How to create workflow in The Layer

In this article we will take you through step by step how to create a workflow process in your instance of The Layer.

There are a number of different reason you may wish to do so. For example, you may want notification emails to be sent to specific people when a sales order is cancelled. There are many workflow options in The Layer and we offer the option to personalise workflow (chargeable) should your require it.

We will use the sales order cancellation workflow example mentioned above.

Step 1 – How to access the workflow section of The Layer

Firstly you will need to select ‘Settings’ at the top of your screen as indicated below

Scroll to ‘Environment Settings’ and select ‘Workflow’.

Step 2 – Creating a New workflow process

In order for you to be able to create new workflow you will need to select ‘New Workflow’ on the left side of the screen as indicated below.

You will be presented with the workflow screen below. Please complete all details carefully as workflow may trigger thousands of emails or create multiple tasks for example if incorrectly provisioned.

As we are creating a workflow for Sales Order – Cancelled, I have named the workflow ‘Cancelled sales orders’. You will also need to select a type (This is the type of workflow you wish to create for example:- Case – open, Customer – cancelled and Sales orders – Real time) in this example we have selected ‘Sales order – Real time’. By making the ‘Type’ selection this will auto populate the condition for you. To complete the creation of your new workflow process, you will also need to select save at the bottom of the screen.

If you wish to create the workflow for a specific time period, you will be able to do so on the next screen which is shown below our example as we will not be selecting this option.

In order for the email to be automatically sent out you will need to change the ‘State’ of the workflow. You will see 3 options which I have defined below:-

INACTIVE - The workflow is created but will not trigger

AUTOMATICALLY - This will complete the workflow automatically

MANUAL - **DON NOT USE THIS OPTION - FOR LAYER INTERNAL USE ONLY**

In our example we have selected ‘Inactive’ for the purpose of this demonstration.

Step 3 – Creating the stages of your workflow.

As you will see in the image below your workflow has been created, however, we haven’t as yet set up any stages for this workflow and whilst it has been created unless we selected the relevant stages we wish the workflow to complete, no action will be taken until you have made these selections.

To create a stage in your workflow click ‘New Stage’

You will now be presented with the following screen to create your workflow stage.

In our example we have selected the description as ‘All Cancelled Sales Orders’ you will now need to select what action you want to achieve. Here are the options available to you:-

Create new case for record owner

Create new case for owner (customer)

Create phone call for record owner

Create reminder for record owner

Send email to business unit

Send email to customer contact

Send email to record assignee (task)

Send email to record owner

In this example we have selected ‘Send email to user’. You will now be presented with a list to select what email template you wish to receive. We have selected ‘Sales Order – Cancelled’

You will also need to select the user you wish the email to be sent to, we have selected ‘Geri Nethill’. You will see a list of your Layer users here to select from.

Now select ‘Save’

This will create the stage in the workflow as indicated below

If you wish to create additional steps simply revert back to the beginning of Step 3 until such times as you have completed all your steps. Once you have completed this please select ‘Save’.

This will trigger an email to be sent any time a sales order is cancelled to the user you selected.

The final step to enable your workflow process is to change the state to ‘automatic’ and save.

To cancel workflow, change the state to inactive and save.

Author: Natalie Dryburgh