Place an order

The first thing you'll notice on this form is a big paragraph that's titled: !!! IMPORTANT CHANGES you need to make BEFORE running this workflow: This paragraph contains instructions on how to personalize the workflow for you and your company. If you intend to run the workflow, these changes can not be ignored.

Next you'll notice that there are two faded out fields. These are called 'hidden fields'. These fields capture information without displaying them to the user and make their information available to other tasks in the workflow.

The workflow starts when a logged-in employee fills in this form.

Notify purchasing

The purchasing department receives an email describing the order that was placed by the employee. Kotive creates the content of this email by pulling in information from the first form.

Let's start by looking at how the email is typed up. There are lots of normal looking text words, but there are also lots of rectangular, shaded in, blocks of text. What's the difference?

Well, the normal text is just that: normal text. There's nothing special about it. But the blocks of text are actually information that is being pulled in from earlier forms. If you click on the text area of the email while in the webapp, you'll see that it changes and suddenly looks like a lot of code with lots of curly brackets { } and numbers. This code (also called dynamic field tags) is what tells these fields of text what they're going to end up saying. When this email gets sent to the purchasing department, it won't look like it does now, it will all be normal text, because the workflow will look at the previous forms and put the information from those forms into this email.

A link at the bottom of the email leads them to the next task.

Authorize the purchase

The condition for this form is:

Activate this task when...
'Role' IS 'Purchasing Department'

This form will only be displayed to the purchasing department.
The purchasing department decides whether or not to place the order with the supplier. Their decision will lead to different tasks being activated.

These tasks are the 'Mail denial of request to employee' email task, or the 'Mail confirmation of order to employee' and 'Mail order to supplier' email tasks. This is possible because of conditions.

Mail denial of request to employee

This email has one condition:

Activate this task when...
'Place the order?' IS 'No'

This email will only be sent if the purchasing department decided not to place the order in the previous form task.
The employee receives an email informing them that their request has been denied. If the purchasing department denied the request, then this email completes the 'Procurement' workflow.

Mail confirmation of order to employee

This email also has one condition:

Activate this task when...
'Place the order?' IS 'Yes'

This email will only be sent if the purchasing department decided to place the order in the 'Authorize the purchase' form task.
The employee receives an email informing them that their request has been approved.

Mail order to supplier

This email has the same condition as the previous email task.

Activate this task when...
'Place the order?' IS 'Yes'

This email will only be sent if the purchasing department decided to place the order in the 'Authorize the purchase' form task.

The supplier receives an email detailing the employee's order.

Status of order

This form has two conditions:

Activate this task when...
'Place the order?' IS 'Yes'
AND
'Role' IS 'Purchasing Department'

This form can only be viewed by the purchasing department if they decided to approve the order in the 'Authorize the purchase' form task.
The purchasing department indicates if the order has been received or not.

Notify originator

This email has one condition:

Activate this task when...
'Has the order been received?' IS 'Yes'

This email will only be sent if the purchasing department indicated that the order WAS received in the previous form task.
The employee receives an email notifying them that their order has arrived. If the purchasing department indicated that the order WAS received in the 'Status of order' form, then this email completes the 'Procurement' workflow.

Follow up supplier

This email also has one condition:

Activate this task when...
'Has the order been received?' IS 'No'

This email will only be sent if the purchasing department indicated that the order was NOT received in the 'Status of order' form task.
The supplier receives an email following up on the order.

Status of order 2

This form has two conditions:

Activate this task when...
'Has the order been received?' IS 'No'
AND
'Role' IS 'Purchasing Department'

This form can only be viewed by the purchasing department if the order hasn't been received yet.
Once again, the purchasing department indicates if the order has been received or not.

Follow up supplier 2

This email only has one condition:

Activate this task when...
'Has the order been received yet?' IS 'No'

This email will only be sent if the purchasing department indicated that the order was NOT received in the 'Status of order 2' form task.
The supplier receives another, more urgent, email following up on the order. If the purchasing department indicated that the order was NOT received in the 'Status of order 2' form, then this email completes the 'Procurement' workflow. Any further communication with the supplier (and afterwards, bringing the procurement process to a conclusion) will need to occur outside of the workflow.

Notify originator 2

This email has one condition:

Activate this task when...
'Has the order been received yet?' IS 'Yes'

This email will only be sent if the purchasing department indicated that the order WAS received in the 'Status of order 2' form task.
The employee is notified that their order has arrived.