Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

I have been tasked with creating a proccess flow for invoice approvals.

This is the current process:

Step 1 - Vendor emails Invoice to AP email

Step 2 - Find PO that matches Invoice

Step 3 - Add approval Stamp with Job# for invoice

Step 4 - Save in DropBox to the correct Project Manager

Step 5 - Email Project Manager Invoice for Approval every Monday & Friday

Step 6 - Once approved (signed & dated) and emailed back to AP Enter into QB. (Could be 3 levels of approval based on dollar amount of invoice)

Step 7 - Save Invoice to customer folder in dropbox

Step 8 - Delete Invoice from PM invoices needing approval folder

So the part I am looking at is Steps 4 thru 6. Can this be done?

Categories:

Building flows

HI @CU14011959-0,

to better understand your invoice approval process, I’d like to confirm a few details to ensure any proposed process aligns with how data is currently handled and where automation may be possible.
Could you please help clarify the following:

Invoice Data

How is invoice information currently captured?
- Is the invoice data expected to be extracted from the PDF (OCR), or
- Will key details be provided in the email body (vendor, amount, PO, project/job number)?
If OCR is required, is there an existing preference or license for Microsoft’s invoice/document processing service (e.g., Microsoft AI Builder / Invoice Processing), or would this be new? also how many invoices are you expecting per month?

Purchase Order (PO) Data
3. Where does PO data currently live?

QuickBooks
Excel
SharePoint
Database / ERP system
Other

What does the PO data structure look like?
- Do we store PO Number, Project/Job Number, Vendor, and Amount?
- Is the Project/Job Number always present and reliable?

Project / Project Manager Mapping
5. How is the Project Manager associated to a project today?

Is there a central table/list (Project Number → Project Manager)?
If so, where does it live (SharePoint, database, Excel, other)?

Is the Project Manager information maintained in the same data source as the PO data, or in a separate mapping table?

Approvals

7. How are approvals expected to be captured?

Email reply confirmation only?
Or structured approval (Approve/Reject with timestamp and approver name)?

For multi-level approvals:
- Are approval levels strictly based on invoice dollar amount?
- Could you confirm the approval thresholds and required roles for each level?

Storage & Access
9. Should invoices remain stored in Dropbox, or is SharePoint an acceptable option for approval-stage storage?
10. Do Project Managers already have access to the Dropbox folders where invoices are routed for approval?
Once I have this information, I’ll be able to map out a clear, accurate process flow for this portion of the workflow.