Workflow Designer. Feature Guide. Visualize and Automate Your Business Processes

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1 Feature Guide Workflow Designer Visualize and Automate Your Business Processes Workflow Designer... Example Approval Process... Flow Diagram for a Business Process... Business Process in Workflow Designer... Using the Workflow Designer...3 Launch the Workflow Designer...3 Workflow Designer Tools...3 Using the State and Action Tools...4 Considerations...4 Workflow Designer Example...5 Edit an Existing Workflow...7 Save the Completed Workflow...8 Using the Workflow...8 Glossary of Terms...0 Published Date: May 008 Copyright 008, LongJump, Inc., All Rights Reserved

2 Workflow Designer Example Approval Process Workflow Designer A workflow is a representation of a repeatable business process. You follow many business processes in your typical work day. For example, when you order office supplies, write a proposal or prepare an invoice, you follow a series of steps to complete a task, getting approvals or additional information from other staffers along the way. The Workflow Designer will allow you to: define the status of a request or task (state) create conditions for routing information (criteria or data policies) define actions for your processes (action) Additional detail on Workflow can be found online at the Support Zone: Example Approval Process In this example, each person has some role or area of responsibility. The arrows indicate the tasks, actions and decisions that are part of the process. Flow Diagram for a Business Process People in organizations take Action on requests to move the request to the next State. Business Process in Workflow Designer A similar business process can be described via the Workflow Designer. Within each state and action, you can define the tasks, actions and decisions that are part of the process. Arrows indicate Actions that can be taken. Dots indicate the State of the request record.

3 Workflow Designer Example Approval Process In the platform, Actions appear as buttons in the record.

4 Workflow Designer Using the Workflow Designer Using the Workflow Designer To create a business process in a workflow, use the Workflow Designer. Workflows can be applied to Custom objects. Standard Objects include predefined workflows and cannot be changed. Generally, if you want to combine information from a Standard Object and a Custom Object, you can do this via a Custom Report Category, which allows you to view this information as a report or as an up-to-the minute dashboard widget on your home page. Launch the Workflow Designer To create a workflow, follow these instructions to launch the workflow designer. Click the tab you want to use in the workflow; in this example, the Expenses tab Click the [Customize Tab] button to open the customize tab window 3 Click the Workflows tab 4 Click the [Add Workflow] button to open the Workflow Designer 4 3 Workflow Designer Tools In the Workflow Designer, we use two building blocks to create complex and powerful database processes: State and Action. 3

5 Workflow Designer Using the Workflow Designer State Tool When you hover the cursor over the Add State Tool, a tooltip appears with instructions on how to use the tool. Action Tool When you hover the cursor over the Add Action Tool, a tooltip appears with instructions on how to use the tool. Use the Add Action Tool to connect two states.l Using the State and Action Tools Once a State or Action is placed in the work area, a dialog box opens. In the dialog boxes, you will specify: staff members who can initiate a workflow staff members who can take action when to notify the Initiator about the state (status) of the process criteria under which an action will take place data policy to be applied at each state Considerations The Start and End states are different from other states, and provide different options than the states that are part of the process. Workflows can only be applied to Custom Objects 4

6 Workflow Designer Workflow Designer Example Workflow Designer Example To access the Workflow Designer, follow these steps: From any page, click Setup Customization Custom Objects Click the Workflows tab 3 Click the [New Workflow] button 4 A blank work area appears. Note that the Start and End States are already in place Start State Dialog Box When you click the Start State icon, a dialog box opens to allow you to choose the person(s) who have rights to initiate the workflow. The name of the Start state cannot be changed. Choose the user(s) who have rights to initiate this workflow. Click [Save] to continue 5

7 Workflow Designer Workflow Designer Example Edit Action Dialog Box When you add an action to the work area, the Edit Action dialog box opens. Follow these steps to add or edit an action: Give the action a name Choose whether to Notify the Initiator when this action is taken 3 Optionally create criteria that applies to the task/request record. The action will be taken on rows where the criteria are true. 3 Edit State Dialog Box When you add a state to the work area, a dialog box opens that allows you to customize the state parameters. Name the State (use a word or phrase that describes the condition of the request/task, for example: pending, under review) Optionally, click the checkbox to Allow the Workflow initiator to edit the record in this state 3 Select the Workflow Initiator and choose , task and edit options 4 Optionally, choose a Data Policy 3 4 6

8 Workflow Designer Workflow Designer Example End State Dialog Box When you click the End State icon, the Edit State dialog box opens. Like the Start State, the name of this state cannot be changed. In this dialog box, you can choose: The end state name is automatically populated Click the checkbox to Notify the Initiator when the decision is made Choose an associated Data Policy and click [Save] to continue Edit an Existing Workflow To edit a workflow, follow these instructions to launch the workflow designer. Click the tab you want to use in the workflow; in this example, the Expenses tab Click the [Customize Tab] button to open the customize tab window 3 Click the Workflows tab 4 Click the View link to open the selected workflow 4 3 7

9 Workflow Designer Save the Completed Workflow Save the Completed Workflow Click the [Save] button to save your changes. You can edit the workflow at any time. Best Practice Create test records to verify the workflow process and delete them when testing is complete. If you change the workflow with records in place, you may get unexpected results. Using the Workflow After successfully implementing a workflow, you can open a record and see Pending Action and Workflow History: 8

10 Workflow Designer Using the Workflow See Pending Expenses in Widgets on your Home Page, as a chart or table, or both. Chart Format Widget: Table Format Widget: 9

11 Workflow Designer Glossary of Terms Glossary of Terms Use this section as a reference for the terms you will find in this guide. Term State Start State End State Action Data Policy Description In a workflow, the state indicates the status of the task/request record. The state name can be any term that is meaningful to your business process. States are owned by at least one team member. This person is authorized to take action on the task or request, and advance the workflow. Complex processes may route to several team members for approval. Examples of typical states: Submitted Pending Under Review Resubmitted The Start State is the first state in a workflow. Associated with this state are the name(s) of users who can initiate a workflow. A user (or team member) must be authorized to initiate a workflow. The End State is the last state in a workflow. In this state, you can specify: users who are authorized to edit the record in this state a Data Policy to be executed when a record arrives in this state Actions determine what happens to a task/request record when it moves from state to state. Actions can be based on other actions taken by a workflow owner or decision maker. Actions connect states, and can be any business decision, for example: Approved Rejected On Hold, Pending (another action) Or, it can be part of a Data Policy, for example: Approve after 3 days Send (to another party), reject if not acknowledged within 5 days Escalate to Decision Maker s manager if no change in status after days Executed on a record, when the record arrives at the state containing this data policy. Typical actions are: send message(s) create and assign a task communicate with external systems to change/update data Additional information on Data Policies can be found online, at 0

12 Workflow Designer Glossary of Terms Term Criteria Rows Initiator Decision Maker Description Criteria that must be true in order to take action on a task/request (record). Examples: Submitted date must be more than seven days prior to travel date Inventory count must be less than two before another unit is ordered Users or Team Members who are authorized to initiate a workflow Users or Team Members who are authorized to take an action on a workflow.