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Designing a Workflow

A workflow is a process you run for your customers, such as onboarding a new client or collecting documents for a tax return. You design it once as a template, then your team starts a case from it for each customer. This guide covers creating, editing and publishing a workflow.

Start a new workflow

  1. Go to Workflows and open the Templates tab.
  2. Choose New Workflow.
  3. Under How Would You Like to Start?, pick one:
    • Describe It: type what process you run for your customers, then choose Start Designing.
    • Start From a Template: choose Use This on an example.
    • Upload Your Checklist: choose Upload Checklist and pick the list you already send customers, as a PDF or Word document (up to 25 MB). The designer reads it once to build a first draft, then the file is deleted.

The examples are Home loan application, Individual tax return, New client onboarding, Conveyancing — purchase and Employee onboarding. They are examples to adapt, not advice. Change them to match how you work before you publish. You can also choose Use This under Start From an Example on the Templates tab.

Nothing runs until you publish.

Build it with the designer

The designer has two sides: the Conversation and the Structure. On a phone, switch between them with the toggle at the top.

  1. In the conversation, answer the designer's questions, or tell it what to add or change, and choose Send.
  2. Watch the structure update. What the designer changed in its last turn is highlighted. Choose Clear Highlights to remove the highlighting.
  3. The Topics Covered meter shows how many topics the designer has worked through with you, such as documents, approvals, deadlines and reminders. Topics waiting on your answer are listed under it, and Show All Topics shows where every topic stands. It fills in as you chat — there is nothing to answer there.

A reply can take up to a minute. If the designer wants to change something you edited by hand, it asks first. Choose Accept or Keep Mine.

Edit the structure by hand

A workflow is made of stages, and each stage has steps. Each step card says what kind of step it is and who does it, such as Form · Done by Applicant, or Automatic — Uncog AI does this step. You can edit it directly:

  • Choose Add Stage to add a stage. Use a stage's menu to Rename Stage or Remove Stage.
  • Choose Add Step to add a step, or use a step's menu to Edit Step, Move Up, Move Down or Remove.

In the step dialog, set:

  • Kind of step: Form, Documents, Acknowledgement, Task or Approval.
  • Name and Stage.
  • Who does it?: A customer, Your team or Automatic. Task and Approval steps are always done by your team.
  • Required — the stage waits for it.
  • Has a due date: the number of Days, Counted from (when the stage opens or when the workflow starts), and whether to count Business days only. The default is 5 business days.
  • Instructions: shown to whoever does the step (up to 2,000 characters).
  • Optional conditions, so a step only applies in some cases.

For a Form step, add questions with Add Question. Answer types include short and long text, number, amount, date, email, phone, pick one, pick several, yes / no, address and ABN.

For a Documents step, choose Edit Automatic Check to have Uncog AI read each PDF or Word document and flag anything worth a look, such as a date that's too old or a missing name. It never accepts or rejects a document itself.

Automatic steps are added by the designer only. They can send an email, wait a number of days, notify a role, or set a key date.

Parties and roles

Choose Parties & Roles to set:

  • The Workflow name.
  • Who it is for: the customers (parties) on each case, and how many of each.
  • Your team's roles: each role is filled by Whoever starts it or Left for someone to claim. The first role's holder owns each case and receives customer replies.

Check it before publishing

  • Preview as Customer shows what a customer will see in their portal.
  • Revisions lists every saved change to the draft (the last 50 are kept). Choose Revert to This Revision to go back. Your current draft stays in the history.
  • A badge such as "3 things to check" means there are problems to fix. When everything is in order, the designer says it thinks the workflow is ready to publish.

Publish

  1. Choose Publish.
  2. If anything needs fixing, Uncog AI lists it with links to jump to each problem.
  3. Once published, you see Published as version 1. Choose Start the First Case to begin.

Change a published workflow

  1. On the Templates tab, open the workflow's actions and choose Open in Designer.
  2. Make your changes and choose Publish again.

Each publish creates a new version. New cases use it, and cases already running finish on the version they started on. Open a template and go to its Versions tab to view or Compare Two versions.

Archive a workflow

  1. On the Templates tab, open the workflow's actions and choose Archive, then confirm.

No new cases can start from it, and running cases carry on to the end. To bring it back, publish it again from the designer.

Good to know

  • Only owners and admins can create, edit, publish and archive workflows. Everyone else sees only published templates and can start cases from them.
  • Drafts are only visible to owners and admins.
  • Published versions can't be edited or deleted.
  • The designer has a daily limit for the whole account, set in Settings → Workflows. See Workflow Settings.