This article will walk you through setting up and running a simple workflow. By the end of this article, you'll be able to create your own workflows, from scratch.

Note: This article is for workflow creators. Please feel free to skip this article if someone else in your organization will be responsible for workflow creation.

Before going through this article, we recommend reading these:

• Creating Your First Form    (This should help you get familiar with the form builder.)
  
• Invite Co-Workers                (So that workflow stages can be assigned to your colleagues.)
  

What's a Workflow?

A workflow is a sequence of forms. Here's a sample workflow for expense reimbursement:

Now, of course, every organization would have a different workflow. That's OK. Polydojo can handle multiple approvals, department-wise approvals etc.

Before creating a workflow, we need to setup the stage-specific forms. These forms, when filled out sequentially by the right people, would amount to "carrying out" or "running" the workflow.

Let's Build Those Forms! (4 mins)

Our aim is to create a workflow. Not to build forms. So, instead of building detailed forms, we'll restrict each form to just two fields. You can always add more fields later.

Ready? We'll create 4 forms with 2 fields each. That's 8 fields. Adding 8 fields should take about 4 minutes. Also, remember to SAVE your forms. (Don't worry, we'll prompt you to save them.)

1. Create a form titled 'ER1. Reimbursement Request Form' (ER = Expense Reimbursement):

• Add a mandatory Short Answer field labeled 'Expense Incurred'.
• Add a Long Answer field labeled 'Why/How did you incur this expense?'.
• (Later, you could add fields for Expense Category, Date of Expense, Receipt Upload, etc.)
  

2. Create a form titled 'ER2. Reimbursement Approval Form':

• Add a Multiple Choice field labeled 'Do you approve?'.
      - Against Choices, enter 'Yes' and 'No' on separate lines.
      - Check 'Mark as mandatory' and 'Show all choices on a single line'.
  
• Add a Long Answer field labeled 'Comments (if any)'.

3. Create a form titled 'ER3. Reimbursement Payout Form':

• Add a Short Answer field labeled 'Mode Of Payment'.
• Add a Date field labeled 'Payment Date'.
• (Later, you could add fields for Check Number, Credit Card Number, Bank Details, etc.)

4. Create a form titled 'ER4. Reimbursement Intimation Form':

• Add a Checkbox field labeled "I've been informed of the status of my reimbursement request.".
• (This form has just 1 field.)
  

Alright! We're done building tho forms. You've done the grunt work. Now, let's get to the fun part of assembling these forms into a coherent workflow.

Workflow Assembly

We'll assume that you are the approving authority for all reimbursement requests; and that one of your co-workers, say James, is responsible for paying out approved requests.

Don't worry if there are multiple approving authorities at your organization. Polydojo can handle that too. But one must walk, before he can run. For now, let's assume that you're the only approver.

Earlier, we defined a workflow as a sequence of forms. That's correct. But, it would be more accurate to say that a workflow is a sequence of stages, where each stage is linked to:
      1. a form    (Principal Form),
      2. an employee assigned to fill that form    (Assigned User), and
      3. any decision/approval logic    (Decision Field).

Don't worry if the above para sounds confusing. Everything will be clear in a minute.

Let's Build The Workflow!

1. From the dropdown menu toward the top-right corner, go to Workflows.

2. Click Create and then Start From Scratch.

3. A dialog will ask you for a workflow title. Enter 'Expense Reimbursement.'

4. You should now be in the workflow editor.  Click Add Stage toward the bottom.

5. Configuring your first workflow stage:

• The light-blue box represents the stage.
• Principal Form refers to the stage main form. Select ER1. Reimbursement Request Form.
• Keep the remaining options unchanged. (Don't worry, we'll explain these later.)
• Click Test toward the bottom-left corner of the light-blue box.
  

6. Add another stage:

• Choose 'ER2. Reimbursement Approval Form' as the Principal Form.
• Assigned User refers to the person who is responsible of filling the stage's Principal Form.
  
• Against Assigned User, select Fixed and then select yourself from the right-ward dropdown.
• Keep the remaining options unchanged. We'll soon get back to this stage. Click Test.
  

7. Add the third stage:

• Choose 'ER3. Reimbursement Payout Form' as the Principal Form.
• For Assigned User, select Fixed and then select your co-worker (James) who'll do the payout.
• (If James is unavailable, choose yourself. You can change this later.)
  
• Keep the remaining options unchanged. Click Test.

8. Add the final stage:

• Choose 'ER4. Reimbursement Intimation Form' as the Principal Form.
• Against Assigned User, choose Initiator. Keep the other options unchanged. Click Test.

> We're almost there. Just one final change and the workflow will be ready.

9. We need to instruct Polydojo to skip the payout stage if the request was denied.

• Go to Stage 2 and click Edit near the stage's bottom-left corner.
• The Principal Form for this stage should be 'ER2. Reimbursement Approval Form'.
• Now, against Decision Field, choose 'Do you approve?'.
• By introducing a Decision Field, we are adding branching logic to our workflow.
• The field 'Do you approve' has tow options: 'Yes' and 'No'.
• For each option in the Decision Field, we can setup a different next stage.
  
• Against Next Stage (if 'Yes'), select Fixed and then ER3. Reimbursement Payout Form.
• For Next Stage if ('No'), select Fixed and then ER4. Reimbursement Intimation Form.
• Finally, click Test.

10. Click Save or use Ctrl + S.

That was it! You've created your very first workflow! Congratulations! We'll soon be using it.

A Quick Review

Take a minute to glance-over the workflow you've just built. Here's a tabular overview:

Time To Run Your First Workflow!

0. Having saved (Ctrl + S) your workflow, click Back to Workflows.

1. Your workflow should now be listed on the screen. Click on it; and select Run.

2. ER1. Reimbursement Request Form will open in a new tab. Fill and submit a demo request.

3. After submission, click Close Window. You will return to the previous tab.

4. From the dropdown menu to the top-right, go to Folios. (Think of a folio is a physical file.)

5. You should now see a Folio initiated by you, pending for your approval. Refresh if you can't.

6. Click on the request's title. Your submitted form will open up.

• In this case, you are seeing a request from yourself.
• However, if an employee had made the request, you would see that too!
• Now that you have a request, it's time for you to approve (or deny) it.

7. Scroll down and click Next Step. The step 'ER2. ... ... ...' will be highlighted. Click it.

8. The Reimbursement Approval Form will open up in a new tab. Select 'No' and submit.

9. As before, click Close Window after submission. You will return to the previous tab.

10. In your Folios, you should now see the same folio; but the progress bar would've moved up.

11. As before, click the folio's title. You can now should now be able to see two submissions:

• First, a submission made by you when you made a (demo) request for reimbursement.
• Second, another submission made by you when you (as a demo) denied your own request.
• And now its time for your again, to take the Next Step.

12. On clicking Next Step, this time, 'ER4. ... ... ...' would be highlighted. 'ER3. ... ... ...' is skipped.

13. Click 'ER4. ... ... ...' and the intimation form would open in a new tab. Check the box and submit it.

14. Just like the last two times, click Close Window and you'll return to the previous tab.

15. This time, you'll have no pending folios. Your (denied) reimbursement request has been archived.

16. To view your request, select Folio Finder from the top-right dropdown and search for 'Expense'.

17. Your folio should appear as a search result. Click on the folio's title to open the folio.

> That's it! You have done it! You've created and run your first workflow!  Well done!

Thank You!

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. You have done a lot! You created four forms, assembled a workflow, and ran it. Thank you for following along.

Now that you've built your first workflow, you should be in a position create a few more:

• Petty Cash Request Workflow
  
• Marketing Campaign Approval Workflow
  
• Sales Incentive Claim Workflow
• Employee Onboarding (Resource Provisioning) Workflow
  
• ... ... And many many more!

Any Questions?

If you have any questions, please call +1 (302) 480 1597, or write to [email protected]. We'll be more than glad to answer your questions, and to help you with building workflows.