How Signing and Approval Chains Work

Documenos' workflow system differs from its counterparts around the world in many aspects. Documenos' workflow management system fully deserves the adjective "flexible". Because the technique of modeling work steps has unique capabilities. Since it works with an organization chart-oriented architecture and has a very large concept library, workflows in large structures consisting of hundreds, even thousands of units and tens of thousands of employees can be managed very easily with a single model.

In Documenos signature and approval chains, tasks can be defined individually or as a group, with a flexible model depending on the 100% dynamic conditions you determine. You can model all the possibilities you may need in business life, without writing any code, by simply entering data into the definition screens. First, let's briefly explain three different examples to understand how the system works. The first is a simple five-step signature and approval chain, all of which are "Single Task":

In the example above, all steps contain single tasks. Just because there is a group account in the fourth step does not mean that this step is a group task.

For a task to be a group task, more than one person must perform the task in that step.

In the above example, having a "Security Group" account in step 4 does not mean that all members of this group must perform the task when the document reaches this step. The document is saved in the inbox of everyone who is a member of this security group. When anyone in the group completes the task, the entire document is removed from their inbox. So actually this task is a single task. All it takes is one person to complete the task for the document to move on to the next step. The advantage of using group accounts for single tasks is not to make the operation dependent on one person, but to ensure that any suitable group member can perform the operation.

The second example below shows a five-step signature and approval chain:

Unlike the first example, the task in the 3rd step is a group task. When the unit manager in step 2 completes his task, the document is distributed simultaneously to the people/groups in this step. These three people/groups are responsible for carrying out the task simultaneously.

What exactly is the purpose of the group task?

Let's say this is an "Assignment Form", in step one the user created a document to go to the task and forwarded it to an administrator for approval. The manager approved it, and in the third step, it was forwarded to two different groups named "Travel Team" and "Accounting Team" and the HR Manager at the same time. The "Travel Team" makes arrangements for tickets and hotel reservations. The "Accounting Team", on the other hand, transfers money to the account of the peer staff if the employee who will go on duty has requested advance money. The HR manager only takes action to archive the job form in the personnel registry file.

If these three different person/group accounts had to make transactions respectively, as in the first example, at least the "Travel Team" and the "Accounting Team" would be delayed in making transactions because they would have to wait for each other. Defining group tasks in this way so that the work can be carried out simultaneously will make things easier.

When does the task move to the next step?

When defining a group task, for example, you defined 5 different people/groups in this step. First of all, each of these 5 tasks does not have to be the same, some can sign, some can initial, some can approve and some can do what is necessary. All these 5 roles are a user account or unit administrator or group account etc. it could be. When a group task will be considered completed is determined by a definition you determine.

If you wish, you can tell all steps in the group to finish their job. In this case, the task waits for all steps in the group to complete before moving to the next step. An example of this may be in commission decisions. Let's say a document has gone through certain steps and needs to be distributed for all members of a committee to sign. In this case, you can add the commission members to the group task and specify that everyone must complete the process as a rule. Can't we have the members of the commission sign it one by one? Of course it is possible, but in this case the total time will be longer. Once in a while, if a commission member keeps signing the document for any reason, everyone will wait for that member.

Another option for a group task to be considered complete is to consider completing N tasks from the steps in the group as sufficient for this step to be considered completed. Let's say you have a board of directors meeting decisions document. There are 10 members on the board of directors and it is sufficient for these decisions to come into force if 5 people sign them. In this case, you can include the board members in the group and state that the group rule is enough to complete 5 tasks.

So, after the fifth member signs, will the remaining members continue the document flow without signing? What if the remaining members also want to sign?

No problem. Yes, the document will continue on its way, but since the document will not be removed from the remaining members' inbox, they will be able to fulfill their duties whenever they want.

What is the condition? How does it work?

Our third example below is about the conditional signature and approval chain flow. In this example, let's say the document we have is a purchase confirmation form. One person made a request. The purchasing manager is the first person to approve. Second in line should be the deputy general manager. However, we want the deputy general manager to be included in the approval chain only for purchases that exceed a certain number. The flow chart is as follows:

It will be sufficient to define a rule (let's call it X) and attach this rule as a condition to the deputy general manager in the third step in the signature and approval chain. If the purchase requisition complies with the condition, the system will include this step in the signature and approval chain. For detailed information about condition definitions, see the relevant topic heading.