Scheduled Workflow Form

Use the Scheduled Workflow form to create scheduled workflows.

Location

To display the form, complete the following step:

From the Vision Navigation menu, click Configuration > Workflow > Scheduled Workflows.

Contents

Field Description
Application Select the application for which you want to create a workflow.

Approval Workflow is a choice in the Application field only if you have the Purchasing or Accounting module activated. Select Approval Workflow to view the scheduled alerts for approval workflows that are entered Configuration > Workflow > Approval Workflows. The scheduled alerts are supervisor escalation alerts, reminder alerts, and past due alerts. Viewing the alerts here can be helpful for administrators who are troubleshooting any alert issues. Although you can view approval workflow alerts from Scheduled Workflow Configuration, you must create the approval workflow alerts in Approval Workflows Configuration.

In Scheduled Workflow Configuration, you can also add advanced actions, such as stored procedures, functions, custom methods, and web services to the steps of approval workflows, which you cannot do in Approval Configuration. However, when you do this, if you ever need to edit the workflow steps again in Approval Workflows Configuration, you must complete additional steps to prevent the advanced actions from getting out of order and behaving in unexpected ways. For additional information, see Edit an Approval Workflow That Has Advanced Actions Added to It

Approval Name This field displays only when you select Approval Workflow in the Application field. From the drop-down list in this field select the name of a specific approval workflow that you want to view, or select Assignment.

When you select a specific approval workflow, the past due alert for the approval workflow display in the Actions grid. This is the alert for the completion of the whole workflow, not the completion of individual steps within the workflow.

When you select Assignment, the supervisor escalation alerts, reminder alerts, and past due alerts for an approval workflow step (assignment) for all the approval workflows that are entered in Approval Workflows Configuration display in the Actions grid.

Scheduled Workflows Grid

Use the Scheduled Workflows grid to create the events for scheduled workflows. To view the actions associated with an existing event, select the event; the associated actions display in the Actions grid.

When you select Approval Workflow in the Application field and select an individual approval workflow or Assignment in the Approval Name field, the rows in this grid prefill with the alerts for the approval workflows that you entered in Approval Workflows Configuration. You can view the information for the approval workflows alerts, but you cannot edit them.

Field Description
Scheduled Workflows Drop-down

Click the drop-down arrow on a grid header to complete any of the following actions:

  • To print grid data, click Print. On the Print Preview form, click File > Print to send the grid data to your default printer.
  • To export grid data to an Excel spreadsheet, click Export to Excel. When Microsoft Excel opens, use its features to modify, print, or email the grid data, or to save the spreadsheet file locally.
  • To turn on grouping for a grid, click Enable Grouping. When a field displays with the instruction: "Drag a column header here to group by that column," drag and drop column headers into the field, in the sequence that you want them to display.

Not all options are available on all grids.

Insert Click this option to create a new event.
Copy To copy an existing event, select the event you want to copy and click Copy. The new event displays below the existing one. You can then edit the event.
Delete Select the event that you want to delete and then click this option. Click Unschedule to disable the workflow temporarily without deleting it.
Schedule Click Schedule to create a schedule for the selected event. Vision displays the Schedule dialog box. When you schedule the workflow event, you add the workflow to the process server. To change a schedule, you must Unschedule it and then Schedule it again.
Unschedule Click Unschedule to disable the selected event. When you unschedule the workflow event, you remove the workflow from the process server. To change a schedule, you must Unschedule it, and then Schedule it again.
Status This field displays the Process Server dialog box, which lists the status of the scheduled process server run, for example Recurring, Canceled, or Complete. On this dialog box you can Hold, Release, Cancel, Resubmit, or Delete runs.
Workflow Table Select the entire record (entire records display in brackets, such as [Employee Record] and consist of both standard and user-defined fields), or select a specific table/grid for which to create a workflow. The tables in this field depend on the application that you selected. If your company uses user-defined grids, these grids display in this field with underscores, for example, Employee_Profile.

When you select Approval Workflow in the Application field and select a specific approval workflow or Assignment in the Approval Name field: The Workflow Table field displays ApprovalItem.

Level The Level field only applies to the Project Info Center.

This field allows you to specify at what WBS level the event should execute. Your options are All, Project (Level 1), Phase (Level 2), and Task (Level 3).

Your options are:

  • All
  • Project
  • Phase
  • Task

For example, an administrator wants to be notified only when a new project is inserted (not a phase or task). If you select Project in the Level field, the administrator is only notified if the record inserted is a project.

When an option other than All is selected, the workflow event executes only at that level. If you select All, the workflow event executes for any record that is being edited in the Project Info Center.

The WBS level can be set for both the event and the action. Therefore, Vision looks at the event level first. If the record does not pass the requirement set for the level at the event level, none of the actions for that event are considered.

Scheduled If this field is selected, the event is scheduled.
Description Enter a description for the workflow, such as Employee Anniversary.

When you select Approval Workflow in the Application field and select an approval workflow or Assignment in the Approval Name field: The description is for the approval workflow step entered in Approval Workflows Configuration. The name of the approval workflow is identified first, and then the step number and description.

Conditions Enter the conditions for when the action takes place. To do this, click Ellipsis in the Conditions field, and enter field information on the Conditions dialog box. Vision looks at the conditions in the order in which you specify them on this form. Use the Move Up and Move Down arrows to arrange them in the correct order.

When you create conditions, you can use the Expression field or all the other condition fields (Column, Operator, Value, AND/OR), but not both.

If your firm uses Vision Multicompany, additional column options and operators are available when you create the workflow. These options and operators may provide access to all companies or to the home company. See the Employees and Multicompany online help topics for more information.

  • Column — This field lists all the columns/fields in the Info Center that you selected. Select the field to which you want to apply the workflow condition.

    Project Summary columns are also included in this list.

  • Operator — This field allows you to set the conditions of the workflow by selecting the appropriate operator. For example, if you are creating a workflow for employees' tenth anniversary, you would select equals in this field, and then enter 10 in the Value field. Or, if you wanted to be alerted when fields that were empty now contain information, you would select not empty.
    • If you select a date column in the Column field, additional date operators are available, such as Month is, This Week, and Last Days.
    • The date operators that begin with In (such as In Months) trigger the workflow once x days (or weeks, months) before that date. For example, an alert is sent once when the Project Estimated Completion is in exactly 30 days.
    • The date operators that end with Ago (such as Weeks Ago) trigger the workflow once x weeks (or days, months) after the date. For example, an alert is sent once exactly two weeks after the Project Estimate Completion has past.
    • If you select a date operator that begins with Next and Last (such as Next Days, Last Month), an alert is sent every time that the workflow process fires. For example, an alert is sent to the user daily when the Estimated Completion date is within the next 30 days. The email message is sent every day until the Estimated Completion date is changed to a date outside of the range or on the day of the Estimated Completion date.
  • Value — Use this field in conjunction with the Operator field to set the condition.
    • The popup that this field displays depends on the column that you select. For example, if you select HireDate in the Column field, this field displays a calendar from which you can select a date. Or, if you select EM.Vendor, this field contains the Vendor lookup list. In some cases, you enter the information directly in this field.
    • If you select empty, not empty, has changed, or has not changed in the Operator field, this field is not applicable.
  • Expression — When you select this option, Vision displays the Scheduled Workflow SQL Expression Builder dialog box, which allows you to build an SQL expression for the event. Expressions can be used to create events when the basic Conditions fields are not enough.
  • AND/OR — This field allows you to define the conditions further. Deltek recommends that you select either all ANDs or all ORs in these fields.
Schedule If you created a schedule for an event, this field displays a brief description of the schedule, such as Every week on Tuesday at 12:00 PM.
Last Run This field displays the status of the last process run for this event. It does not display processes scheduled in the future. For example, it might display Last run on 5/20/14 or Could not run.

Actions Grid

Use the Actions grid to create the actions for workflows.

When you select Approval Workflow in the Application field on this form:
  • When you select a specific approval workflow in the Approval Name field on this form, the rows in this grid prefill with the past due alert for the approval workflow that was entered in Approval Workflows Configuration (Configuration > Workflow > Approval Workflows). This is the alert for the completion of the whole workflow, not the completion of individual steps within the workflow.
  • When you select Assignment in the Approval Name field on this form, the rows in this grid prefill with the supervisor escalation alerts, reminder alerts, and past due alerts for the steps within an approval workflow that were entered in Approval Workflows Configuration. All the scheduled alerts will be grouped. For example, if a project manager has ten records that require a reminder alert, then one email will be sent with the ten records listed.
  • Although you can make some changes to the alerts in this grid, Deltek recommends that you do not do this. Make any changes to approval workflows directly in Approval Workflows Configuration. When you make edits in Scheduled Workflows Configuration to rows that were originally entered in Approval Workflows Configuration, although these changes are implemented in Vision, the edits are not updated and displayed in Approval Workflows Configuration.
  • You can use Insert on the Actions grid toolbar to add new actions, such as stored procedures, functions, custom methods, and web services to the approval workflow, which you cannot add in Approval Workflows Configuration.
Field Description
Actions Drop-down

Click the drop-down arrow on a grid header to complete any of the following actions:

  • To print grid data, click Print. On the Print Preview form, click File > Print to send the grid data to your default printer.
  • To export grid data to an Excel spreadsheet, click Export to Excel. When Microsoft Excel opens, use its features to modify, print, or email the grid data, or to save the spreadsheet file locally.
  • To turn on grouping for a grid, click Enable Grouping. When a field displays with the instruction: "Drag a column header here to group by that column," drag and drop column headers into the field, in the sequence that you want them to display.

Not all options are available on all grids.

Insert Click this option to insert an action.
Copy Highlight an action on the grid and click this option to copy and create a new action.
Delete Highlight an action on the grid and click this option to remove the action from the grid.
Move Up Highlight an action on the grid and click this option to move an action up in the list. The order in which the actions display on the grid determines the order of the actions.
Move Down Highlight an action on the grid and click this option to move an action down in the list. The order in which the actions display on the grid determines the order of the actions.
Action This field displays the name of the selected action. For example, when a workflow that requires a change is triggered, you can specify that Vision first make the change, then send an email message to the supervisor.
Level This field only applies to the Project Info Center. Use this field to specify the WBS level at which the action executes. Your options are All, Project, Phase, and Task. For example, an administrator wants to be notified only when a new project is inserted (not a phase or task). By selecting Project from the Level field, the administrator is only notified if the record inserted is a project.

When an option other than All is selected, the workflow action executes only at that level. If you select All, the workflow action executes for any record that is edited in the Project Info Center. The WBS level can be set for both the event and the action. Therefore, Project looks at the event level first. If the record does not pass the requirement set for this level, no actions are considered.

Active Select this option to enable the action or clear the option to disable it. This feature allows you to disable the action temporarily without deleting it.
Description You must enter a description for the action, such as Send Email to Managers. If you selected Validate Error or Validate Warning for the action, information entered in this field displays to the user on a dialog box.
Conditions Enter the conditions for when the action takes place.

To do this, click Ellipses in the Conditions field and enter field information on the Conditions dialog box as described below. Vision looks at the conditions in the order in which you specify them on this form. Use the Move Up and Move Down arrows to arrange them in the correct order.

If your firm uses Vision Multicompany, additional column options and operators are available when you create the workflow. These options and operators may provide access to all companies or to the home company. See the Employees and Multicompany online help topics for more information.

  • Column —This field lists all the fields on the Info Center that you selected. Select the column to which you want to apply the workflow.
  • Operator — Select the appropriate operator to set the conditions of the workflow. For example, to create a workflow for employees' tenth anniversary events, select equals in this field and then enter 10 in the Value field. Or, if you want to be alerted when empty fields now contain information, select not empty.
  • Value — Use this field in conjunction with the Operator field to set the condition. The popup that this field displays depends on the column you select. For example, if you select HireDate in the Column field, this field displays a calendar from which you can select a date. Or, if you select EM.Vendor, this field contains the Vendor lookup list. In some cases, you enter the information directly in this field. If you select empty, not empty, has changed, or has not changed in the Operator field, this field is not applicable.
  • Expression — This field allows you to access the SQL Expression Builder. When you create conditions, you can use the Expression Builder or all the other condition fields (Column , Operator , Value , AND/OR ), but not both.
  • AND/OR — This field allows you to define the conditions further. Deltek recommends that you select either all ANDs or all ORs in these fields.
Language Click Ellipses to use the Languages dialog box to select the language to use with this action. Employees within the specified role or group with the selected language receive the action in their language.

If a specific email address is entered for an alert action, the employee receives the alert whether or not the language matches.