Creating a workflow with scheduled reminders

Overview

Use case: Notifications that a task is due to be completed is a common requirement in grants administration. These reminders are particularly important when it comes to the completion of progress reports once a grant has been awarded. Automating these reminders reduces the administrative burden on internal staff members. This can also be helpful in the case of multi-year grants or grants with multiple reporting requirements, which can be time consuming to follow up on manually

Example: An application gets approved by a grants administrator. A report schedule is created with due dates set at 3 month intervals between the start and the end date of the grant. Automated notifications can be scheduled to remind the individual responsible to complete the task in a timely manner.

A Workflow is a set of repeatable steps used to automate and streamline your business processes within the system.

Configuration - Essentials

• Click the Menu Icon and under the System Processes , click the Workflows link. You can also access this by going into the Global settings -> System

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• The Workflows page is displayed. Click on the plus button to create a new workflow.

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• Select the Workflow type. The type will dictate what options will be available when creating tasks and where the actions will occur. For this workflow, we’re going to be selecting Tracking Activities. We are selecting Tracking Activities for this workflow because we are looking at level 2 records which in this case are the reports.

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• Give the workflow a Name, add the workflow to a Category and add a brief Description to summarize the tasks within it, including any branching conditions for ease of review later. It is also recommended to keep track of any changes made to the task by adding some notes. 
  • Categories are created by your organization. We suggest creating categories based on the UTA and Record Level. 
    • EX: Reports - Reminders
  • Suggested naming convention: Activity Level (1/2/3) - Goal/Status/Reminders
    
    • EX: Grants Manager L1/L2

• Set the Trigger on to determine what automated tasks are going to be triggered in this workflow. 
  • This will define when your workflow is triggered.
  • Depending on the workflow type, you will be selecting from a list of statuses. 
  • In our example, the activities will have been created in ‘Scheduled’ status. This is what we will set the trigger to as a result.

• A termination trigger should be set for any workflow that’s scheduling tasks for the future. This will cancel any pending tasks if it is no longer required. In this example, if the applicant submits their reports ahead of the due date, the report status will change to Submitted, which can be set as a termination trigger on the workflow and prevent unnecessary reminders.

• Click the Save button. The workflow is saved and the Workflow ID is now populated

Now you’ll see some additional options relating to this workflow. You can add notes, view the list of tasks, workflow connections, pending queue for upcoming workflow tasks, and a history of when this workflow was triggered.

Note: The field names, activity types, and status names referenced in this example are specific to the SmartSimple Grants Demo System. If you are trying to replicate this workflow in your own system, check that you are using the correct field names, activity types and statuses specific to your system.

*Tip* → You can build your workflow on your production system first and test it on your backup the next day. Make sure to set the Trigger-on to Deactivate so the workflow won’t run. Once your workflow appears in your backup, you can set the Trigger-On to the correct status and test your workflow without worrying about impacting your production environment. 

Configuration - Creating Tasks

*Best Practice* →  Create all of your workflow tasks before connecting the tasks. 

Navigate to the Tasks bar on the left-hand menu. A workflow will always have a starting point and a completion point where it can terminate. In between, you can have as many different tasks in  the workflow. 

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To create a new task, click on the plus button. Again, you would have to give the task a Name, select a Task type, and add a brief Description of the task. The task types mainly used in this workflow are either an Acknowledgement or a change in status. The options available will vary from task type to task type. 

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Creating the tasks

• Task 1: Initial Delay
  
  • The first task is named Initial Delay since it has no function but will indicate that a workflow has started when looking through workflow histories and logs. It is a branching task without any additional function.

• Task 2: 6 Week Reminder to Staff

      The next task will be used to send out the first email reminder to the Grant Staff about the upcoming report that is to be filled out

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Task Name → 6 Week Reminder to Staff 

Task Type → Acknowledgement

Description → Add a brief description of what this task is performing

Role → Add the role that should receive this reminder email. In this case, it is the Grant Staff user that has been assigned to record.

You can Create a Default Task Connector to the previous task, but it is recommended to create all the tasks first and then create the connectors afterwards. In this case, the connector will need to be modified after it has been created to account for the scheduling.

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Create the Message template which would include the Message Type, Email Template, From Address, any other Cc Address(es), Message Format, Message Subject, and the Body of the message. You can use variables to populate content relevant to the triggering record, such as a name or grant id.

• Task 3: 4 Week Reminder to Grantee

      This next task will be used to send out the first email reminder to Grantee about the same upcoming report that is to be filled out.

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Task Name → 4 Week Reminder 

Task Type → Acknowledgement

Description → Add a description

Role → Add the role that should receive this reminder email - Owner

Create the Message template

• Task 4: 1 Week Reminder

 

Appendix

Options and Settings

General Settings

Option	Description	Example

Display Settings

Option	Description	Example