Working on a Workflow

A workflow is a checklist that runs on a record: a renewal on a contract, a filing on a registration. Anyone who can see the record can follow the workflow. The participants are the people who move it along.

You will find workflows in three places. The Workflows page lists the ones you take part in. The Workflows card on your Dashboard shows your open ones. The Workflows panel on each record lists every workflow on that record, whether you take part or not. Each card shows the workflow’s status, progress, due date, and last activity. Click a card to open the workflow’s page.

This page is about doing the work. For templates, launch authorization, and who can see what, see Workflows.

Starting a workflow

Open a record, expand its Workflows panel, and click the add button. A drawer opens with the templates you are allowed to launch. Each card describes the workflow and shows how many participants it starts with. Click Launch on a card to start it.

If you are an Editor on the record’s module, the drawer also offers Blank workflow. It opens a form for a one-off checklist: a name, a description, a due date, participants, checklist items, and attachments. Click Launch to start it.

Either way, you become a participant and land on the new workflow’s page.

A workflow that creates a brand-new record has no record to start from. Start it with Request on that record type’s list page, or with New request on the Workflows page. See Participants and requests for how those are controlled.

If a template you expect is missing from the drawer, its launch setting does not include you. Ask an admin to change it.

The workflow page

The left side holds the workflow itself. At the top are its status, its Due date (red once it is overdue), and a Progress count and bar. Below them are the description and the Participants, then the Checklist. When the workflow creates or updates a record, an outcome card follows the checklist.

The right side holds the workflow’s Calendar, its Attachments, and its Activity.

If you are not a participant, the page is read-only. You see the same progress and history as everyone else, without any controls. The page updates live as other participants work.

Statuses

A workflow has one of five statuses: Not Started, In Progress, On Hold, Completed, or Cancelled. A participant changes it from the status control at the top of the page, which opens a list of the statuses you can move to.

You cannot move a workflow back to Not Started. Ticking the first checklist item moves it to In Progress for you.

Every status change asks you to confirm, for example Change status to On Hold? If the workflow has other participants, the dialog tells you they will be notified. Add a Note if you want to tell them why. The note appears in the activity next to the change.

When a workflow is locked

On Hold, Completed, and Cancelled all pause a workflow. A banner at the top says so and tells you to change the status to resume.

While a workflow is paused, its checklist, details, outcome, files, and events are locked. They stay locked until a participant changes the status. Comments, status changes, and Delete still work. Reminders for the workflow’s due dates go quiet until it resumes.

Working through the checklist

Click an item’s checkbox to tick it. Lextree asks you to confirm, for example Mark “Board approval” complete? The dialog adds a note about what follows. Depending on the item, it says the other participants will be notified, that ticking it starts the workflow, or that it is the last item and what comes next. Unticking asks the same way and keeps anything you entered in the item’s details. Both offer an optional note.

You can tick items in any order. Each item lists its assignees and description, plus a due date that turns red when the item is overdue and still open. A ticked item is shown struck through.

Some items ask for information as well as a tick, such as a filing number or an approval date. These items show a one-line summary of what is filled in, for example 2 of 3 required fields missing. Open the details with Fill in details, or with the pencil icon after you have entered something. Fill in the fields in the drawer, then click Save. Saving does not tick the item. You cannot tick an item while a required field is empty. Lextree tells you how many fields are left and opens the item for you.

Click Edit in the page header to change the checklist items, their assignees and due dates, or the workflow’s own name, description, due date, and participant list. An item can go only to a participant, so assigning it to someone adds them to the workflow. If you take a participant off the workflow, their item assignments go too.

The outcome card

When a workflow’s template creates a record or updates the one it runs on, the workflow carries an outcome card. The card holds a draft of the new record, or of the changes to the current one. A chip on the card shows how far along the draft is. For a new record it reads Not Started, Incomplete, or Ready. For an update it reads No Changes or Changes Pending.

Fill in the draft with Enter … details, or with the pencil to change it later, and click Save draft. Once the draft is ready, the card shows Create … or Apply changes. Clicking it opens a confirmation dialog that warns this action cannot be undone. If checklist items are still open, the dialog tells you how many are done.

On confirmation, Lextree either creates the record and puts a View … link on the card, or writes the changes to the current record, and it tells the other participants. This happens once. Afterward the card reads This action has been completed.

Applying the outcome does not complete the workflow. That is still a status change. After the last item is ticked, a banner lists what remains: creating the record, applying the update, or marking the workflow complete.

Marking a workflow complete

Pick Completed in the status button’s list. If any items are unticked, or the outcome has not been applied, the confirmation dialog is titled Mark workflow complete? and lists what is open, for example 2 checklist items are still unchecked. It is a warning, not a block. Mark complete still completes the workflow.

A completed workflow is paused like any other. Change its status to reopen it.

Due dates and reminders

The Attachments panel works as it does on a record; see Attachments. Any files the template provides are already there when the workflow starts.

The workflow’s events are listed in the Calendar panel. Give the workflow a due date and Lextree adds an all-day Workflow Due event. Give an item one and it adds a Workflow Item Due event. Each event sends its reminder a day ahead, to the participants for the workflow event and to the item’s assignees for an item event. Ticking an item quiets its reminder.

The dates on these events come from the workflow. On the event itself you can change only its reminders. You cannot delete the event on its own. See Events vs. workflows.

Activity and comments

The Activity panel is the workflow’s history. It records who created the workflow, changed its status, ticked or unticked an item, assigned someone, edited the details, attached a file, or added an event, along with any notes left on the way.

Participants add to it with Add a comment… and Post. The other participants are notified. A posted comment is permanent: you cannot edit or delete it. Use the Comments and Edits chips above the stream to filter the history.

Joining and deleting a workflow

If you are an Editor on the module that holds a workflow’s record, Join workflow appears in the participants row of any workflow you are not part of. Click it and you become a participant straight away, with no invitation, and the others get a notice. Anyone else has to be added by an existing participant, using Edit.

Delete in the page header moves the workflow to the trash. It does not ask first, and it takes you back to the record. Editors of the record’s module can restore the workflow from Trash.