Workflow Steps
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Workflow Steps

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Article Summary

Having added a workflow and setup the trigger/s to activate it, you now need to tell infoodle what the steps are to progress the workflow. There are a number of different steps that could be performed; each one can be done in any order and 1 or more times for each workflow.

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Note:

You can add as many steps as you want, delete a step by clicking on the red cross or change the order by clicking on the move button. Remember to Save when you have finished.

Send email

This will automatically send an email to the identified person, this could be the person who was affected by the trigger (e.g. a new person was added) or a specific person or group (e.g. as a notification of someone being added). You are asked which email to send. The emails are chosen from templates you have saved previously and are either personal to you or to everyone (system). You can choose who to send this email to.

Send text

This will automatically send a text to the identified person, this could be the person who was affected by the trigger (e.g. a new person was added) or a specific person or group (e.g. as a notification of someone being added). Remember that you will need permission and a budget allocated to your profile to send text messages.

Make email address inactive

If someone wishes to not receive emails anymore from infoodle you need to make their email address inactive. To be sure of capturing all circumstances infoodle will gather a list of active email addresses for the identified user (the about whom the workflow was triggered) and then ensure that those email addresses are de-activated throughout the database. It could be that a family shares the same email address, in which case de-activation for one is a de-activation for all.

Change a persons field

This step allows you to change a value for a person e.g. their marital status or date they first visited. This is useful for instance if you add someone to a specific group then you want to change a field value. It can also be used to make batch changes e.g. change everyone who does not have a first visit date to having a first visit date of 1st Jan 2014.

Change a household/organisation field

This works in the same way as 'change a person field' except it applies to the household.

Add the person to a group or Remove from group

This will take the person that was affected by the trigger (e.g. the person who was added) and add/remove them to the specified group with the permission you select, in addition it will add/remove the person to the parent group with the parent permission if relevant. Note that the selection of groups on which this workflow can work follows the normal rules e.g. if it is an Admin only group then only an administrator of that group can select it so use this feature with care!

Change a person's permission in a group

The purpose is so you can trigger a change to their permission either in a specific group, or any group they are currently a part of. Useful if you want to change them to Past Member when another field value changes.

Update Mailchimp

To use the mailchimp option you must:

  1. Create your own account with mailchimp.com. If you already have one you can use that.
  2. Create a unique API key from your mailchimp account. Follow their help instructions on getting this.
  3. In infoodle, go to Administration / System / Mailchimp and store the API key obtained in b)

This step will identify the current status of the connection of the affected person with Mailchimp.com. Infoodle gets the list of active email addresses and ensures their status matches with the mailchimp list you specified in this step. This means if you have removed or de-activated an email address for the user, it will be unsubscribed from the mailchimp list, and if you have added or changed an email address in infoodle then the relevant email address is added or updated (if its already in mailchimp). Note that the user will not receive a communication from mailchimp. As well as their email address being sent to mailchimp, the users first and lastname are included, together with a note to identify how they were added to your mailchimp list.

Add a note (requires Notes)

If you make a change to a field or add someone to a group there may be a time when you always want to add a note. This step will enable that to happen. You can control who can see the note and who it is concerning.

One option available is 'Ask the user for the note at the time'. This powerful option means that as the workflow is being processed, infoodle will stop - and a popup will ask the user what note is to be stored. It is only the note that is asked for, and the person entering the note does not actually need permission to the notes area to do this. It is important to point out however that when applying a batch of people to a queue e.g. via the report screen, you will not be asked for the note.

Add a to do (requires To Do's)

When data items are changed or people are added/removed from groups for instance, you may wish to ensure you have a follow up, or a reminder to give them a call etc. This step allows you to setup the to do automatically and set the date it is required to be done.

Add to a work queue

A work queue is a list of people that need to be processed by someone. It identifies a particular state a person is in whilst going on the journey through your workflow. This could be something like a new starter process where people are followed up and through completing stages are integrated into your organisation. A queue is one of these stages and someone or a group of people are tasked with completing them.

See Work Queues for more information.

Add to a Workflow

This option allows you to use the current workflow, to add the person to any other saved workflow that is set up. The function is similar to using the "Add to Workflow" option from an individual's profile page, but in this case does not require a user action.
This can be useful when there are more complex or cyclical automations needed, or perhaps separate sets of actions Required.
For Example, you may have an initial Workflow for Onboarding and Regular Reviews for a new Team member, but partway through this, trigger a separate Workflow relating to Staff Training actions.

Wait

This is used to insert a Timed Pause or Stop in the Workflow Process without requiring any user action to trigger the next step (e.g. "Add Note" or Completion of a To-Do)
The Wait will simply Pause the Workflow for the specified duration, then trigger the next step in the workflow automatically.

Please Note:

Following a Wait step, only non interactive workflow steps will be actioned, such as sending an email, creating a To Do or adding a Pre-configured Note.
Any workflow step that requires input from a user will be skipped.
For Example: Adding a Note that Asks the User for the Note at the time will only function before the first Wait Step, but not after.

The Key purpose a Wait step is to allow the setting up of Automated actions at specific Time intervals, such as an Email Cadence for sending follow up emails (E.g. 1 Month, 3 Month, 6 Month and 1 Year Follow up.
A Wait Step also allows a user to End that workflow automation at any point after the wait Period starts, but before the Wait Time is completed.
This is done via the Workflow Timeline Tab on the Profile of the person in Question


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