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Troubleshooting

Common issues and solutions when working with Smart Approval.

Entitlement and Licensing

"User does not have a proper entitlement" error

Cause: The current user's license does not include a valid Smart Approval entitlement.

Solution:

  • Verify the Smart Approval subscription is active in AppSource.
  • Check that the user's license tier covers the number of users in your environment.
  • In sandbox or development environments, ensure the EOLSA Development entitlement is available.

Note

Entitlement checks apply only in SaaS (cloud) environments. On-premises installations do not enforce entitlements.

Approval Requests

No approval entry is created for approvers

Cause: No enabled criteria of type Approval match the document, or the Smart Approval type is not enabled. When no criteria match, the app creates a system-approved entry automatically and the document proceeds without routing to an approver.

Solution:

  1. Check the Smart Approvals list and confirm the type is Enabled.
  2. Open the Smart Approval Card and verify at least one criteria line is enabled with type Approval.
  3. Verify the document matches the criteria conditions.

"Approver not found" or approval fails

Cause: The criteria uses Direct Approver but the submitting user has no approver configured in User Setup, or uses Specific Approver / Workflow User Group with an invalid ID.

Solution:

  • For Direct Approver: open User Setup and set the Approver ID for the user.
  • For Specific Approver: verify the Approver ID on the criteria line matches a valid user.
  • For Workflow User Group: verify the group name exists in Workflow User Groups and has members.

Criteria and AI

AI suggestion returns generic or unhelpful criteria

Solution:

  • Be more specific in your prompt. Instead of "approve large orders," try "purchase orders over $10,000 from vendors outside our preferred list require approval from the procurement manager."
  • Use the guide prompts (Create Approval Criteria, Create Multiple Criteria, Create Warning Criteria) available on the suggestion dialog for examples.
  • Review and refine generated criteria before saving — treat them as starting points.

Suggest Smart Approval Criteria action is not available

Cause: Copilot is not enabled for Smart Approval.

Solution:

  1. Open Copilot & AI Capabilities in Business Central.
  2. Find Smart Approval and set it to Active.

Criteria do not match expected documents

Cause: The criteria text may be too broad or too narrow for the AI to correctly evaluate against document data.

Solution:

  • Review the criteria text and make it more precise.
  • Use the Verify Document action to test which criteria are matched before sending for approval.
  • Check the Applied Smart Criteria page on the document to see exactly which criteria were triggered.

Workflows

Smart Approval actions not visible on document pages

Cause: The Smart Approval type for that document is not enabled.

Solution: Open Smart Approvals and enable the corresponding approval type. The actions (Verify Document, Send Smart Approval Request, Smart Approval Criteria) appear only when the type is enabled.

Workflow errors after enabling/disabling

Cause: A workflow conflict may exist if standard BC approval workflows are also active for the same document type.

Solution:

  • Check the Workflows page for duplicate or conflicting workflows on the same document type.
  • Disable conflicting standard workflows if you intend to use Smart Approval for that document type.
  • If the Smart Approval workflow is in an inconsistent state, disable and re-enable the type from the Smart Approvals page.

Verification

Verify Document shows no results

Cause: No enabled criteria exist for the document type, or the document does not match any criteria.

Solution:

  • Confirm criteria are configured and enabled for the document type.
  • Review the criteria conditions — they may be too specific for the current document.

Verification shows errors but approval still proceeds

Cause: Only Error-type criteria block processing. Warning-type criteria notify the user but allow continuation.

Solution: If you need to block the document, change the criteria type from Warning to Error.

Related information: