Configuring scheduled workflows

Business processes can sometimes be triggered upon reaching a specific date, such as a task that needs to be completed two weeks prior to a client's first payroll date. Workflow channels allow you to configure these types of automatic business processes using scheduled workflows.  This topic provides a high-level overview of scheduled workflows as well as step-by-step instructions that can help you to begin using this robust feature to schedule the creation of workflow generated tasks and cloned dataforms.  

To configure scheduled workflows:

1.

Go to System Admin > Workflow Channels.

The Workflow Channels dashboard opens.

2.

Click Add.

The Choose Workflow Triggering Type dialog opens with options to select Real Time or Scheduled.

3.

When you select Scheduled, the Add Workflow Channel wizard opens with Step 1 Channel. In this step, you need to configure the date that triggers the scheduled Workflow Action.

4.

Configure the following options:

Channel Name	Provide a descriptive name of the workflow process.
Triggering Form	Select the form to trigger the workflow.
Field	Presents a list of available Date fields from the Triggering Form selected.
Frequency Limit	The Workflow task or dataform is triggered once every X days based on the value of this field.
Date Offset	The number of days (before or after the date stored in the triggering field) this workflow item triggers.
Grace Period	The number of days, starting with the offset date that the workflow attempts to trigger. When this grace period has ended, the workflow does not trigger again until the frequency limit has passed, and the triggering conditions are again met.
Include When Inactive	Optional field. When the checkbox is checked, triggering of the scheduled workflow will occur for both active and inactive triggering forms. When the checkbox is unchecked, triggering of the scheduled workflow will only occur for active triggering forms.
Triggered Forms	The task or dataform to be generated when the triggering conditions are met.

5.

After you have configured the Scheduled Workflow Action, you receive a brief synopsis of the Schedule.

6.

When the last field is completed, the wizard progresses to Step 2 Content.

7.

After your configured workflow is saved, these conditions are evaluated by a scheduled process (Generate Scheduled Workflows) to determine if the date field combined with the other workflow schedule options as well as any additional Conditions added in Step 4 (Conditions) are met.

Note:  Because these workflow triggers are scheduled, the real time field analysis to determine if a field has changed (IsDirty) cannot happen. Because of this, notice that the IsDirty qualifier is not available when adding additional triggering conditions to scheduled tasks.

If all the triggering conditions are met, the dataform or task is generated from the Workflow. These actions can then trigger other dependent workflow items (such as a second task spawned when the scheduled task is complete) or completely new workflow channels. In this way, scheduled workflows can drive your business processes based on milestone triggering dates stored in your system.