Workflow Examples to Help You Get to a Quick Start

In pretty much any workplace today–whatever the industry, size, or location–workflow management and automation are either already used or being considered.

The average business user is now empowered with the power to design workflow and achieve great, consistent results from common workplace processes.

For example, Kissflow has made it easy to create workflows with a WYSIWYG form designer, drag-and-drop modules, and an easy-to-understand visual design. But with certain processes, designing the workflow from scratch can be difficult, bordering on downright impossible.

That’s why we’ve compiled this list of workflow examples for common business processes. With graphical representations, You’ll see what each process typically needs to include, which will give you a head start when you get into the ‘process designer’ mode.

Workflow Example 1: Vacation Requests

With time-off or vacation requests, the goal of the process is to approve planned, scheduled days off. Without a workflow system, employees typically send requests through email, and the respective boss/coordinator/approver maintains a log through spreadsheets.

Here’s a vacation request sample workflow

Form data to collect:

• Employee details (ID, department)
• Requested start and end dates
• Calculated total leave
• Type of leave
• Leave balance

Workflow actions:

a user-made decision on whether the leave is approved

Roles:

• Direct manager
• HR processing

Pro tips:

• Add a section on the field to choose who will you cover tasks for this person while they are gone
• Link your form to a dataset to pull updated leave balances
• Use an automated form to make sure days are counted accurately

Workflow Example 2: Document Approvals

Document approvals are a common, everyday task in businesses across industry verticals, but they tend to slow operations down. An email request system is only going to make things slower, so what you need is a workflow like this one:

Form data to collect:

• Initiator details
• Type of document
• Key information
• Document

Workflow actions:

Leaders should be able to review, approve, or reject an item. They should also be able to quickly ask contextual questions. Rejection can be set to trigger an ‘update document’ task allocated to the initiator, who will submit a new draft for approval.

Roles:

The number of workflow steps depends on the complexity of the document, but you usually need at least two people to look at it.

Pro Tips:

• Audit logs are key for documents to ensure that everyone is working on the same one. Make sure to adjust the read-only and editable fields so that no one can change information after approved.
• Storing documents in Google Drive also allows you to clearly see what changes have been made to documents.

Workflow Example 3: Purchase Orders

This business process example is a little more complex than the previous ones, as it’ll need to include triggers from incoming customer emails containing POs. This process involves two goals: providing the service/product requested in the PO, and generating the respective invoice.

Form data to collect:

• Copy of the PO
• Buyer details
• Any PR numbers
• Delivery instructions

Workflow actions:

• Approve the PO
• Communicate with the buyer

Roles:

• Procurement leads
• Supply chain manager
• Finance team

Pro tips:

• Link different processes together, dovetailing your purchase request into a purchase order without needing to add information twice.
• Keep buyer information in a stored location for the automated referral.

Workflow Example 4: Expense Claim Requests

Just like the second workflow example of document approvals, expense claims are an ideal candidate for a workflow management system. You’ll see in the workflow diagram that this is a simple, straightforward, predictable process.

Field data to collect:

• Employee information
• Itemized expense information
• Payment type
• Justification

Actions

• Approval
• Fund disbursal

Roles:

• Initiator
• Manager(s)
• Finance

Pro tips:

• Put your expense policy right on your form and use data validations to make sure it is enforced
• Use conditional tasks so that expenses that fit the policy below a certain threshold don’t need multiple sign-offs every time

If you’re looking to create a workflow using powerful workflow management software like Kissflow, these illustrated workflow examples should be all you need. However, note that only your imagination can limit you–all you need to do is pick workflow automation and build it just the way you want.

With Kissflow’s easy-to-use interface, you’ll be designing your own workflows in no time!

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