Workflow Automation (1.8.1+)

 

Workflow Automation is achieved through Triggers. They are a powerful addition to HoudiniESQ which allow you to extend the functionality of the application. They allow you to create new Events, Matters and Alerts based on certain actions taken by a user on a particular Record, within a specific Form. For example, updating a particular Field of a Matter can be set as a Trigger to create a new Event, saving you valuable time and automating your work flow.

In addition, you can add even more customization to your Workflow Triggers by attaching them to Custom Fields and record Types, Sub-types, Status Codes and Attributes. The possibilities are nearly limitless.

You can access the Workflow Triggers menu from the “Workflow Automation” tab in Organization Settings.

From here, we can edit an existing Trigger, or define a new one via the List View. To create a new Trigger, click the Add (+) icon at the bottom of the List View. This will bring up the Trigger form.

 

Here, we can fill out a number of fields to define our Trigger:
Name – The name of your Trigger. This is required.
Active - This checkbox will determine whether the Trigger is active or not. This feature is useful if you wish to deactivate a Trigger without deleting it.
Record – Select the Record you wish to implement the Trigger for here.
Type – Here, you can select a Type for the previously assigned Record from the drop-down list. This field is required.

In addition, if you have Sub-types, Status Codes and Attributes defined for the record Type, those fields will appear upon selection of that Type. In the example Trigger, this Matter Type has a Status Code associated with it.

Condition – This drop-down field will allow you to specify under which condition or rule to activate the Trigger. Some examples of conditions include gaining or losing focus on a Field, or changing the value of the Field.
Field – This drop-down field will allow you to specify which Field will activate the Trigger when the specified condition takes place. This can include Custom Fields as well.
Limit Access - Checking this box will allow you to limit the ability to fire the Trigger to a specific Staff group or groups. Up to 3 Staff groups can be selected from the drop-down menus that will appear when this box is checked. Clicking the "Clear Groups" button will clear all current selections.
Apply Rule - Clicking the Apply Rule checkbox will let you further define the conditions under which your Trigger will activate with a Custom Filter. For more information on how custom filters work, review the Custom Filters section of the Customizing List Views article in our KnowledgeBase.

Clearing Trigger History

In addition, at the bottom of each Matter record there is an icon (beach ball). Clicking this icon will clear any existing trigger firing history from that Matter. This is useful for some trigger actions (such as Create Event) which only fire once.

Trigger Actions

The actions which the Trigger will perform are shown in a List View. Clicking the Add (+) button will display the Trigger Action form.

Action – This drop down menu will let you define which action is taken. Selecting an action from this field will pull up several context-sensitive fields within the form. We’ll describe them in detail in the order that they appear. 

Create Event:

This trigger action will create an Event with the record the trigger fired on as the Parent. Optionally, an Alert for the created Event can be specified. This trigger can only be fired once.

 

Active - This checkbox will determine whether the Trigger is active or not. This feature is useful if you wish to deactivate a Trigger without deleting it.
Task – You can select the Type of Event created by the Trigger from this drop-down field.
Subject – This field will define the Subject of the Event created by the Trigger. If the Event is Billable, then this line will also appear on the Invoice.
Description – This field will determine the contents of the Description field in the Event which is created by the Trigger.
Date Offset – The number of days that this Event will be set for using the “Date the Trigger is fired” as the base date. Set this Field to zero if you want to create the Event on the same date the Trigger is activated.

Please note: the Time portion of the Event is not used, and the Time of the Trigger-created Event will always be set to noon (12:00 PM) local time.

Use Parent Record’s Date – Selecting this option will allow you to use the Date on the record which fired the Trigger as the base Date for the Event, rather than the date the Trigger was activated on. This is especially useful for records with future Dates.
Dur – The Dur, or Duration field, will allow you to specify the content of the Dur field in the Event created by the Trigger. For more information on this field, consult the Event section of the HoudinIESQ Reference Manual.
Billable – This checkbox will allow you to determine whether the Event created by the Trigger is billable.
Bill Default Staff – This checkbox will determine whether to use the Staff member who fired the Trigger on the Invoice. If unchecked, you will be able to specify another Staff member with a drop-down field.
Attendees – You can add Attendees for the Event created by the Trigger with this drop-down field. Select a Staff member and then click the Add button. You can removed added Staff members by clicking the Remove button (-) next to their names.
Add All Matter Members As Event Attendees – If selected, this checkbox will automatically add all Staff members added to the Members tab of the Matter as Attendees in the created Event.

On the Trigger Action form, you will see an Alerts box with several fields and controls which will let you define your custom Alerts.

Add New Alert – Clicking the Add (+) button here will allow you to create a new Alert for the Event generated by the Trigger. To remove the alert, click the Remove (-) button next to the Alert.
Include All Attendees – This checkbox will allow you to include all defined Attendees for the created Event as recipients for this Alert.
Time (clock) – These fields will let you specify when the Alert will happen, based on the Date field of the created Event. Specify a numeric value, and then an interval (minutes, hours, days etc.) from the drop down box. Use the radio buttons to specify whether you want the Alert to happen before or after the Event Date.
Optional Text – This field will allow you to specify optional text to be displayed for your Alert.

Show/Hide Field Group:

Active: This checkbox will determine whether the Trigger is active or not. This feature is useful if you wish to deactivate a Trigger without deleting it.
Group Name: This drop-down menu will allow you to select a Field Group to show or hide by name.

Toggle: This will always be checked.

NOTE: When selecting this trigger for a Field Value Change, if the field is a dropdown or multi-checkbox you MUST specify the value required to fire the trigger in the Rules section. 

Generate Document:

This workflow trigger will allow you to generate up to 5 documents per Trigger action when the trigger fires. The documents are created using existing templates within the HoudinIESQ IRIS Repository; for more information on document templates, click here. If you wish to generate more than 5 documents, you can do so by definiting another Trigger action. Documents will be generated based on the ruleset for the trigger; if conditional filters are defined, then the documents will only be created if those filters are satisfied. All trigger-generated documents will appear under the Docs tab of the record on which the trigger was fired. This trigger can only be fired once.

Important note: In order to use this Trigger Action an Administrative Email Account MUST be configured within the General tab of Organization Settings. HoudiniESQ uses the Administrative Email Account to send all emails related to workflow trigger functionality. To set up the Administrative Email Account, refer to our overview of Organizational Settings here.

The following controls will allow you to further refine the trigger action:

Allow User To Choose: This checkbox will allow the user to choose which templates are used for document generation. Otherwise, simply uncheck this box and select the templates from the drop-down list below. Please note that if you allow the user to choose a template, they can opt out of creating a document by clicking the Cancel button.
Document Type: Select a Document Type from the drop-down list. This is necessary in order to move on to selecting a template.
Template: Select a Template from the drop-down list. You can select either standard (HTML based) HoudiniESQ templates, or .docx templates in Word format. Bear in mind that the generated document will be a PDF if a standard template is used, and a Word file if a .docx template is selected.
Draft: If you would like to create a Draft version that can be edited before generating the final PDF copy, check this box. Keep in mind that only standard HoudiniESQ templates (not Word .docx format) can can create Drafts.

In addition, you can optionally choose to send an email template to up to 5 contact types defined within the record. This part of the trigger behaves the same as the Send Email trigger action:
Email Subject: This field will allow you to define the Subject line of the email which is sent.
Email Template: Select an Email Template from the drop-down list. Keep in mind that nly Email Templates are selectable; Document templates will not be usable.
Recipients: The 5 drop-down boxes will allow you to select a Contact Type to send the email to. All contacts of that Type associated with the record will be sent the email. You can use the second drop-down box next to each Contact Type to define whether the recipients of this Type will be addressed in the "To", "Cc" (Carbon Copy), or "Bcc" (Blind Carbon Copy) field. Keep in mind that Bcc recipients will not be shown in the header of the email.
Staff: You can also optionally select Staff members to send a copy of the email to. These Staff will receive the email as a "Bcc" if a Recipient is chosen above. Simply select the Staff member from the drop-down box and click the Add button to add them to the list of email recipients. You can delete a Staff member from that list anytime by clicking the red Delete (-) button next to their name as well.

 

Popup Message:

 

This workflow trigger action will display a popup message when the Trigger is fired. You can use this as a reminder that a certain condition was met, or that more work needs to be done on another record. You can also use this message in tandem with other Triggers being fired to notify the user that they were activated, eg a popup message combined with a Create Document trigger will inform the Staff member that documents were created.

This trigger action uses the following fields:

Active: This checkbox will determine whether the Trigger is active or not. This feature is useful if you wish to deactivate a Trigger without deleting it.
Title: Allows you to designated a title for the Popup Message.
Message: Allows you to define the popup message that is displayed.

 

Assign Group To Record:

This workflow trigger action will allow you to assign a Staff Group to the parent Record of the trigger. Use the drop-down box to select the Staff Group you would like to assign. Keep in mind that when a record is assigned to a particular group, only that Staff Group (along with any designated Super Users and Admins) will have access to it. Therefore it is important you only add this action to a trigger which is set to fire on a Record Insert or Update condition. 

 

Send Email:

This workflow trigger will allow you to send an email to all Contacts of up to 5 contact types when the trigger fires. The emails are created using existing templates within the HoudinIESQ IRIS Repository; for more information on email templates, click here. If you wish to send the email to more than 5 contact types, you can do so by definiting another Trigger action. Emails will be generated and sent based on the ruleset for the trigger; if conditional filters are defined, then the emails will only be sent if those filters are satisfied. All trigger-generated emails will appear under the Email tab of the record on which the trigger was fired, as well as appearing in the Sent tab of your Email Inbox. This trigger can only be fired once.

Important note: In order to use this Trigger Action an Administrative Email Account MUST be configured within the General tab of Organization Settings. HoudiniESQ uses the Administrative Email Account to send all emails related to workflow trigger functionality. To set up the Administrative Email Account, refer to our overview of Organizational Settings here.

The following controls will allow you to further refine the trigger action:

Active: This checkbox will determine whether the Trigger is active or not. This feature is useful if you wish to deactivate a Trigger without deleting it.
Email Subject: This field will allow you to define the Subject line of the email which is sent.
Email Template: Select an Email Template from the drop-down list. Keep in mind that nly Email Templates are selectable; Document templates will not be usable.
Recipients: The 5 drop-down boxes will allow you to select a Contact Type to send the email to. All contacts of that Type associated with the record will be sent the email. You can use the second drop-down box next to each Contact Type to define whether the recipients of this Type will be addressed in the "To", "Cc" (Carbon Copy), or "Bcc" (Blind Carbon Copy) field. Keep in mind that Bcc recipients will not be shown in the header of the email.
Staff: You can also optionally select Staff members to send a copy of the email to. These Staff will receive the email as a "Bcc" if a Recipient is chosen above. Simply select the Staff member from the drop-down box and click the Add button to add them to the list of email recipients. You can delete a Staff member from that list anytime by clicking the red Delete (-) button next to their name as well.

Autofill Field:

This workflow trigger action will allow you to assign values to specific fields on the parent record when the trigger is fired. Simply select a field from the drop-down box that you wish to assign a value to, and assign the value in the next field that appears. The fields that you may select will be dependent on the parent record, and the field data type will be displayed; for example, if a Staff-based field is selected, "Staff" will be displayed and a drop-down list off al Staff members will be available for selecion (as shown above). To add another field assignment, simply selected "AND" from the drop-down box to the far right to create another row. Clicking the Delete (-) button will remove that AutoFill field. This trigger can only be fired once.

Tip: You can stack this trigger action with the Create Event action to create an event with pre-determined field data filled in. This is useful if there are certain values you would always like to assign to a created Event when certain data is present.

The following controls will allow you to further refine the trigger action:

Active: This checkbox will determine whether the Trigger is active or not. This feature is useful if you wish to deactivate a Trigger without deleting it.

Once you have assigned the fields you would like to AutoFill, click "Save" to save your trigger action. Click "Cancel" to close without saving changes.

Create Todo:

This workflow trigger action will allow you to create a Todo associated with the parent record when the trigger is fired. Simply fill in the values pertaining to the Todo that you would like to create and click Save. This trigger can only be fired once.

The following controls will allow you to further refine the trigger action:

Active: This checkbox will determine whether the Trigger is active or not. This feature is useful if you wish to deactivate a Trigger without deleting it.
Priority: This field will allow you to set the Priority field of the created Todo. Enter a number or select one with the arrow buttons.
Complete by offset: You can assign a "Complete by" date to the Todo with an offset (in days) from when the Trigger was fired, eg entering 3 will assign the "Complete by" date to 3 days after the Todo was created.
Topic: This field will allow you to set the Topic field of the created Todo.
Assign to a specific staff: Checking this field will cause an "Assign to" drop-down field to appear. Select the Staff member you would like to assign the Todo to from this drop-down field.
Assigned by a specific staff: Checking this field will cause an "Assigned by" drop-down field to appear. Select the Staff member you would like the Todo assigned by from this drop-down field.
Detail: Enter the information you would like to be displayed in the Detail field of the Todo in this Memo field.

Once you have defined the Todo you would like to create, click "Save" to save your trigger action. Click "Cancel" to close without saving changes.