Setting up purchase contract approval

  • 29/01/2026
  • 5 minutes to read

Purchase contract approvals allow you to set up processes for monitoring your organization's contracts and automating the approval of recurring invoices. For more information, see Purchase contract approvals.

To set up the approval functionality

To enable and set up the approval functionality:

  1. Search (Search) for and select Purchase Contracts Setup.
  2. On the Approval FastTab, switch on the Enable Purchase Contract Approval setting and, if needed, the Enable Purchase Contract Force Approval setting.
  3. On the action bar, click Workflows and Users > Continia User Setup and configure the fields Purchase Contract Amount Approval Limit, Unlimited Purchase Contract Approval, and Purchase Contract Approver ID according to your needs.

A purchase contract administrator – typically a controller – initiates the process by either sending one contract or a batch of contracts to the approver, who then approves, rejects, or forwards the contracts. In each approval, the approver can add comments for the controller to consider.

Additional approval functionality

Note that the following approval functionality is only available for purchase contracts when the Document Capture Document Approval module is active and purchase contract approval is enabled.

  • Force approval and approval sharing.

  • Additional fields on the Purchase Contract card:

    • Approval by - specifies the users who are part of the approval flow for the document.
    • Approval Comments - specifies the last comment added to this document. You can use lookup to show all comments.

  • Additional fields on the Purchase Contracts page:

    • Approval by - specifies the users who are part of the approval flow for the document.
    • Comments - shows if any approval comments exist for the purchase contract.

  • Additional actions on the Purchase Contract card:

    • Force Approval - forces the approval of the purchase contract, bypassing the approval flow.
    • Comments - opens the Approval Comments page.

  • Modified actions on the Purchase Contract card:

    • Approvals - opens the Purchase Contract Approval Request Entries page, which has functionality such as Add Approver and Forward.

  • When you reject an approval, the Approval Comment page is opened. This allows you to see previous approval comments and add a rejection comment.

  • The forward functionality has three options:

    • Approve & Forward
    • Forward without approval
    • Forward and send the document back to me after approval

Tip

As an alternative to using the Search icon as described in the guides below, both the approvers and the approval administrator can navigate through the approval process using the following Cues in the Purchase Contracts Cue group in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Role Center:

  • All - covers all contracts and provides an overview for all users.
  • Approval Due - covers contracts with the Next Approval Date set to the current date or any date before it.
  • Approval Needed - covers contracts with the Approval Status set to Approval Needed.
  • Pending Approval - covers contracts with the Approval Status set to Pending Approval.

To set up an approval administrator

To force approvals, you must be set up as an approval administrator. To do this:

  1. Search (Search) for and select Continia User Setup.
  2. In the list of Continia users, click the ID of the user you want to make an approval administrator. This opens the Continia User Setup Card.
  3. On the General FastTab, enable the Approval Administrator setting.

For more information, see Approval administrator permissions.