Running a business these days is like trying to hop onto a train that’s already zooming by—you’ve got to be quick, sharp, and ready to adapt. Approval processes, like okaying expense reports, time sheets, travel plans, or big purchase orders, are the heartbeat of keeping things moving. But let’s be real: chasing down signatures, wrestling with manual tasks like data entry, or playing detective to find out who’s holding up the show? That’s the kind of headache that makes you want to pull your hair out. Those repetitive tasks and redundant tasks can slow down even the slickest teams.
Thankfully, Power Automate, a top-notch workflow automation software, swoops in with its Business Approvals Templates to save the day. These automation templates, built on the rock-solid Microsoft Power Platform, let anyone, whether you’re a tech guru or just good at spreadsheets, create automated workflows that streamline workflows and kick repetitive manual tasks to the curb.
They’re all about boosting process efficiency, sparking digital transformation, and serving as a backbone for business process automation and enterprise solutions. In this post, we’re diving into how these workflow automation tools shake up business processes, unpacking their best features, and tossing in some workflow automation examples to show how they can totally change the game for your team.
Why Use Workflow Automation? Here’s Why It’s a Game-Changer
Before we dig into the templates, let’s talk about why workflow automation is a must. If you’ve ever waited days for a manager to approve a small expense or lost track of an email chain, you know how manual data entry and workflow tasks can stall progress. Implementing workflow automation fixes that and delivers serious benefits:
- Saves Time: No more endless emails or chasing approvals. Automated processes speed up decisions, letting teams focus on high-value work.
- Crystal Clear: Workflow management systems provide visibility into where requests stand, making assigning tasks and tracking progress a breeze.
- Fewer Errors: Robotic process automation reduces human error in repetitive tasks, ensuring accuracy and consistency.
- Scales Effortlessly: Whether you’re a startup or a global enterprise, these workflow management tools grow with your needs, supporting multiple workflows without extra hassle.
By optimizing workflows, automation boosts customer satisfaction by speeding up responses and improves key performance indicators like turnaround time. It’s not just about making life easier—it’s about giving your team the tools to excel at what matters most.
What Are the Business Approvals Templates?
Power Automate’s Business Approvals Templates are pre-built workflow automation solutions designed for common business processes like expense approvals or procurement. Powered by the Microsoft Power Platform (think Power Apps), they’re robust yet user-friendly. Whether you’re handling a $50 lunch expense or a $50,000 supply chain process, these templates make the approval process seamless.
What makes them special? They’re no-code, so anyone in human resources or operations can set them up without coding skills. They’re customizable, letting you tailor workflow tasks to your needs. Plus, they boast integration capabilities with tools like Microsoft Teams, enabling human-centric workflows and seamless use of collaboration tools. With features like multi-stage approvals, delegation, and holiday scheduling, they’re like a tireless assistant managing your automated notifications and business automation needs.
Standout Features (and How They Work in Real Life)
Let’s explore the features that make these workflow automation tools so powerful, with workflow automation examples to show their impact on business processes.
1. Multi-Stage Approvals: Navigating Complex Chains
Some approvals require multiple sign-offs, like a relay race. The multi-stage approvals feature lets you create a chain of approvers, each with specific conditions, ensuring smooth workflow management.
Example: In a company, purchases over $10,000 need the department head’s approval, and those over $25,000 also require the finance director. This feature automatically routes requests based on the amount, eliminating manual tasks like forwarding emails.
Why It’s Great: It keeps complex approvals organized, ensures policy compliance, and saves time by automating the approval process.
2. Delegate Approvers: Keeping Workflows Moving
Ever had an approval stuck because someone’s out? The delegate approvers feature lets users pass their duties to someone else, temporarily or permanently, preventing delays in workflow tasks.
Example: A manager on vacation delegates approvals to a colleague via collaboration tools. Or a busy exec hands routine tasks to an assistant. The workflow keeps flowing.
Why It’s Great: It avoids bottlenecks, ensuring automated processes run smoothly even when schedules shift.
3. Track Progress and History: Full Transparency
Want to know where a request stands or review past approvals? This feature offers real-time updates and a complete history of every approval process.
Example: An employee checks their travel request’s status in real time. Meanwhile, human resources or compliance teams access approval records for audits without sifting through emails.
Why It’s Great: It boosts transparency, improves key performance indicators like accountability, and simplifies tracking.
4. Out-of-Office Management: No Delays
When someone’s unavailable, this feature automatically reroutes approvals to a backup, ensuring business automation doesn’t stall.
Example: During holidays, approvals are sent to alternate approvers via automated notifications. Same goes for unexpected absences—operations stay on track.
Why It’s Great: It keeps critical decisions moving, enhancing customer satisfaction by avoiding delays.
5. Version Control: Stay Adaptable
Businesses evolve—policies change, teams reorganize. The version control feature lets you save and manage different versions of your automated workflows.
Example: A new expense policy requires extra approvals. You create a new workflow version without losing the old one, allowing easy reversion if needed.
Why It’s Great: It offers flexibility to adapt without rebuilding from scratch, supporting digital transformation.
6. Publish New Versions: Test and Roll Out Smoothly
This feature lets you test new workflows and deploy them with confidence, with the option to revert if things don’t work out.
Example: Test a new approval process with a small team before rolling it out company-wide. If it’s a hit, publish it; if not, switch back.
Why It’s Great: It reduces risk and supports continuous improvement in workflow management.
7. Holiday and Workday Smarts: Stay on Track
This feature adjusts deadlines to skip weekends and holidays, keeping workflow tasks realistic.
Example: An approval due during a holiday is pushed to the next business day. Or an SLA in a supply chain process counts only workdays.
Why It’s Great: It aligns deadlines with your calendar, preventing missed targets and boosting process efficiency.
How Workflow Automation Helps Businesses Overall
Here are workflow automation examples showing how these templates transform business processes.
By cutting down on repetitive manual tasks and building more efficient systems, automation gives teams more time, energy, and brainpower to focus on what really moves the needle.
- Higher Productivity: No more wasting hours chasing signatures or updating spreadsheets. Teams reclaim valuable time that can be spent on strategy, innovation, and customer service.
- Improved Accuracy: By removing manual data entry, these tools drastically reduce errors. That means fewer compliance issues, smoother audits, and cleaner records.
- Better Collaboration: Integration with tools like Microsoft Teams streamlines communication, so departments stay aligned without endless back-and-forths.
- Scalability & Flexibility: Whether you’re a 10-person startup or a global enterprise, these templates scale with you—supporting more workflows, more users, and more complex approval structures as you grow.
How to Get Started
Ready to use workflow automation? Here’s how to dive in:
- Find the Templates: Log into Power Automate, go to the Templates section, and search for “Business Approvals.”
- Choose a Template: Pick one that fits your business processes, from expenses to procurement.
- Customize It: Use the intuitive interface to add steps, set conditions, and assign tasks to approvers.
- Test It: Run test cases to ensure the workflow automation solution works as expected.
- Launch and Monitor: Publish the workflow, track its performance, and tweak based on feedback to keep optimizing workflows.
Why This Matters
If manual tasks like data entry or chasing approvals are slowing you down, it’s time to explore these templates. If you need help with setting everything up, an ESW consultation will go a long way towards your business goals.