Process Step Details - Other Functions

This article gives details and examples of the other steps that are available in steps to perform other functions in Automation Processes.

Summary Notification

When a Custom Process is filtered on a Documents, Jobs or Tasks view you can add a Summary Notification step so that the notifications are sent out automatically as a summary instead of as individual notifications. Refer to Custom Processes using Views and Summary Notifications.

Delay

A Delay step can be added to an Automation Process to set a delay in the process. This delays the next step in the process from running until that delay is over. The Delay can be set to hours, days or weeks. For example, this could be used so that on completion of a Task that is created in the process, there is then a delay of the selected hours, days or weeks and then an email is sent.

The delay starts from the date the previous step was completed, or in the case where the delay is the first step, from the date the automation process starts. For example, if the previous step was run on the 1st of January, a delay of 5 days means that the process will resume from the 6th of January.

The Automation - History displays the date and time that each step was completed.  Refer to Automation History.

Execute Process

Execute Process sets one process to execute one or more other active processes. You can only use this to execute a "Manual" process that has been enabled to run "From Process Step". Refer to Setting Up Custom Processes.

An example of using the Execute Process step is for a ‘New Employee onboarding’ process which includes separate business divisions that need to complete their ‘checklist’ of onboarding tasks. For example, there could be the following four processes that each division can run separately and also have a top-level process that runs all four of these when needed.

• Execute process: IT new employee onboarding
• Execute process: HR new employee onboarding
• Execute process: Finance new employee onboarding
• Execute process: Operations new employee onboarding

From the Execute Process Step, select the process you want to execute. It is added to the process in the sequence in which it should be executed.

Note: Automations marked as Inactive or Draft will not be executed by this process, and an error will be displayed in the History tab.

If the Process selected for the Execute Process step uses a Job view as the Filter, that process must have parameters set so that Job(s) are selected.

Job

The Job option can be used to select the Job that you wish the execute process to run. For example, when creating a Job Rollover Process, Current Job can be selected. Refer to Job Rollover Process.

Apply Additional Process Filter in Execute Process

The Apply Additional Process Filter option can be used as a way to split a Process. It can avoid duplications in Processes and is used to set up 'master' Processes and then have 'secondary' Processes that run on certain conditions.

• When Apply Additional Process Filter is set to "No", the filter from the initiating Process is used as the filter for the Execute Process.
  
  
• When Apply Additional Process Filter is set to "Yes", the filter from the Execute Process itself is used (in addition to that from the initiating Process). 
  
  After running any steps for Clients, Documents, Tasks or Jobs that meet the criteria using the filter from the initiating Process, additional Processes can be executed using the filters in the Process selected for the Execute Process step and setting Apply Additional Process Filter.
  
  For example, a Process is run for all clients to receive an email reminding them of their lodgement due date. This is set up to use a Custom Field for the due date held for each Client. The Execute Process step then uses a view that segments "Gold star clients" and that automation Process additionally creates a Task for the relative manager to call the client to remind them.
  
  Note: The Process selected in the Execute Process will only run where the criteria in the Filter from the initiating Process still apply to the Clients, Documents, Tasks or Jobs. The Process selected in the Execute Process must apply the same criteria but can have additional parameters. For example, if the filter for the initiating process retrieves Clients for a specific Custom Field, this must also apply to the Process run with the Execute Process step.
  To run a Process with a completely different Filter, this must be run as a separate Process, not with the Execute Process step.

Block Initiating Process

When Block Initiating Process is enabled, this blocks the initiating automation Process from completing until the Process in the Execute Process step has been completed. For example,

• If the Execute Process contains a blocking or an autocomplete Task, the initiating Process does not get processed until the Task is complete.
• If the Execute Process contains a Delay step, the initiating Process does not get processed until the Execute Process has been completed.
• If the Execute Process fails, the initiating Process will not continue and remains "In Progress".

Stop

The Stop step is used to prevent remaining steps in a process from executing, if the specified filter no longer applies. This step does not stop the entire process.

For example, a process is created with a filter on Jobs in a view with a particular Status (such as Waiting Client Info). The process is to send a reminder email to those clients, a Delay step is then set for one week, followed by a Stop step, and then a second reminder email. The second email will only send if the job status remains unchanged. If the Status has been updated since the process ran, the remaining steps for the process will not execute as those particular jobs no longer match the filter criteria, however the steps will execute for those jobs that still match the process filter.

The Stop step does not stop an entire process. If an entire process needs to be stopped, follow the steps Stopping a Process that is In Progress.

myprosperity Share Document

For practices that have the integration with myprosperity, when a Custom Process is filtered on a Document View, the Share Document step can be added from the myprosperity Application.

Note: The client will need to have been created in myprosperity before the document can be sent. For details on how to create a client, refer to Integration with myprosperity.

The process takes the document(s) triggered from the Document view selected in the Filter and shares them directly with myprosperity. Ensure that the Filter is set with Run Only Once Per Document check-marked so that the document is only shared once.

This would commonly be used to share Client Signed documents with myprosperity using a Documents view with a filter applied to the Workflow column of "Client Signed".

This function is the same as using the Share function for a selected document and selecting Send via as "myprosperity" (refer to Sharing Documents via myprosperity) but no email is sent when the document is shared via the Custom Process.