This article explains how to create a Workflow.
If you are using the Enterprise Module to build your own workflow, we recommend planning what you would like to make in advance. In doing this, you will be able to map out the different actions and see any dependencies between Phases and Tasks that need to be incorporated.
We would advise analysing your process in stages:
- High-Level Overview – Consider the various areas of work you undertake in a Residential Purchase workflow, such as Gathering Client Information, Other Side Information, Searches, Enquiries, Exchange, Completion, and Closing the matter. These areas will become your phases.
- Detailed Breakdown – For each phase, list the tasks you need to complete. Create dependency chains where one task depends on the completion of another. Establish pathways where a series of tasks rely on a specific answer from a previous task. Identify tasks that impact your ability to move to the next phase of work, as well as those that span multiple phases without affecting immediate case progression. Understanding these tasks will help you identify the critical path.
- Assign Actions – With each task you identify, assign appropriate actions to complete the Task.
Once these steps have been considered, you can then begin to build your workflow in Insight. We would recommend using Microsoft Visio or Lucid Chart (https://www.lucidchart.com/) to help visualise all the Phases and Tasks you need to create.
Example of Task Dependency Chains
For each step of your workflow, you should carefully consider what you need to successfully move on to the next stage of the process. For example, start with an introductory email to a client and ensure you record their responses.
On the email to the client, you want to attach a Client Care Letter, Terms and Conditions and a Questionnaire. The email being sent is dependent on the letters being produced. Recording the client’s response cannot be able to happen until you have received the information back. This would be broken down as follows:
This shows the dependency of each previous Task being completed before the next one can begin. Each subsequent task, after Produce Documents, would have a Trigger attributed to them. This Trigger stipulates which Task needs to be complete before the New Task can appear.
Example of Task Pathways
Task Pathways are used in conjunction with Dependency Chains to guide a workflow through a specific line of work and exclude tasks that are subsequently not needed. Let us take Probate as an example matter type and the decision for completing the Inheritance Tax Forms.
Once you have found out the value of the estate in previous tasks you can ask the question whether the assets are less than £325,000. At this decision point you can create two different tasks, which are dependent on the answer given. One task would appear, another would not. These pathways can then be completely separate from each other and have no connecting tasks, or re-join the same pathway later in the workflow.