Human-in-the-loop approval
Human-in-the-loop approval is a point in an automated workflow where the run stops and waits for a person to decide, then continues with that decision as its next action.
Why automation needs a person in it
Most records in an operational process are routine: the invoice line matches the purchase order, the product field agrees in both systems. Automating those is straightforward. The records that keep a process manual are the exceptions, where the right answer depends on context a rule cannot see.
Fully automating the exceptions means guessing. Leaving them out means someone still checks everything by hand. Human-in-the-loop approval keeps the routine work automated and sends only the exceptions to a person.
What a good approval step needs
- The evidence in one place. The approver should see the source record, the record it disagrees with, and the difference together, not hunt for them across systems.
- A decision that becomes an action. Approving should start the next step, such as the write to the ERP, rather than create another task for someone to carry out.
- A record of who decided. The decision, the person, and the time belong in the same history as the machine steps around them.
- Patience. The workflow has to be able to wait as long as the person takes.
How Runtara applies it
In Runtara, a workflow can hold a record for a decision. Operations and finance review held records in one place, see the source record and the mismatch together, and approve, retry, or escalate from the report. The approval becomes the next action in the workflow, and the decision and the resulting system update stay in the same run.
Because runs are durable, a held run waits without consuming active workflow compute. In the illustrative invoice run INV-0847, a EUR 1,240 variance on one line is held, approved by a named person weeks later, and then posted to Business Central. One query against the instance database returns every step, including the approval.