Question

Complex Forms process questions

Forms

Updated March 17, 2020

asked on March 16, 2020

Hello! I'm creating a very complex forms approval process. Currently- on the form is a field for Department. Then the form route to different teams based on what department they've selected.

Essentially, a user creates the form, and it may need to go throw as many as 4 more signatures for approval and for some users it will only need one more signature. And it's pretty specific by users. It's a 40 user system.

Any advice how to best accomplish this?

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replied on March 16, 2020

How are the required signatures determined? Is there any consistent logic, or is it truly just "this user needs these signatures"? I currently have a form that sounds like it is somewhat similar to your situation, where a combination of job title + site, as well as funding source all determine how many signatures are required, and who actually needs to sign them, and all of it is done through lookups on a custom table that returns usernames for the appropriate approvers, but it could also be team names, with the team being assigned by variable.

Even if you need to go as far as to create a custom list of approvers for each of the 40 users (hopefully it's more formulaic than that, though), I think the most maintain-able is a custom SQL table.

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replied on March 16, 2020

Right now, when the form is Submitted by the preparer, it is routed to the verifiers by department. It assigns the verifier signature to a team of verifiers from that department. Once that is complete, each signature step is assigned to a team of people who are allowed to approve transfers (Approver groups A & B) and then it's routed through a filing group and ends with their reconciliation department signing the form, saying the full process is complete and reconciled in their accounting system.

However, if someone starts the form who is in the Approver A group, they only need someone from Approver B to sign off.

If you're not one of 5 or 6 employees, we can skip the verification signature all together.

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replied on March 16, 2020

Personally, I would handle this like this:

A custom table with columns: Username, Verification Required, Approver A, Approver B

If the user is on of the 5 or 6 who needs the verification step, there would be a "yes" in the verification required column. If they're part of the Approver A group, a "yes" in that column, and the same for Approver B.

I wouldn't suggest actually naming your columns with spaces, but it's just for human readability here.

Each row would be one of these 40 users, and three lookups on the starting form would use the form initiator username to get the appropriate results from the table from each of the three columns. Each one would go into a hidden field to be used as a variable in a routing decision.

I mostly like this method because I can make changes from one place quickly when there are personnel changes.

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replied on March 16, 2020

One thing I notice off the bat is that you are using exclusive gateways for diverging and converging branches. Exclusive gateways ONLY go down ONE outflow path based on the highest priority condition met. I'd think you would want an inclusive gateway that would go down any and all branches where the condition is met. That way, you could have checkboxes on the form determine which teams need to approve, then use an inclusive gateway to give each team an approval task. Then at the end, merge with an inclusive gateway to wait for all tasks to be completed.

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replied on March 17, 2020

The people who approve or verifiy need to get it in a particular order, however. If it's verifier required, it goes to B then A. If not then B- A, if an A start it, then B approver only. And if a B starts it, just straight to A and on.

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replied on March 17, 2020

And it's based on Approving or Rejecting the submission at the bottom of the form. The apply their signature and hit approve.

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Complex Forms process questions

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