email | Browser, mobile app, email, Teams |
| Substitutes and delegation | Delegation setup | Substitute approvers + delegate button |
| Extending beyond built-ins | Customization | Power Automate, included in the license |
| Remote approvals | Email/web services configuration | Just sign in |
Why BC Comes Out Ahead
GP’s Workflow module deserves respect — for an on-premises ERP, routing approvals into Outlook was ahead of its time. But every one of its strengths is wired to infrastructure: domain accounts, email configuration, web services, a server someone maintains.
Business Central keeps the approval logic and drops the wiring. Approval users are set up in the browser in minutes. Templates cover the everyday workflows, with amount limits and substitutes built in. And Power Automate turns “approve the PO” into “approve the PO from a Teams card on your phone, then let the flow notify the team” — all inside the license you already have. Approvals stop being an IT project and become a settings page.
Thinking About the Switch?
Approval processes are where good intentions go to stall — and they’re one of our favorite things to fix. Aisling Dynamics designs approval workflows that match how your team actually works, whether that’s tuning GP Workflow today or building your approval matrix into Business Central and Power Automate tomorrow. It’s the heart of our business process development practice. Meet our team or contact us at (251) 293-0555.
That’s a wrap on all 26 rounds of the Functionality Face-Off — but not on the series. We’ll keep the comparisons coming with bonus rounds on fixed assets, multicurrency, Copilot, and more. If there’s a GP-vs-BC matchup you want to see, tell us.