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Workflows

Repeating Workflows

Repeating Workflows are workflow templates that are set to automatically repeat and enter the workflow for a specific time period which you can assign to a team member. Creating a more efficient workflow.

Creating a Repeating Workflow will follow a very similar process to creating a One-Off Workflows, with a few exceptions:

Precision has 2 types of Repeating Workflows:

What you need to know

  • Before you start, repeating workflows must always use a Workflow Template. However, you can create one during workflow creation if you haven’t already done so.
  • If a template linked to a Repeating Workflow is edited, you will receive a warning with a list of affected Repeating Workflows.
  • You can not schedule a repeating workflow template to repeat on the same day you are setting up the template. For eg. if it is 25th July you can’t use this date as the scheduled date in the repeating workflow template. It will not enter the workflow list until the next schedule date which would be 25th Aug.
  • Any changes to a Repeating Workflow template will take effect on the next scheduled date, and will not effect any Repeating Workflows that have entered the Workflow List.
  • Any checks added to templates that require parameters will be added to Repeating Workflows with the default parameters applied, unless the Repeating Workflow is edited to update the default parameters. 

By specific event

Follow our tutorial below to see how you can set up a Repeating Workflow. Details of the steps are listed below the tutorial for you to follow too.

1. The first step is to open Dext Precision and click Workflows

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2. Click Workflow Creator

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3. For this example we will create a Repeating Workflow

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4. Click on the Workflow Template you have created in your templates area to add to this Repeating Workflow

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5. Click Next

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6. Choose the date type you want to set for the Repeating Workflow. Choose either Scheduled Date or by a Specific Event

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7. For this example we will use by Specific Event

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8. Click Year End or VAT Return Period

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9. Click Next

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10. Review parameters then scroll down and click Next

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11. Next add your clients you can do this By Client or By Tag

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12. For this example we are choosing By Tag – £251-£500 fee bracket (7)

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13. Once your clients are listed you can set up the reviewers if applicable

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14. Click to add Reviewer/s

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15. Repeat to add in all Reviewers then click Next

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16. Review then click Publish

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17. That’s it you are done setting up your Repeating Workflow!

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18. On the sidebar navigate to Repeating Workflows section. This is where all your Repeating Workflows will be stored where you can click and edit or delete if you are the person who set them up

That’s it you are done!

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Here’s an interactive tutorial

** Best experienced in Full Screen (click the icon in the top right corner before you begin) **

https://www.iorad.com/player/2290552/Setting-up-Workflows–NEW-

Steps covering in our tutorial above

Repeating workflows can now be created using a “specific event” to determine when workflows should repeat for each client assigned to the repeating workflow. This allows clients with different year end or vat return periods to be included in a repeating workflow together and will repeat at different times based on the individual client’s configuration.

Steps to set up a repeating workflow:

  1. Go to Workflows (under Team Home)
  2. Click on Workflow Creator
  3. Create a Repeating Workflow
  1. Name your workflow
  2. Select a template that you have created or you can build your own at this point in the process
  3. Click Next
  4. On the Set Cadence section is where you will define the Repeating workflow started by option:
    • Scheduled Date (choose from a selection of different reporting period options)
    • Specific Event (Year End or VAT Return period)

Currently the available events that can be used for a “specific event” repeating workflow are Year End and VAT Return Period. When a repeating workflow is created using these specific events, the workflow reporting periods will be either last complete financial year for “Year End” and last complete VAT period for “VAT Return Period”.

  1. Next the following settings must be set by the user:
  • Scheduled Date:The number of days/weeks after the selected reporting period that the flow will be created. (Note: You can not schedule a repeating flow template to repeat on the same day you are setting up the template. For eg. if it is 25th July you can’t use this date as the scheduled date in the repeating flow template. It will not enter the Flow list until the next schedule date which would be 25th Aug.)
  • Complete Within:This will set the due date for the flow once it has been created.
  • Reporting Period: Choose either Year End or VAT Return Period (UK)
  • Repeat this Flow every: The frequency of repetition for the Flow. This begins from the Scheduled Date.
  1. Next Add Clients, by clicking on the clients or you can add by tags (explained in next section of this article)
  1. Last step is to Review & Go. Check the flow is set up correctly then click Publish. When the workflow is ready to be started your team member will need to select it in their workflow list, which is found under Team Home – Workflows – Workflow List and click Start.

Workflows using a “specific event” cadence will show in the repeating workflow list with a message stating “repeats on specific event” instead of the next start date that regular repeating workflows show.

Where a repeating workflow has been created using the “VAT Return Period” specific event, when adding clients to the repeating workflow, if clients do not have a tax period start date, tax scheme or tax frequency set in Precision, the “Select Clients” screen will provide a new section at the bottom of the page which allows the user to set those settings for each client as seen in the screenshot below.

Use Case Examples

Example 1: Year-End Accounts

Some customers using Repeating Workflows for their year end accounts, as it stands have to maintain 12 repeating workflows (one for every month of the year). The reason they need to do this is because, their clients have year-ends spread through out the year.

As it stands today, the schedule date is a fixed calendar date, as part of this change we would be looking for the option to set this schedule date, in relation to the Reporting Period as well as by fixed calendar date.

Example 2 : Quarterly VAT Returns

A customer has 50 VAT Return Clients, they follow the following cadence:

  • 2 are monthly VAT Return Clients
  • 45 are quarterly of which, 20 start in January, 15 in Feb and 10 in March.
  • 3 are Annual VAT Return Clients (April and June) Start

When using workflows currently the customer has a ‘VAT Checklist’ Template, this then gets applied to 6 Repeating Workflows to work out the scheduling. The new changes should reduce this to 1 Repeating Workflow.

Repeating Workflows – (using Tags)

Please follow Steps 1-10 as above however when you come to choosing the clients you want for your workflows you have the option just like One off Workflows to create Repeating Workflows by Tags. This will simplify the process of adding clients to a repeating workflow.

Selecting “by tag” on the client selection screen when creating a repeating workflow will show a list of the available tags to chose from.

Adding a tag to a client after the repeating workflow has been created will automatically add the client all repeating workflows that have been created using that tag.

When a tag is selected, all of the clients associated with that tag are added to the selected clients list.

Multiple tags can be used at the same time.

Tags that are in use with a repeating workflow can not be deleted. When on the tags management page, if a user attempts to delete a tag that has been used with a repeating workflow, the following message will be displayed.

Please note:

When you add new clients to Precision and assign a tag that has a Repeating Workflow set up related to that tag the new client will automatically be aded to the existing repeating workflow for that tag. This also applies if you remove a tag from a client we will remove any related existing repeating workflows. This option is not available for One Off Workflows

Updating existing repeating workflows with the new functionality listed above

Note: Before getting started on updating your existing workflows we highly suggest that you update all your client Tags. If you have tags that are broken up into VAT Quarters ie Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun etc. you will no longer need these tags you will just need a tag that is VAT Client. This applies to any Year End tags you may have created too. You may just want a tag called Year End Work as an example.

Steps to update your existing workflows:

  1. Go to Workflows – Repeating Workflows
  2. Choose the Workflow template you wish to update
  3. Click on the 3 dots far right of the flow – Edit Workflow
  1. Click on the Set Cadence section
  2. Select Specific Event – choose Year End or VAT Return Period
  1. Next, if you want to assign repeating workflows to clients using Tags then go to Add Clients section and choose By Tag, select the tags (you may need to remove already selected tags by click on the X under selected tags and assign the new tags if applicable)
  1. Go to Review & Go and click Save.

This will save the report as the name shown. If you change the name of the workflow it will just be updated to the new name. It will NOT create a new workflow. If you require a new workflow you will need to create a new repeating workflow template.

Once you have updated your repeating workflows you may have quite a number of workflows that are now redundant. Ie: You may have several different workflows reflecting VAT Periods or Year Ends. Precision will know when to move your workflows, based on the new settings, into your workflow lists. To delete your redundant workflows click on the 3 dots to the right of those repeating workflows and click Delete Workflow. This will have to be one workflow template at a time as we don’t have a bulk delete feature at the moment.

Important to note:

Only Team Owners and Admins can EDIT repeating workflow templates for clients but you can only DELETE repeating workflow templates that YOU have created.

Once a repeating workflow enters the workflow list to be processed anyone with visibility over the workflow can edit certain fields for that workflow. Such as reassigning them to other team members and reviewers and the due date. However, the due date can’t be updated once the workflow is in progress/or started.

What’s next?

You team members will be notified via our Workflow Daily Digest emails updating them on status of their workflows assigned to them. Click the link to see the notifications they will receive.

If you have any further questions on how to use repeating workflows please contact your Account Manager or reach out to your Partner Success Consultant.