Tuesday, December 3, 2019

Delegate


Rethink Workflow v6.6 has recently added one of the most frequently asked features, Delegate. This feature allows anyone in your organization to gives any other user to act on his/her behalf. A delegate plays the same role as you in all of your items, including view, edit, and take action.

NOTE: This feature is only available for organizations subscribing to our Ultimate subscription plan.

Configure a user as a delegate

  1. Click on the menu button (  )
  2. Click on the arrow button to expand actions related to your account (  )
  3. Select Delegate (  )


On the DELEGATE screen, follow the instructions in the screenshot below: 


  • If you select "Handoff to the delegate," all of your items will be transferred to the delegate, and you no longer have permission to act on those items. This option is useful when you want to be "off the hook" and let the delegate handling your work.
  • If you select "Let the delegate act on my behalf, but still keep me in the loop," the system will add the delegate to all of your items. The delegate and you will have the same role(s). This option is useful when you want the delegate to act on your behalf, but you still want to perform the work if you can. 

After the changes are saved successfully, the system will show the following indication on the top-right of the navigation bar.


The system also recalculates permissions for all of your items in the background. The new permissions should be applied within a short period.

Remove a delegate

To remove a delegate, follow the steps as in "Configure a user as a delegate" section and select "Do NOT delegate."

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Voting

Rethink Workflow has recently added the "Voting" feature to our flow to fulfill the need of many of our customers.

This feature allows you to specify how many times an action be taken before moving a document to the next state. For example, you want a Change Request only be moved to the APPROVED state only when at least three different committee members take APPROVE action. Another example, only when everyone signs off a Sale Contract, then it can then be moved to DONE state.

How to design

To enable this feature on the flow design screen, take the following steps:
1. Click on the route you want to specify the number of actors to open the route property panel
2. Switch to the ACTORS tab and adjust the right settings. Note that "actors" represents everyone who has permission to take this action as defined in the PERMISSION tab.
3. Click on the UPDATE button to save changes.

Only when at least three actors take Approve action, the document is moved to Permit Review state


Permission Shortcuts

Besides a centralized permission settings screen, Rethink Workflow offers a quick way to adjust permissions for each field, route, or state while designing the form or flow.

Quickly set permission for each field

1. On the form design screen, open the Property panel of the field you want to set permission

 2. On the Property panel, switch to PERMISSION tab. Here you can adjust the permission for each role in each state.

 3. Click on UPDATE to save changes

Quickly set permission for each route

To quickly set permission for a route while designing the flow, you can follow the steps below:
1. While designing the workflow, On FLOW tab click on the route you want to set the permission to open the route property panel
2. Adjust the permission for each role
3. Click UPDATE to save changes

Quickly set permission for each state

Similar to setting permission for each route, you can quickly set permission on each state using state property panel.


Saturday, August 17, 2019

HOA Architectural Covenant Changes Request

This is a template we built as asked from Steve Fortner on Quora: https://qr.ae/TWrw37

Roles

The workflow includes four roles:
  1. Architectural Committee: the list of people belongs to your Architectural Control Committee (username: hoa-acc@zetmail.com, password: podapazo)
  2. Coordinator: the person in your back office who will help to coordinate the request from homeowners (username: hoa-coordinator@zetmail.com, password: yamiyozo)
  3. Homeowner: the homeowner who applies to architectural or landscape changes. In Rethink Workflow, this role is named as "Document Owner" by default. (username: home-owner@inboxbear.com, password: xeguxude)
  4. Inspector: the inspector assigned to inspect the project after completion to ensure it meets the requirement. (username: hoa-inspector@zetmail.com, password: rawagobo)

Flow


In this figure, the ellipses represent the state, the arrows represent the transition or action.

0. Homeowner access the form from your website
Homeowner (home-owner@inboxbear.com, password: xeguxude) clicks on a link on your website at http://parkvillage.org/ to access the form at https://secure.rethinkworkflow.com/#index/index/company/5d581603246a830018a59bfc/workflow/5d5816111191ba00125943a8.

2. Homeowner creates a new application (stage "Draft") and fills in the required information and click on the "SUBMIT" button (which moves the application to state "Submitted")

(Note that only when “Do you plan to change the color of your home?” is selected as Yes, the field “Paint samples” will show up, this is what we call Visibility Condition)
The system sends out an email notification to the Homeowner for confirmation.

The system also sends another email notification to Coordinator regarding the submission.

3. Coordinator reviews the application
Coordinator (username: hoa-coordinator@zetmail.com, password: yamiyozo) reviews the submitted application. In case more information is required, Coordinator clicks on "Request for info" which returns the form to Homeowner (state "Incompleted," move to step 4).

This action triggers an email notification as in below to Homeowner:

If the application has all the information required, Coordinator clicks on "READY FOR ACC REVIEW" which moves the application to "ACC Review" state (move to step 5). This action triggers an email notification as in below to the Homeowner:

4. The Homeowner resubmits the application
The Homeowner received an email notification with a link as in step 3 above. He clicks on that link to view the application and provide the required information. He then clicks on “RESUBMIT” button to send the application back to the Coordinator (state “Submitted”)
This action triggers two email notifications:
To Homeowner:

To Coordinator:

5. The Architectural Control Committee reviews the application
On the monthly committee meeting, Cole Armstrong (username: hoa-acc@zetmail.com, password: podapazo) - one of the committee member logs in to Rethink Workflow. From the dashboard, he clicks and views Alan Jenkins’s application.

Here is what Cole Armstrong see:

From here, Cole Armstrong can take either APPROVE or DENIED action.
5.1. Deny route:
If Cole Armstrong clicks on DENY action, he needs to fill in “Reason for Denial” before doing so.

An email notification will be sent to the Homeowner:

The Homeowner can then appeal the decision of the ACC by clicking on “APPEAL” action which sends the application back to “Draft” state. The Homeowner then follow the same steps to submit it back to the ACC for review.
5.2. Approve route:
If the ACC member wants to approve this application, he can click on “APPROVE” action. “Reason for denial” is no longer required in this case.
This action moves the application to the “Approved” state and triggers the following email notification to the Homeowner:

6. Homeowner proceeds to make changes/additions and notifies Coordinator upon completion
As instructed from the previous email, the Homeowner can proceed to make changes requested. When completed, the Homeowner accesses the link from the email to view the form again. From here, he clicks on “MARK AS COMPLETED” button move the application to “Project Completed” state. An email notification is sent out to Homeowner:

Another email notification is sent to Coordinator:

7. Coordinator schedules for an inspection
Morgan Werner, Coordinator, enter the date and time for the inspection appointment and assign Killian Phillips as the inspector.

He then clicks on “SCHEDULE THE INSPECTION” which moves the form to “Inspection Scheduled” state. Two email notifications are sent out to the Homeowner:

And to the inspector:

8. Inspector inspects the project
Killian Phillips 1. (username: hoa-inspector@zetmail.com, password: rawagobo) inspects the project and makes a decision directly on our software.
8.1. Changes required route
If the Inspector determines that the project does not meet the requirement, he can enter the summary of changes required, attach necessary materials and click on “REQUEST CHANGES” which sent the form to “Changes Needed” state.
The Homeowner then access the form, understand what required and proceed to make modifications on this project. Then click on “MARK AS COMPLETED”. The form follows the same path as before to get it inspected.
8.2. Approve route:
If the inspector approves the project, he can click on “APPROVE” button to move the form to “Verified” state.
In all email communication above, you can customize the content of the email to anything for more personalization. As you can see, our software supports filling values of the form to the email directly via placeholders to provide more context.
There are many more features provided by Rethink Workflow SaaS which you can learn more here: https://support.rethinkworkflow.com/p/features-pricing.html

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

How do I know who currently has access on a document?

To know who currently has access to a document including their roles, one can follow these steps:

  1. View a document
  2. Click on the down arrow on the left of BACK button
  3. Select "Access & Roles"
The following popup message showing the list of users and their roles should show up:


How do I update permissions for documents after adjusting the workflow?

The permissions defining the access on a document is calculated after each action. When you adjust anything related to permission on a workflow (e.g. add/remove people in roles, grant/revoke permissions, etc.), you will need to do one of the following tasks to make have the document permissions up-to-date:

  1. Triggering some action on a document to trigger the permission updating process for that document
  2. Use "Recalculate permissions" option
To use "Recalculate permissions" option, take the following steps: 
  1. View a document as an administrator
  2. Click on the arrow on the left of BACK button
  3. Select "Recalculate permissions"



Saturday, May 25, 2019

How do I submit a support request?

Rethink Workflow has a built-in support request feature directly on our UI.


FUN FACT: We are "eating our own dog food" here. The support request is actually one of the workflows designed directly on Rethink Workflow.


Whenever you need help or want to suggest a new feature, take the following steps to contact us:

1. Click on the feedback icon on the top right of your screen:


2. Provide the details of your support request and click SUBMIT

Depending on your current subscription plan, we will be addressing your request in the queue and communicate with you directly via our interface.


Saturday, March 16, 2019

What's New In Version 6.0

Version 6.0 (v6.0) of Rethink Workflow has just been released in December 2018 and it is the biggest and most exciting release we have done so far.

v6.0 contains many new features and improvements, including:

1. Build a Form

  • The overall form designer has been revamped to be more intuitive, easy to use, yet more powerful. Field properties have been rearranged into tabs including: 
  • More features added for selected fields: 
    • Address
      • Allow detecting user approximate location
      • More detail placeholders including streetNumberOne, streetNumberTwo, city, state, postalCode, formatted, latitude, and longitude.
    • Checkboxes / Radios:
      • Allow specifying the number of options per line
      • Use an internal or external data list as the data source for available options
    • Comment: the comment field has been deprecated and replaced by Document Commenting feature.
    • File Upload:
      • Allow limiting the minimum and maximum file size
      • Allow limiting the acceptable file types
      • More detailed placeholders
    • Name:
      • Allow showing/hiding and mark as required / optional for first name and last name
    • Number:
      • Allow specifying number format
      • Allow setting the default value
    • Sequence ID: this field has been deprecated and replaced by document key. The system automatically generates a document key based on workflow key.
    • Table: 
      • Allow showing/hiding Header or Footer
      • Column cell input supports 10+ different types including dropdown with data list support.
      • Allow setting a footer value to be the control value
    • Timesheet:
      • Support comment for each time-row
  • Improved both predefined and per-field placeholders
  • Allow changing the workflow setting at any time without the need of unpublishing
  • Create a form/process from predefined templates. We will be adding more and more templates for different categories very soon.

2. Design Workflow

  • Allow setting action permission while editing a state
  • Transition: 
    • Better-looking icons with the material icon set
    • Allow disabling validation for fields. For example, the comment is required on Decline action but optional on Approve action.
    • Quicker adjust permission while editing

3. Set Permission

  • The biggest change on this version is Role-based Access Control in which the workflow designer can create roles and assign users to a role. 
  • Permissions setting has been improved and simplified

4. Go Live

  • Improved reporting: provide a simple-yet-powerful reporting mechanism for running and extracting document values into a tabular format. 
  • Company Branding: allow to change the look-and-feel of Rethink Workflow to match with your company brand. 
  • Streamlined authentication and creation process: improved the way the system authenticates the end-user so that creating an account and signing in is much easier, especially for public workflow.
  • Document Commenting: allows adding comments per field or on the entire document
  • Change the sender and reply-to per workflow variant: allow to use a different email address as the sender or reply-to when sending email notifications to the user. 

And more...

  • For documents created from a public workflow, the system now saves the document after each change to avoid losing data.
  • Support resetting the field values of the document back to what they were when the document first moved to the current state. 
  • Assign each document with a unique ID (TSA-0001) using the corresponding workflow key. This feature makes it easier to uniquely mention document instead of using the long id previously. 
  • A regular user is able to trash, delete, or restore the document when it is in the initial state. 
  • Document printing has been optimized to save paper
  • And a ton more minor improvements and bugfixes.

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Reporting

Rethink Workflow allows you to create easy-to-use forms to capture quality data from the end-users. The system also enables to create powerful flows to streamline your organization business processes. The last piece of this puzzle is reporting, which is a way for you to view, search, filter, and extract entered values from the system for your own purposes.

There are two types of report: overall report and workflow-specific report.

Overall Report

The overall report allows consolidating entered values in all workflows in one single user interface. There are many ways to get to this report from the overall dashboard: 

1. Click on the application menu, then select Documents

2. Click on the notification icon (the bell icon on the top-right corner) and select ALL DOCUMENTS

3. Under your Inbox widget, select VIEW ALL

4. Under your Recent Documents widget, select VIEW ALL

Here is an overview of how the report interface looks like:

Workflow-specific Report

A workflow-specific report is having exactly the same features as in the overall report above, but for a particular workflow. From the workflow-specific dashboard, you can follow the same method 2, 3, 4 above to get to the report for this workflow.

Using Filters

To add a new filter, click on FILTERS button on the right-hand side. On the popup dialog, search and select the filters you would like to add. The predefined filters are in black color while the filters provided by form fields are in orange color. 
The demonstration below shows how to add, use, and remove a filter.

Using Columns

To add a new column, click on COLUMNS button on the right-hand side. On the popup dialog, search and select the columns you would like to add. Similar to filters, predefined columns are in black and columns provided by form fields are in orange.
The video below demonstrates actions can be performed on columns.

Export data to CSV (Microsoft Excel readable) or JSON format

To export data from a report to CSV or JSON format, select EXPORT button on the right-hand side, and click on the desired format. Note that the data exported only include the columns you selected.

Manage Reports

You can also save the report filters and columns for later retrieval. To save a report, click on SAVE AS button and provide the name and description on the popup dialog and click on SAVE. After that, you can click on the arrow next to the report name to switch between the report.


How to move to trash, restore, or delete a document?

Move a document to trash


  • As a user, you can move a document to trash if it is in the initial state (usually called "Draft" unless changed by the administrator)
  • As an administrator, you can move a document to trash at any state
To move a document to trash, click on "Trash" menu item on the document view screen: 
A document in Trash does not allow anyone to take any workflow action. Only "Restore" or "Delete" action are available as in the following screenshot: 

Documents in Trash won't show up in your Inbox or Recent Documents widget. To see the trashed documents, you can click on VIEW ALL link below your Inbox or Recent Documents widget.

Trash documents are still counted in Usage Statistics since they are stored in Rethink Workflow.

Restore a document from Trash

  • As a user, you can restore your own document in Trash if it is in the initial state (usually called "Draft" unless changed by the administrator)
  • As an administrator, you can restore any document in trashed
To restore a document, go to the document view screen and click on "Restore" menu item. 


Permanently delete a document


  • As a user, you can delete your own document once it is in Trash.
  • As an administrator, you can delete any document once it is in Trash
To permanently delete a document in Trash, on the document view page, click on "Delete" menu item: 
A deleted document won't be counted in your company Usage Statistics.

Usage Statistics

Rethink Workflow offers a quick glance at the usage statistics according to the subscription plan that your organization is in.
To view the usage statistics, as an administrator, click on the "hamburger menu", expand the "Settings" section, and click on "Subscription Plan"

Below the available subscription plans, you should see your organization usage statistics:


Saturday, February 16, 2019

Timesheet Control


Introduction

Timesheet control is one of the ULTIMATE Subscription controls which can be used by the company to allow its employees to enter their daily work hours.


Features

Admin can set the startTime, endTime, intervals and categories for each of the timesheet in the workflow.




How to design


To add timesheet control to your form, simply drag and drop it from the control panel to the form-design area.




To adjust the properties specifically for TIME SHEET field, click on TIMESHEET OPTIONS tab on the properties panel below the timesheet control.



  • interval (Time Interval for time dropdowns): This field sets the intervals between options in the timesheet. 
    • For Example: If the interval is 15, then it means 15 minutes and the dropdown options will be 8:00 AM, 8:15 AM, 8:30AM and So on.
  • startTime (Start Time): This field sets the startTime of the day for the timesheet control. 
    • For Example: 8:00 AM
  • endTime (End Time): This field sets the endTime of the day for the timesheet control. 
    • For Example: 5:00 PM
  • categories (Define Categories): This fields allows the admin to set the available categories for which a user can add the time. 
    • For Example: Project 1, Project 2, PTO, Vacation, Holiday are some of the examples of categories


How to use

The animation below demonstrates how the end-user interacts with a timesheet control.


Using the Timesheet field in reporting

Adding the timesheet field in column

To include a timesheet field in the list of columns of the report, click COLUMNS button and select the respective timesheet field from the pop up.

To export the timesheet values, click on EXPORT button and select the desired formats.



Saturday, January 26, 2019

How to create or initiate a new document?

There are several ways to create or initiate a new document from a workflow.

From the overall dashboard

When you are on the overall dashboard, click on the "NEW DOCUMENT" button to start creating a new document.

On "SELECT A WORKFLOW" screen, click on the button on the right of the desired workflow to create a new document.

From the workflow dashboard

If you are already on the workflow dashboard, simply click on "NEW DOCUMENT" to initiate a new document from that workflow.

From a workflow public URL

If a workflow is made public, any public user can use the link provided to create a new document. Rethink Workflow offers an easy and streamlined authentication process for the new user to create an account and sign in before creating a new document.
This video demonstrates the steps a public user takes to create a new document from a public workflow

Saturday, January 19, 2019

Company Branding

As a company we think you should be able to style the application to match your organization's colors and logos. So we have provided you a great way to make your users feel right at home when they use Rethink Workflow.

Navigating to the Branding Section

The video given below will help you get to the branding section in Rethink Workflow



Changing the Logo

There are two places where you can upload your organization's logo. 

Login Screen

You can change the logo for the login screen, so that when an external user used a workflow that you have published, they shall see your company branding and may feel more comfortable while filling out the form. You can change the logo for the login as shown below


Once you have done this, the next time a user access a workflow published by your company, they shall see the branding as designed by you. Below we have created a sample public workflow being accessed by a user. The workflow is to schedule a pet appointment. When a user tries to access the workflow by clicking on the link ( that you may have provided), this is what they would see.


While Using Rethink Workflow

You can change the company logo inside Rethink workflow by uploading a picture and positioning it as you need it. The video below will demonstrate how you can upload a logo from your computer and replace the Rethink Workflow Logo. We recommend using an image with a transparent background.


Changing Colors

Once you have replaced the logo, next you can change the colors to match your organization as well. The steps to change the colors are demonstrated below


Dashboards

Rethink Workflow provides both Overall Dashboard and Workflow-specific Dashboard.

Overall Dashboard

The overall dashboard is usually the first screen you see after you sign in to our system. Most of the features of this dashboard are self-explanatory. This dashboard gives a quick glance at all the documents that you are being a part of. 

Workflow-specific Dashboard

Each workflow has its own dashboard called workflow-specific dashboard. The information presented in this dashboard is only for the selected workflow. 

To go to a workflow-specific dashboard, follow the instruction in the following video: