A Task step requires a user or group of users to review and complete given fields/processes before they take the 'Complete Task' action within a document. This could include directions to complete a Section or certain fields within the document - or it could be have them take an action or run another process external to Kuali. The workflow cannot continue until the Task is marked as completed by the user.
Within a Task step, you will need to define which users will be involved on the step, and provide any necessary instructions for the user to complete it.
After dragging a Task step into the workflow, click on the step in the workflow you wish to edit, and the flyout will appear to the right allowing you to modify the settings for the step.
Task Step Options
Step Label
Each step in the workflow can have a custom label applied do it. These labels help to identify the steps, both in the workflow and when reviewing them on the proposal.
For example, the default step name for an approval step is 'Approval' - but if every step were titled as 'Approval', it would be difficult to troubleshoot or identify where in the process it is.
The Step Label allows you to customize the name of a step so it more accurately represents this part of the process. This will help you keep your workflow organized as you are building out your process, and help provide clarity for reviewers who need to approve multiple times during the process.
The Step Label also appears in the Approval Notification that is emailed to the reviewer to help them identify where they are in the workflow process.
To change the Step Label, click into the step to open the configuration panel, then click into the Step Label field. Once you have updated the Step Label, it will save automatically and the step in the workflow will update to match.
Who will ____ at this step?
Once you have created a step (Approval, Task, or Acknowledge), the step options panel will open on the right-hand side of the screen. From there, you can choose a path on which type of user should get this workflow action:
- Automate route based on a field on the form
- A specific role, person, or email
Within each path there are different user options to select to participate at this step within the workflow - each option is discussed below.
Automate route based on a field on the form
This option is available on the Approval, Task, and Acknowledge steps, and will allow you to choose a Person, Group, or Email field listed on the form. Once this option is selected, an additional dropdown will load below that will ask you to specify the field on the form where that person, group, or email is listed.
If you select a Group option you will then select which Role from that Group to route to for this step. Based on the number of users within a role, this could potentially refer to a single person or several (such as a committee).
The Email option allows you to select from an entered email on the form (via Email gadget). Please note, the Email options will also display for Kuali Person fields in the form but we would recommend utilizing the field from the Person section of the dropdown instead for that scenario. Email section is best to use for those emails captured in the form for external users (those without a Person record in the system).
Additionally, you can select other metadata from the form like Submitter, Created By, and Last Modified By options from the drop down.
A specific role, person, or email
This option is available on the Approval, Task, and Acknowledge steps, and will allow you to choose a specific Person, Email, or Role in a Group.
Person
Select a Person with a Kuali account to route to for the workflow action - once selected a user typeahead will allow you to lookup the desired individual.
By entering a specific email this gives you the option to route to an external user that doesn't have a user account or login for Kuali. It will send an email with a special temporary, secure link that allows external users to access the form like a normal user without logging in to take the workflow action.
Role in a Group
If you select a Role in a group option you will then select which Role from the desired Group to route to for this step. Based on the number of users within a role, this could potentially refer to a single person or several (such as a committee). The roles will be listed with the group first, followed by the role. For example, "Accountancy - Administrators". This setting ensures that any user within the Administrator role of the Accountancy group will be brought into the workflow at this step, regardless of any selections on the form.
However, if the Skip this step if there are no users in the role configuration is enabled it will automatically skip the step in the workflow if the group is empty with the below annotation and allow the workflow to continue:
Instructions
When creating a Task step, the Instructions field can be used to provide information to the selected user about the task they need to complete. It may be as simple as telling them to complete a specific section within the form, or as elaborate as asking them to follow an external process before marking the step as completed. The instructions field of a task is required and can not be left empty.
Customize Email Notification
The Customize Email Notification setting enables you to include a custom message in the notification that is sent to the assigned approvers.
- Email Subject
Allows you to customize the subject line of the approval notification email that will be sent to the approvers. The subject can be customized with variables for additional personalization.
- Email Body
Allows you to add a custom message to the approval email. The message can be customized with variables to further tailor it.
- Add Variable
Allows you to populate and personalize the subject line or body with information from the form. For example, the subject line alerts the approver that they are approving the travel request of a specific individual. “Submitter - Display Name” in the subject line will be replaced with the form submitter’s name in the approval email.
Make Individual Form Sections at this Step Hidden or View Only
This setting provides the ability to to set entire sections of the form to be hidden, or set to view only. This can be helpful when you have sensitive information that not all users need to be able to view - and it can be set on a per-section-per-step setting.
Once it has been enabled, all sections within the form will be shown along with options for Hide, View, or Edit.
- Hide
When selected, all fields within the section will be hidden at this step in the workflow. The user will be unable to see or edit anything within this section.
- View
When selected, the section and fields within will be visible to the users on this step, but they will not be able to modify any of the contents.
- Edit
When selected, the section and fields within will be visible, and the user will be able to edit the contents at this step.
Send Reminder Email Notifications
You can configure a step to automatically send a reminder email. This will send out automated reminders to users on an Approval or Task step to remind them that they need to take action. You can edit the frequency to send either a single reminder after a specified number of days has passed, or to a reminder based on the number of days. For example, you could send a reminder to be sent every two days until the user completes the requested action.
In addition to adjusting this at the step level, you can set reminders for the entire workflow within the Workflow Settings.
Disable Ability to Send Back
By default, every workflow step has the option to send back a document to a previous step in the workflow. However, if you don't want users to have this option in the workflow, you can toggle this option on to disallow the send back as an option for a particular step. When this is enabled, users will not see the 'send back' as an option in the document when it's in their Action List.
Keep in mind when making updates to this setting that it will only impact documents submitted to the workflow after the setting has been changed and the workflow is published.
In addition to adjusting this at the step level, you can disable the send back for the entire workflow within the Workflow Settings.
Customize Send Back Email Notification
By default, a standard email will send when the send back action is taken on an Approve or Task step in workflow. However, you can configure a customized email by enabling the 'Customize send back email notification' option in the workflow step.
- Email Subject
Allows you to customize the subject line of the approval notification email that will be sent to the approvers. The subject can be customized with variables for additional personalization.
- Email Body
Allows you to add a custom message to the approval email. The message can be customized with variables to further tailor it.
- Add Variable
Allows you to populate and personalize the subject line or body with information from the form. For example, you use the "Sendback Comment" variable to include the comments entered by the reviewer on the send back action in the notification (this is specific to the send back action comments; other workflow comment scenarios aren't available as notification variables currently):
Disable Workflow Status Page
By default, every user in the workflow will see the workflow details - including prior/future workflow steps and any comments added. However, if you don't want reviewers to see the workflow details, you can change this setting on an individual step.
Keep in mind when making updates to this setting that it will only impact documents submitted to the workflow after the setting has been changed and the workflow is published.
Completing a Task
You can complete a task on a form by going to the submission using the link from the email you received, or by going to your Action List. Once you are in the form, click on the Complete Task button in the top header of the document. Those assigned to Tasks have an optional comment box when completing their task as completed which will display in the Workflow Status history.
Alternatively, if it's not ready for your to complete the Task step you can use the Send Back option to return the document to a prior workflow step (including the initiator) and also include a comment if desired which will display in the Workflow Status history.
For more information, see the following article(s):
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