Handling rejection can be tough.  Understanding D365 workflows can be tough.  So understanding how rejection is handled in D365 Workflows can be, well, trickier than a freshman getting a date to senior prom. 

My high school guidance counselor taught me experiencing rejection makes us more complete people. 

When setting up Dynamics AX workflows, it is important to test the approval process. But testing is not complete until the rejection process has also been examined.  Testing rejections can be much more complex because workflow behavior needs to be examined for rejection and resubmission at each stage of the workflow.  Below is an example of why this is important.

Workflow Example

Let’s consider two expense report workflows below.  Each uses a multi-level approval where an accounting reviewer approves for correctness (eg “Is the math right?”), and then an Expense reviewer approves for appropriateness (eg “Should this have been expensed?”).  The workflows look similar, the rejection behaviors have an important distinction.

Workflow 1

Workflow 2

When a workflow item is rejected and then resubmitted, it is returned for approval to the start of the Approval Node where it was rejected.  So in both workflow structures, when the Accounting Reviewer rejects an expense and it is resubmitted, the workflow item returns to the Accounting Reviewer for approval.  However, when the Expense Reviewer rejects an expense and the workflow item is amended/resubmitted, the workflows behave differently.  In workflow 1, the workflow item is returned to the Expense Reviewer, while in workflow 2 the item is returned to the Accounting Reviewer (who must reapprove before the Expense Reviewer can see the approval).  In workflow 1, an amended expense could skip an Accounting Reviewer’s second review, which may or may not align with a company’s business process.

Conculsion

Rejection scenarios are an important commonly overlooked in workflow design.  Along with thinking about workflow approval processes, it is important to think through and test rejection behavior and review the associated messaging and re-submission behavior.  Don’t be afraid of rejection – it makes your workflows more complete!