Configuring your Workflow (Admin)

Modified on Fri, 28 Jun at 4:19 PM

In this article:




When you create a matter type, you have the option to create a workflow to associate with the matter type. This workflow lists the steps that must be completed to see the matter through from start to finish. 



By default, every matter type has a Start and Closed step. You can customize these steps as well as fill in with the steps that are unique for that matter type. 


WARNING: Once a workflow has been created and you've created a matter that uses it, you cannot delete the workflow. 

 





Adding Steps to Your Workflow Diagram



Before you begin: 




To add steps to your workflow:

  1. In Actionstep, go to Admin > Matter types. The Matter Types page appears.
  2. Click Settings for the matter type you want to edit. 
  3. Click Manage in the Workflow section. The Workflow page appears.
  4. Click Add step to workflow tree. The Create Workflow Step window appears.
    NOTE:  You can also click a specific step in the workflow tree. 
  5.  Click the Workflow step drop-down list and choose the name of the step you want to add to the tree. 
  6. Choose any of the following options for this step in your workflow:
    • Leave Enabled toggled to on so that the step is accessible in the workflow. 
    • Toggle Next Steps to on. This will let you select the next step in the workflow.
    • Toggle Jump steps to on to allow users in the matter to jump or skip to another non-sequential step in the workflow. Jump steps can go backward and forward, and you can provide multiple jumps. (See Setting Up Jump Steps, below, for help setting up jump steps.)
    • Toggle Alt steps to on to allow users to have a choice of two or more steps to follow from a step. This way, when they select any of the alternative steps they move to the same next step. For example, say your step is Initial enquiry, and you want your next step to be a choice—face to face, phone call, or email. Each of these steps then moves to the next step Initial Meeting. (See Setting Up Alternative Steps, below, for help setting up alt steps.)
  7. Click the Workflow path drop-down list to choose where your step sits in the workflow. You can use this to move the step to a new location on your workflow. Please note that when you move a step from its current location, all subsequent steps will also be moved. 
  8. In the Next steps section, click Add Row to add the next step in the workflow, and enter a Weight. (See Setting Weights for help understanding weights.)
  9. Click Save to save your changes.  





Setting Up Jump Steps


Jump steps allow users in the matter to jump (or skip) to another step in the workflow. Jump steps can go both backward or forward in the workflow, and you can have multiple jump steps.


Jump steps are helpful as they keep the number of steps in your workflow down but still allow you to move to the appropriate place in the workflow.


To create a jump step in your workflow:

  1. In the workflow diagram, click the step you want to jump from. The Edit Workflow Step window appears.
  2. Toggle Jump steps to on
  3. Scroll down to the Jump steps section and click Add row.
  4. Select the step you want to jump to. (For example, if closing the matter would be an option after completion of this step, select Closed.)
  5. Click Save. Your jump step will be added to your workflow tree:

When you see your workflow in a matter you will see your jump step by clicking on the +1 box.






Setting Up Alternative Steps


Alternative steps can be used when you want to present a choice of two or more steps to follow from a step so that when you select any of the alternative steps they all move to the same next step. For example, your step is Initial enquiry, and you want your next step to be a choice  -  Face to Face, phone or email  and then they all move to the next step Initial Meeting.


To create alternative steps in your workflow:

  1. In the workflow diagram, click the step you would like to add alternative steps to.
  2. Toggle Alt steps to on.
  3. In the Alternative steps section, click Add row
  4. In the drop-down list that appears, select the alternative steps you want to add.
  5. Click Save. Your alternative steps are added to your workflow diagram:

 

When you see your workflow in a matter, you can view the alternative steps by clicking the +[number] box.





Setting Weights


Weights determine the order of the steps in your workflow. This is useful when you have more than one jump/alternative step and you want to put them in the right order. When the weight of a step is higher then the weight of another step, it will appear in the workflow before it.


TIP:  When using weights to determine step order, it's recommended you use numbers in multiples of 10, e.g., 10 for the first step, 20 for the second, 30 for the third, and so on. This way, if you want to add step at a later time and you want to position the step between two existing steps, you have nine available numbers you can use to achieve this.


 

In the following example, the Face to face alternate step has a weight of 20 while Phone has a weight of 30: 

This means Phone will appear before Face to face on the workflow diagram:

 


TIP:  To rename the Start step, click its link in the Steps column on the right side of the page.





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