SharePoint has comprehensive document management features and is widely used for processes that require document approval (Controlled or Published Documents). There is more than one way to implement a document approval system so I thought I would start with the basics in this video.

In the video I use a two library approach, a master library for my source documents and a published library for the published versions that will be used by end users. Why did I take this approach and not use the built in document approvals? Simplicity is the answer. One of the most common issues I come across with document approval systems is where the users struggle with the draft item approval concept. A simple change to a documents metadata, results in a draft version that is often unintended. If your users are new to SharePoint, keep it simple and you’ll thank yourself later!

The demo includes the creation of the SharePoint site and configuration and a simple Power Automate workflow to do a basic document approval.

In the video I use SharePoint Site Columns and Content Types, features that are often missed by people who are new to SharePoint because Microsoft makes it easy to create “Library Columns” from the Library UI and while that is quick, it isn’t the best choice for a consistent configuration and often creates issues with Search that you may discover later.

This is intended for demo purposes and misses some of the functionality you would need in a production ready system.

Features in the demo:

• Creating Site Columns and Content Types
• Creating filtered views by person and date calculations
• Document library creation from template
• Power Automate approval workflow (a simple one)
• Setting and updating metadata
• Copy files between libraries

So what’s missing? Well quite a few things that I may include in future videos. Here’s a short list of things I think you would need to make it production ready:

• File lock checks in the workflow
• Document numbering
• PnP Modern Search experience to make it easy to find documents
• JSON formatting to start the approval process
• List view formatting to highlight overdue documents
• Reviewer processes
• Permissions on Libraries
• Reminder workflow
• PDF conversion for published documents

As I mention above, this is an entry level video and don’t go into full detail. Keep it simple while you and your users get to know SharePoint and pick up the advanced features later once they are proficient .