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Document workflows are defined for a particular document type. They allow common document-related processes (such as registration and creation) to be extended, chaining together multiple activities within ContactsLaw, and passing information between them in relation to the document. In this way, they are designed to help model business processes.
 
Document workflows can be started in the following ways:
  • For new documents, from the registration activity or the document builder.
  • For existing documents, via the task composer or from the document properties window.

Types of workflows

  • Creation* - Starts with the document creation activity, allowing additional activities to be performed after the document has been built.
  • Cataloguing - Allows other activities to be performed on either side of the document cataloguing activity.
  • Finalisation - Allows other activities to be performed on either side of the document finalisation activity.
  • Sending - Allows other activities to be performed on either side of the document sending activity.
  • Editing - Allows other activities to be performed on either side of the document editing activity.
  • User-defined - Allows activities to be chained together, drawing upon the properties of a document.

* - Certain properties of the first step in a document creation workflow are fixed and cannot be changed by the user. This ensures that all documents participate in the workflow, regardless of the entry point for document creation.

Pre-requisites

Each workflow can have constraints placed upon it. For example, a practice may configure outgoing correspondence such that a document cannot be sent until it has been approved by the file manager.

Workflow steps

An action is performed at each step in a document workflow:
  • Activity - Starts an activity and waits for all steps of its workflow to be completed.
  • Document workflow - Starts another (nested) document workflow and waits for all steps to be completed.
  • Change process model - Allows the workflow to change the file's process model and/or skip forward to a particular milestone.
  • No action - Performs no action other than to set the value of a workgroup field or update the properties of the document.
Note: Document workflows can only be nested to 1 level deep (i.e. workflow A can contain workflow B, but workflow B cannot contain workflow C).

Date stamping

Each step in a document workflow has the ability to leave an audit stamp on the document, reflecting the date/time and member who completed the step. You simply add the desired date to the document type and select the date when configuring the workflow step. The date-stamping is performed immediately after the step is completed.

Setting workgroup fields

You can also configure a step in a document workflow to set the value of a workgroup field on the file. The value can be static, or you can build an expression drawing upon properties of the document. You edit the expression using the same mechanism that builds the description of the document; thus the same information is available. You might use this mechanism to create a link to the document on the file summary screen, or to update a field in response to the registration/creation of a particular type of document on the file.

Directives

Each step in a document workflow represents a traditional activity. As the activity is completed, selected information can be passed through to the next activity in the workflow. The information that can be passed onto subsequent acitivites in the document workflow can take the following forms:
  • Information/fields from the preceding activity (each activity will have its own list of exportable and importable information)
  • One of the dates or contacts from the document in its present state
  • One of the parties or representatives on the file
  • The description or file from the document
  • The document number (can be used to set up enclosures)
  • A static value (such as an account number, which is unique to the document type but not each document)

Optionality and task creation

You can mark steps in a document workflow as being optional. When performing the document activity, users will be prompted to run or skip the optional step. Alternatively, you can add conditions to use information from the file or document to make this decision non-interactively.
 
Steps can be designed to follow immediately from the previous step, or to create a task. You can draw upon properties of the document to customise the task created for the step:
  • Style - Whether to create a normal task or an appointment.
  • Delegation - Choose from anyone authorised, file manager, file supervisor, a member group or a member in a role on the document. (Note: If the role contains a contact and not a member, delegation will revert to 'anyone authorised'.)
  • Attendees - For appointment-style tasks, allows multiple attendees to be added using the same criteria above.
  • Start date - The commencement date for the task can be based on one of the document's dates, offset by a particular number of days.
  • Due date - As above, for the due date of the task.
  • Priority - You can nominate the default priority for the task.
  • Duration - For appointment-style tasks, specifies the default duration of the appointment.
  • Behaviour
    • Task is separate from the workflow - In some cases, you may wish to create the task separately from the workflow, starting the next step without requiring the task to be completed.
    • Create separate task for each contact - In cases where you are pre-populating the activity with a role that permits multiple contacts, you can choose to create a separate task for each contact. All such tasks are considered as being separate from the workflow. Note: This only works when used in conjunction with the "ContactID" directive (common to many different types of activities).
    • Show task properties - Displays the task properties window upon creation of the task, allowing the user to make amendments.
    • Defer task creation until start date - Uses the ContactsLaw Daemon to defer the creation of the task. This setting is useful if the conditions associated with the step are dependant on information that may change closer to the commencement of the task.

See also