Approvals Kit - How to Track Approval Status

The recent question posted on aka.ms/ApprovalsKit/Overview asked "It would be great to see more of the oversight into approval status tracking". This question gives us a good opportunity to provide an overview of options that explain how you can track approval status within the Approvals Kit.

Specifically, we'll be discussing how to use the Business Approval Management Application and Power BI to monitor the status of approval workflows. We hope this updated introduction provides a more direct and helpful response to the question posed in the video.

What is the Approvals Kit?

The Approvals Kit is a tool that is based on Dataverse, a data storage system. It stores information about the approval workflow definition, version, and tracking data.

How to Track Approval Status

The Business Approval Management Application provides out of the box tracking of approval status progress through stages and nodes. You can access this information by selecting the Approvals Center area from the bottom left of the Business Approval Management left navigation menu.

In the screenshot above we show the Approval Instances that are in progress or completed. There are also similar screens to track the status at specific stages or nodes of an Approval.

We are planning additional step by step videos to demonstrate this process in January.

One other option to track approval status within the Approvals Kit, users can use Power BI to create personalized reports that are tailored to their organization. Power BI is a tool that allows users to visualize and analyze data. The published learn.microsoft.com/power-automate/guidance/business-approvals-templates/content#dataverse is a reference guide into the data model of the Approvals Kit.

Embedded Power BI Dashboards and Templates

In the future based on customer demand and feedback, embedded Power BI dashboards and templates could be added to the Management app. This will allow users to visualize the data in different ways.

If you want to provide feedback or track this item you can watch [Business Approvals Kit - Feature]: Business Approval Management Dashboard #22

Learner Power BI Example

One example of the dashboards that we have used in a workshop training. The report allowed visualization of who is building the Approvals Workflows, how many published workflows have been created across multiple environments. This approach allows instructors to look at how a group of learners are progressing through the structured learning path and tailor the learning content based on user needs.

Using this approach allows instructors to look at how a group of learners are progressing through the structured learning path and tailor the learning content based on user needs.

Similar concepts could be used to track at aggregate or for specific Approvals process for a small more targeted tracking of specific approval workflows.

Modern Designer Impact

With the December update releasing the Modern Designer for Approvals Kit | LinkedIn we also have the ability to add new features to the kit in that feature enhance the visualization process in the application to show progress of group or individual approvals process to create improved experiences.

This approach is possible because the Power Apps Component used in the new modern designer has the ability to call the Dataverse environment and update the visual to interactively display progress. This control can then as needed allow drill down into the approval nodes and stages to provide more information as needed.