Find pending workflow instances for a certain user
Persons who need to approve workflows or take other actions might not always be available due to vacation or illness. There is an option for workflow delegation in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations, but that is not a guarantee that all workflow instances are directed to the delegated user. Already assigned workflow instances will not be automatically delegated. When the user will return to work, the workflow instances are also not assigned back in the standard application. A system administrator can re-assign the pending workflows, but this is a tedious job. Due to a high volume of pending workflows and not having the user on the list page, you might think you need to loop through all pending workflow messages check the details one by one. In this post, you will get a guide on how to quickly find pending workflow instances for a particular user.
Find pending workflow instances
You can use the Advanced filter and sort option to filter the Workflow history list page for all pending workflows waiting for a particular user. Follow the next steps:
- Open the Workflow history page (Common > Inquiries > Workflow)
- Open the advanced filter and sort option (CRTL+SHIFT+F3)
- Open the tab page ‘Joins’.
- Select the table ‘Workflow tracking status table’
- Click ‘Add table join’.
- Select the table ‘Work items’
- Click the ‘Select’ button.
- Select the tab page ‘Range’
- Click ‘Add’
- Select the table ‘Work items’ in the field ‘Table’
- In the column ‘Field’, select the value ‘Status’
- In the column ‘Value’, you can select the status ‘Pending’
- Click ‘Add’
- Select the table ‘Work items’ in the field ‘Table’
- In the column ‘Field’, select the value ‘User’
- In the column ‘Value’, you can now fill the User ID of the original approver.
- Click ‘OK’.
Now, you have a filtered list with all waiting workflow messages for a user but still would need to reassign per instance.
For a demo of how this works, you can also watch the video below.
I do hope you liked this post and will add value for you in your daily work as a professional. If you have related questions or feedback, don’t hesitate to use the Comment feature below.
That’s all for now. Till next time!
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Image by Kris from Pixabay 
Great post.
I am quite sure that by default, access to the re-assign feature is actually in the system user role.
I always recommend changing this setup, so only administrators can re-assign.
Best regards.
Thank you for the post 🙂 that is very useful!!!
Just a note, there is a little limitation with this. If a workflow is subject to a “subworkflow” then the workflow history won’t show the subworkflow items. Therefore in this specific situation it won’t be a complete listing.
Regards
James
Hi James,
Your comment is absolutely true. The line-item workflows are “hidden” behind the main workflow. Thanks for you comment.
I use the “WorkflowWorkItemEntity” data entity as an alternative method, using a stored Excel file with the pending status filter applied.
Whenever I need to do this task, I just open the Excel and then update the user name filter and environment if needed.
Thanks for the comment, Joshua. This is a great tip.
But how we can delegate all to others in one go? Bulk Delegation?
Hi Khawaja,
There is no out of the box feature for bulk delegation. You can check if there is a data entity supporting this or consider a customization. Note that when making changes, you would need to ensure the changes in delegation are trackable for audit purposes.