Target Audience: 
IT Administrators
Power Automate Developers
SharePoint Administrators

This setup is only required if your organization plans to use QorusDocs Content Approvals — if you're not using that feature, you can skip this article.

Why this step: Content Approvals (see Introduction to Content Approvals) run as Power Automate workflows behind the scenes. Before those workflows can be imported and switched on, the environment they live in — Production — needs to exist and be configured. This guide covers that setup only. Importing and publishing the workflows themselves happens later, with QorusDocs support.

A note on Production vs. UAT: Because no code changes are being made to the solutions QorusDocs provides, there's no need for a UAT environment during initial setup — everything below happens directly in Production. UAT only comes into play later, if QorusDocs releases an updated version of the solution; at that point, the update gets tested in UAT before being moved to Production. That's covered here.

Prerequisites

1. QorusDocsServiceAccount set up with a Microsoft 365 E3 license (no Teams) and an Exchange license.
2. System Customizer role assigned to the QorusDocsServiceAccount in Production.
3. Environment Maker role for whoever will create the Production environment.
4. Access to the Power Platform Admin Center, Power Automate Portal, and SharePoint Admin Center.

Steps at a Glance

Step 1. Create the Production Environment

1. In the Power Platform Admin Center, go to Environments > New. Configure:

• Name: "QorusDocs Production"
• Type: Production
• Region: your region
• Add a Database (Dataverse): Yes
• Language / Currency: your defaults

2. Save and wait for the environment to finish provisioning. 
3. Confirm Dataverse is working — check that tables, apps, and flows can be created. The System Customizer role on the QorusDocsServiceAccount covers this without needing extra admin rights.

Step 2. Connect Microsoft Approvals

Microsoft Approvals powers the approval steps inside the Power Automate workflows, and needs to be connected before any solutions are imported.

Requires: Power Automate per-user license on the QorusDocsServiceAccount.

1. In the Power Automate Portal, switch to the Production environment.
2. Go to Data > Connections.
3. If Approvals isn't listed, click + New Connection, search for Approvals, and authenticate as the QorusDocsServiceAccount.
4. Test it by building a simple flow with an approval step.

Step 3. Route Approval Emails to the Focused Inbox

This keeps approval-related emails from getting buried, so reviewers actually see them.

Requires: Exchange Admin access.

1. In the Exchange Admin Center, go to Mail flow > Rules > New rule.
2. Rule 1 — all Approvals emails:
   • Condition: sender is flow-noreply@microsoft.com
   • Action: set header X-MS-Exchange-Organization-BypassFocusedInbox to true
3. Rule 2 — priority subject lines:
   • Condition: same sender, subject contains "Please review:" or "Please approve:"
   • Action: same header setting
4. Test with sample emails to confirm both rules fire as expected.

Step 4. Forward Reminder & Escalation Emails

The QorusDocsServiceAccount sends reminder and escalation emails to reviewers/SMEs. This rule copies those to your content management team automatically.

Requires: Exchange Admin access.

1. In the Exchange Admin Center, go to Mail flow > Rules > New rule.
2. Condition: subject contains "Reminder -" or "Failure -"
3. Action: forward to the content management team's inbox or group.
4. Test with sample emails to confirm only the matching ones forward.

Future Solution Updates (UAT → Production)

Nothing here applies until QorusDocs ships an updated version of the solution — flag this section as "read later, if needed," not part of initial setup.

Requires: System Customizer role on the QorusDocsServiceAccount in both UAT and Production.

1. Create a UAT environment the same way as Production (Section 1), named "QorusDocs UAT."
2. Import the updated solution into UAT, point its environment variables at test libraries/lists, and test it.
3. Once validated, import the same solution into Production and repoint the environment variables to your live libraries/lists.

Next Steps

Once Production is set up, QorusDocs support will handle importing and publishing the actual workflows — SharePoint libraries, lists, metadata, and final configuration — later in your onboarding.

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