Case study · Approvals
Approvals, checked by AI agents
An approvals app for Dynamics 365. AI agents read every purchase order and sales order first. People make the decision on a phone, on the web or inside Dynamics 365.
Approvals, checked first
Sample data- Purchase order, 4 linesPrice above the usual. Reason found. Needs you
- Sales order, below margin policyHeld. A fix is suggested. Needs you
- Routine documentsChecked overnight, nothing unusual Done
The problem
Orders wait for someone to say yes
Purchase orders and sales orders sit in Dynamics 365 until the right person approves them. That person is often away from the desk, and the reason for the request is buried in the system.
- Orders wait for days while the approver is on the move
- Prices go up and nobody asks why
- Sales orders slip below the margin policy
- Finance spends hours chasing approvals
- Built for
- Dynamics 365
- Decide on
- Phone, web or Dynamics 365
- Status
- Built and demonstrated
The explainer
Both journeys in under 3 minutes
The short film we made to show the app. It follows a purchase order and a sales order from the moment they are entered to the moment they move on.
Journey 1 · Purchase order
A purchase order, from submit to approved
The order runs on the Dynamics 365 workflow the company already uses. The agents add the checking. People keep the decision.
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Step 1 Submit
The buyer submits the order
The buyer enters the purchase order in Dynamics 365 and submits it to the existing approval workflow. Nothing new to learn.
Who does it The buyer, in Dynamics 365 -
Step 2 First minute
The review agent checks it
Before anyone is asked, the review agent checks the price against past orders, the budget and the supplier. Here it finds the price is higher than usual, and everything else checks out.
Who does it The review agent -
Step 3 One alert
The approver gets the reason
The finance manager gets one alert with the reason in it. The Today screen shows the orders waiting and what the agents cleared overnight.
Who does it The app, on the approver’s phone -
Step 4 Decide
Findings first, details one scroll away
The agent’s findings come first. The lines, quotes, budget, supplier and timeline are one scroll away. The approver asks why the price went up and gets an answer with its sources, then slides to approve.
Who does it The finance manager decides -
Step 5 Written back
Dynamics 365 records the decision
The decision is written back into Dynamics 365 under the approver’s own name, and the workflow moves the order to the CFO. The CFO approves from the web console, and the buyer is told on the phone.
Who does it The CFO decides; the app writes it back -
Step 6 If not
Rejecting is just as quick
The approver picks a reason and the agent drafts the note. The buyer sees exactly what to change on the order.
Who does it The approver decides; the agent drafts the note
Journey 2 · Sales order margin
A margin rule, written in one sentence
Dynamics 365 has no approval workflow for sales orders. So the app adds one. You describe the rule in one sentence, and the app tests it on the last 90 days of orders before it goes live.
- An order below the policy is held in Dynamics 365 and cannot go to the warehouse
- The sales manager gets an alert with a suggested fix
- The margin is shown line by line on the phone
- The salesperson applies the fix in one tap, and the rule checks the order again
- When the order meets the policy, the rule releases it. Nobody is asked twice
- The margin rule checked the order: 27.8%, under the 30% policyThe order is held and cannot be released
- Agents found the cause: the discount on line 4 is larger than usualSuggested fix: 10% off instead of 18%
- The sales manager opened the order on the phoneMargin shown line by line
Agents and people
Agents check. People decide.
The agents do the reading, checking and chasing that takes an approver’s time. Every approval and every rejection stays with a person.
AI agents
What the agents do
- Read every document the moment it is submitted
- Check price against past orders, the budget and the supplier
- Compare each sales order line with the margin policy
- Answer questions with the sources shown
- Suggest a fix, and draft the note when an order goes back
People
What stays with people
- Every approval and every rejection
- Which rules exist, and when they are switched on
- Anything an agent prepares, which a person confirms
- The limits, which stay in Dynamics 365
Review agent
Reads each order when it is submitted, checks price, budget, policy limits and the supplier, and writes a short summary with flags.
Ask agent
Answers questions by text or voice from Dynamics 365 data, shows its sources and prepares the action for a person to confirm.
Follow-up agent
Asks for missing quotes before the approver sees the order, sends reminders and suggests a delegate when someone is away.
Insights agent
Studies past decisions and suggests rules. No rule runs until someone switches it on.
The film shows the review agent and the Ask agent at work. The follow-up and insights agents are part of the same design.
How it fits Dynamics 365
Dynamics 365 stays the source of truth
The app reads from Dynamics 365 and writes each decision back into it. Who approves what, and the limits, stay where they are.
Uses your workflow
Purchase orders run on the Dynamics 365 workflow you already have. The app’s buttons complete the same workflow step as the standard ones.
Writes every decision back
Each approval is recorded in Dynamics 365 under the person who made it, with the agent’s notes.
Keeps no copy
The app reads a document when a decision is needed and stores no copy of it.
Two modes, per document
Use the Dynamics 365 workflow, or rules written in plain words that hold the document in Dynamics 365 until there is a decision.
One dashboard
Every decision lands on one dashboard, in the app and on the web: what is waiting, with whom, and what the agents found.
Your brand
Upload a logo, and the phone app, the web console and the alerts take on its colors.
Runs in the customer’s own Azure tenant or in our cloud. People sign in with the Microsoft work account they already have.
What it shows
How we build a complete solution
The whole job
A phone app, a web console, a panel inside Dynamics 365, the agents, the rules and the dashboard. Plus the film and a clickable demo to show it.
Inside your system
We build on the Dynamics 365 you run today and its workflow. No second system to keep in step.
People keep the call
Agents do the checking and the drafting. The decision, and the name on it, stays with a person.
Where it stands
Built and demonstrated
The app is built and has been shown to companies that run Dynamics 365. It is designed to cut the time orders wait for a yes, and to catch price and margin problems before anyone approves.
More
Want one for your process?
We build agents for your own process, or apps around the Dynamics 365 you already run.
AI work Custom AI work Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365