The Processes app
What a process, a domain, a table, a field and a link are, and the four starter processes every company gets.
Processes is an app in the app launcher. It describes how your company works: every workflow is a process, drawn as a BPMN 2.0 diagram with steps (tasks, events and gateways) joined by sequence flows. The app is part of every company and needs no package.
Each step can be linked to the data it touches. Data is organised in three levels. A domain is an area of the company, for example Finance, Sales, Purchasing, People or Operations. Each domain has tables, for example Journal entries in Finance or Salaries in People. A table can list fields, for example the annual salary in Salaries. A link says that a step reads, writes, creates or approves a table or a single field. These links become connections in the Company Brain knowledge graph, so you can see for every table and field which process steps use it.
A process can also run. In Track mode, every case, for example a purchase order, a payroll run or a month, is followed step by step as a run; in Enforce mode, approval steps additionally block the follow up action. The "Runs" page shows all cases, and records show where they stand in the "Process" card.
Who can use this
- Every member with a built in role: Owner, Admin, Accountant, Sales, Purchase, HR Manager, Employee, Viewer and Compliance (read)
- Creating, importing and editing processes: Owner, Admin and Compliance
Steps
1. Open the app
Click the app launcher and choose Processes. The sidebar shows "Processes", "Domains and data" and, if you may edit, "New process".
2. Read the overview
The overview lists every process grouped by domain. Each row shows the title, the description, the status, the badge "Starter" for a starter process, the number of steps and links, and when and by whom it was last changed. Click a title to open the process in the editor.
3. Open the data of a domain
Each domain group has the link "Domain data" in its header. It opens "Domains and data" filtered to that domain.
4. Create a process
Click "New process". Enter a "Title", optionally a "Description", choose a "Domain" and click "Create and open". The process starts with a single start event and opens in the editor.
5. Import a diagram
Click "Import BPMN" and choose a .bpmn or .xml file. The diagram is created as a new process and opens in the editor.
6. Show archived processes
Tick "Show archived" to list deleted processes as well. They carry the status Archived.
7. Open the runs
Click "Runs" in the sidebar to see every case currently running through a process. On the overview, each process in Track or Enforce mode also shows its number of open cases.
Fields and options
- Process
One workflow of your company as a BPMN diagram, with a title, a description, a domain and a status.
- Domain
The area a process or a table belongs to: Finance, Sales, Purchasing, People, Operations, or Other fields for data without its own table.
- Table
A kind of record in BizCortex, for example Invoices, Purchase orders or Time entries.
- Field
A single value stored in a table, for example the price of a product or the annual salary of an employee. Fields come from the Company Brain field registry.
- Link
The statement that a step reads, writes, creates or approves a table or a field.
- Status
Active, Draft or Archived. You change it in the editor; deleting a process sets it to Archived.
- Starter
One of the four processes every company gets: Payroll, Order to cash, Procure to pay and Month end close.
- Mode
Describe, Track or Enforce. It decides whether a process only documents, tracks cases or enforces approvals.
- Run
One case running through a process, for example a purchase order, a bill, a sales order, a payroll run or a month.
Tips
- The four starter processes come with links already set. Payroll (People) runs from recording time and absences through calculating salaries, approving, posting and paying wages. Order to cash (Sales) runs from the customer inquiry through quote, order, delivery and invoice to the incoming payment. Procure to pay (Purchasing) runs from the identified need through purchase order, approval and goods receipt to the checked and paid bill. Month end close (Finance) covers bank reconciliation, open items, accruals and the VAT return up to approving the month.
- Adapt the starters to the way you actually work: rename steps, add or remove steps and change the links. They are ordinary processes.
- The four starter processes start in Track mode and are already connected to the app. Their cases therefore appear under "Runs" without any further setup. Nothing is blocked until an Owner or Admin switches the process to Enforce.
Good to know
- The starter processes are created the first time someone in your company opens the overview. A starter you delete is archived and is not created again. To bring it back, tick "Show archived", open it and set its status to Active.
- The step names of the starter processes are written in German. The titles and descriptions appear in German or English depending on your language until you change them.
Related
- Running processes
Choose the mode of a process and set under "Execution" what each step means in the app: an event, an approval, a task or a check.
- Runs
See every case running through a process with its current step, age and status, find stalled cases and read the history of a run.
- Drawing a process in the editor
Add and connect steps, name them, save, look at earlier revisions, and export or import .bpmn files.
- Linking steps to data
Say for each step which tables and fields it reads, writes, creates or approves, and deal with orphaned links.
- Domains and data
The domains of your company with their tables and fields, how many records each table holds and which process steps use it.
- Who may read and edit processes
The two permissions of the Processes app, which roles have them and what else limits what you see.