Repeat Routing for Approval Template

This workflow sends a document back and forth between an employee and manager, until the document is approved.

Learn more about workflow templates.

How it works

  1. When an entry is put in the Proposed Plans folder, a Retrieve Field Values activity gets the name of the employee listed in the Workflow Templates: Employee Name field. The retrieved name will be used to route the document to the appropriate employee's folder.
  2. A Repeat activity checks to see if the entry has the “Workflow Templates: Approved” tag. If it does not, then the following activities run.
  3. A Rename Entry activity appends a version number to the entry’s name.
  4. A Move Entry activity sends a shortcut to the entry to the folder of the employee whose name was listed in the Workflow Templates: Employee Name field.
  5. A Wait for Entry Change activity waits until the “Workflow Templates: Needs Review” tag is set on the entry.
  6. An Assign Tags activity removes the "Workflow Templates: Additional Edits Required" tag. The tag is not present the first time the Repeat activity runs, but if a manager applies the tag later in the workflow, this step ensures it gets cleaned up after the employee reviews the document.
  7. A Move Entry activity moves the entry to the Department Manager folder and waits until the manager adds a “Workflow Templates: Additional Edits Required” tag or a “Workflow Templates: Approved” tag.
    • If the manager adds the “Workflow Templates: Additional Edits Required” tag, the Repeat activity will repeat, running the contained activities again. As long as the “Workflow Templates: Approved” tag is not set, the Repeat activity will continue to run.
    • If the manager adds the “Workflow Templates: Approved” tag, a Move Entry activity will file the entry in the Approved Plans folder.

Tip: Always include a wait condition inside your Repeat activity, or set the repeat condition to a specific number of iterations. Without these safeguards, the activity will repeat 100 times in quick succession and then fail.

To run this workflow template in the provided test environment

Important: Ensure the Exclude Process Automation User checkbox is selected in the starting event when you run this workflow. Otherwise, the workflow will interfere with the WT- Notify Project Team workflow.

  1. Ensure the WT- Repeat Routing for Approval starting event is enabled.
    1. Navigate to the Condition page in Starting Events.
    2. Select the starting event, and click Enable in the top right.
  2. In your Laserfiche repository, move an entry into the \Workflow Templates - Test Entries\Research and Development\Proposed Plans folder. For example, the Plan_B and Plan_C documents work well with this workflow. Make a note of the name in the document's Workflow Templates:Employee Name field.
  3. Check the employee's folder in \Workflow Templates - Test Entries\Employee Folders for the document.
  4. Add the “Workflow Templates: Needs Review” tag to the entry to move it to the Manager folder.
  5. Add the “Workflow Templates: Additional Edits Required” tag to route the document back to the employee. Or, add the “Workflow Templates: Approved” tag to file the entry in the \Workflow Templates - Test Entries\Research and Development\Archive\Approved Plans folder.

Alternatively, you can test the workflow (bypassing the starting event ) with the Run Workflow button in the Workflow Designer. You can test this workflow on the Plan_B document in the \Workflow Templates - Test Entries\Research and Development folder.

Ideas to expand this workflow

If you want to send an email notification to the Department Manager when the document is ready for them to review, add an Email activity below the Move to Manager's Folder activity.

Use the Escalation activity to send reminder emails if the Department manager does not review the document in a timely manner.

Republish the workflow once you made all desired changes.