Business Process Reporting

Workflow business processes offer enhanced reporting features that provide a wide range of information. This information is available both during and after the business process instance runs. You can use the reporting tools to see which entries have been handled, which users and trustees have participated in the business process, and how long it took them to complete their assigned task. The specificity in business process reporting lets you see information such as: current instance name, status updates, participants, step instructions, and the duration of each step in your business process.

The ability to see how long a business process waits at any given Business Process Step activity can be used to troubleshoot the business process. Information regarding the duration of sections of your business process can reveal bottlenecks and help you locate inefficiencies within your business process.

Access Workflow's reporting from the following locations:

• Instance Details: The instance details display charts, statistics, and data about a specific instance of a business process.
• Business Process Details: Located in the Laserfiche Client and Web Access, these details display information about the business processes that have acted or are currently acting on the selected entry. Learn about the Business Process Details in Web Access.

Reporting and business process activities

These activities, plus the Business Process Options dialog box, allow you to configure what information will be reported on and at what points during the business process that reporting will occur.

• Business Process Step: The Business Process Step activity lets you define what sections of your business process should be reported on. Using this activity, you can also group together collections of activities that will be reported on as a single unit. Grouping activities that are not individually important, but are important as a whole, allows you to see reporting that is relevant to your business process. This activity can be configured to report on participants, instructions/resolutions, and due dates.
• Update Business Process: This activity updates the business process's status and/or instance name. You can use this activity to update the business process to reflect a certain turn of events or a particular outcome of the Business Process Step in the reporting. Updating the status or instance name allows you to easily search entries related to a specific business process in the Laserfiche client applications. Learn more about searching by business process in the Laserfiche Client.
• Update Participant: This activity, used inside a Business Process Step activity, will update the participant(s) configured in the Business Process Step activity. This allows you to assign step responsibility without knowing the exact person who will participate; then, use this activity to retrospectively update the Business Process Step with the correct user.
• Update Step Instructions: This activity, used inside a Business Process Step activity, will update the instructions of the step. This allows you to change this reporting information based on conditions or deadlines that have been met in the course of the step.
• Update Step Due Date: This activity, used inside a Business Process Step activity, will update the due date for the step. This allows you to change the due date based on conditions or deadlines that have been met in the course of the step.
• Associate Entries: This activity allows the business process details, shown in the Laserfiche client applications, to be added or removed from entries in your repository. You can also use this activity to replace currently associated entries with other entries; meaning that, business process information will be transferred from one entry to the other.

Reporting in the Laserfiche Client and Web Access

Business process details are shown in the Laserfiche Client and in Web Access (if they are configured to do so in the Workflow Business Process Options property box). Business process details include steps, status, participants, instructions, and history.

• Find entries associated with a specific business process by searching in the Laserfiche client applications.
• In the Document Viewer:
• Laserfiche Client: Business Process Pane
• Web Access: Business Process Pane
• In the Folder Browser:
• Laserfiche Client: Business Process Details dialog box
• Web Access: Business Process Details dialog box

Reporting in the Workflow Designer

You can search for instances of business processes and view their instance details in the Workflow Designer. These details display general statistics, as well as detailed information about how the instance ran and what was involved (such as entries, participants, parameters, and token values). Workflow reporting will display in the business process view of the Details tab, as well as in the Business Process tab.

You can search for business process instances by their status, instance name, step participants, or by their instructions or resolutions. Furthermore, you can search for overdue or active business process steps.

Audit Trail

Business process actions can be tracked using Audit Trail. For example, when a user starts a business process from the Client or Web Access, that user, plus the actions performed, can be recorded and a report can be created on this information. In order for the business process actions to be recorded, the Entry and Metadata event classes must be enabled under the Audit tab of the group that is being audited. The actions specific to business processes that can be tracked are: Create Business Process, Modify Business Process, Start Business Process, Delete Business Process, Create Business Process Details, and Delete Business Process Details.

Advanced: SQL Reporting Services

You can use SQL reporting services to report on SQL views provided by Workflow. These reports will return information about your Workflow database, such as statistics, averages, minimum/maximums, and overall efficiency. Learn about Advanced Reporting with SQL Reporting Services.