Extending SAP Business One Purchase Order Approvals into Microsoft Teams with Looply

Managing purchase orders (POs) can be a time-consuming process, especially when approvals require input from multiple stakeholders. SAP Business One offers robust approval workflows, yet often your teams need a more flexible, streamlined way to action these approvals.
Enter Looply: the solution that bridges SAP Business One and Microsoft Teams so that users can review, approve, or reject documents right from Teams—without having to log in to SAP B1 directly.

 

Why Extend SAP Business One Approvals into Teams?

Improved Productivity

By approving or rejecting purchase orders in Microsoft Teams, managers can stay in one place—helping them respond faster and keep operations running smoothly.

Real-Time Visibility

Microsoft Teams notifications ensure that approvers immediately see and act on new purchase order requests. No more delays because someone forgot to check their SAP Business One inbox.

Empowered Mobile Workforce

As more employees work remotely, Teams has become a central hub for communication. Enabling PO approvals through Teams helps remote staff process approvals on the go.

Seamless Process Integration

Looply utilizes SAP Business One’s native approval workflows and surfaces them inside Teams. This allows companies to leverage the robust functionality of SAP B1 while providing a friendly and familiar user interface.

 

The Approval Setup in SAP Business One

In our demonstration, we have created two approval stages within SAP Business One. Each stage requires at least two positive or negative responses out of four potential approvers to either approve or reject the purchase order.

• Stage 1: 2 approvals (or 2 rejections) required out of 4 approvers.
• Stage 2: Also 2 approvals (or 2 rejections) required out of a different group of 4 approvers.

We also have an Approval Template that specifies:

• When a purchase order created by certain users (e.g., Adele or Alex) has a value over a set threshold (e.g., £1,000), it triggers these two approval stages.

This ensures that higher-value POs get the necessary scrutiny and authorization before moving forward.

 

Creating the Purchase Order and Initiating the Workflow

In the video, we create a new purchase order. Upon saving the PO in SAP Business One, the approval workflow is automatically triggered. However, rather than sending emails or requiring a separate login to SAP B1, Looply’s scheduler “listens” for the new approval request. Once detected, Looply generates a new Teams “Approval Card” for each relevant approver.

The “Green Banner” and Draft Document Number
You’ll notice a green banner appear in the bottom corner of the SAP Business One screen. This banner displays a Draft Document Number (the PO ID), confirming that the document has been created and submitted into the workflow. After a brief delay while the scheduler runs, Looply sends out the Teams notifications.

 

Approving in Microsoft Teams

1) Receiving the Card: Approvers—such as Henrietta—get an adaptive card in Microsoft Teams. The card contains basic details about the purchase order, including the vendor name, total amount, and more.

2) Viewing More Details: Clicking “Show Details” on the card opens a more detailed view, enabling the approver to see line items, quantities, and other relevant information from SAP Business One.

3) Submitting the Approval: When the user clicks “Approve” (or “Reject”), they are prompted for their SAP Business One credentials. This ensures security—only authorized SAP Business One users can approve or reject requests, even if they are doing so from Teams.

4) Confirming the Status: Once approved, SAP Business One updates the purchase order line items to indicate which stage has been approved and by whom, as well as the date and time. Looply listens for these updates and refreshes the Teams cards accordingly.

 

Tracking the Approval Progress in SAP Business One

In the demonstration, we return to SAP Business One to see:

• Header Status: Initially “Pending” once the PO is created.
• Line Item Approval Status: Each approver’s line item changes to “Approved” (or “Rejected”) as they act on the approval request.

When the required number of approvals for Stage 1 is reached, the workflow automatically advances to Stage 2. At that point, the Stage 2 approvers receive a new card in Teams, and the same approval process repeats. Once the required approvals for Stage 2 have been met, the header status changes to “Approved,” indicating that the entire purchase order is now fully authorized.