Question

Alerting when it's time to complete a form

Forms

Updated September 29, 2020

asked on September 11, 2020 • Show version history

We have been asked to proactively alert users when it's time for them to complete various forms, and wondered how others have handled this in their organizations.

In one use-case, we're being asked to send a notification to employees when it's time for them to log into the system and complete their time sheet for the given pay period.

In another use-case, we're being asked to send a notification to a supervisor when it's time for them to complete a Performance Evaluation (calculated based on variables from an external data source). In this situation, we are also being asked to send reminders if the evaluations are not completed in x days.

In both of the above, we're being asked to embed variable information in the URL that's sent so the employee information auto-completes on the form.

We suspect once we have this setup for a couple processes, we'll be asked to add this in for just about everything else, so we want to be smart up-front and build something that will scale over time.

Here are some options we're considering:

1) Using a timer start event in Laserfiche Forms to kick off a workflow that runs a stored procedure and generates e-mails

2) Running a scheduled SQL job to send out notifications

3) Setting up something through our reports portal (using SSRS)

4) Investing in some sort of IFTTT software (we don't have anything in use currently)

Does anyone have a solution they're happy with and would recommend?

Any pitfalls to be aware of?

Any other thoughts or suggestions?

Thank you so much!
Jennifer

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Replies

replied on September 11, 2020

Hi Jennifer-

For a situation like this I would use Workflow as my starting point, assuming you have an on-prem system.

The workflow can be scheduled to run on specific days/times or can be run manually, it can do data lookups, and it can kick off Forms tasks and pass in variables or build the URL. Starting the Forms process would be a little safer if you're sending anything more than numbers to pre-fill the form. This is done with the Invoke Business Process activity.

In that case, you'll want the form to start with a simple Start event, then the first task will be a user task with the form assigned. This task can have an email reminder on it, or you can use WF for reminders.

Workflow can use database calls to both log who these were sent to and track when they are completed and send email reminders to everybody who is still waiting.

As you might guess, there's a lot that could be said about this, but trying to stick to the basics. Hopefully it's enough to get you going.

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replied on September 13, 2020

The recently released Forms 10.4.5(https://support.laserfiche.com/download/4149/laserfiche-forms-10-4-5) added the out of box reminders feature for user task, you can add reminders for each user task and it can control when to send the reminder email and the content of the email.

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replied on September 14, 2020

That won't help for proactive notifications (like, "it's time to go complete your time sheet"), but is a fantastic enhancement for regular task reminders.

If the task has been Reassigned, does the reminder go to the person who currently owns the task, or to the person it was assigned to originally?

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replied on September 14, 2020

It will go to the person who currently owns the task.

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replied on September 15, 2020

Perfect!

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replied on September 29, 2020

Case where employee needs to fill out timesheet:

I am assuming that you are using Forms to submit time sheets. Use a scheduled Workflow that kicks of x number of weeks. Include the activity for "Invoke Business Process" where you pass employee parameters to the the Form via the 'Starting Variable Values' section:

Query any employee data to pre-fill the form using Workflow. I am guessing you will need to query the employee data to determine who is required to submit a timesheet as well (part-time, non-exempt, active, etc.).

Case where Performance Eval needs a reminder:

A scheduled Workflow kicks off weekly or daily to query the 'external data source' and determine if there are any reminders that need to go out. If there are, pre-fill fields using 'Starting Variable Values' in the "Invoke Business Process" activity. Query any data as needed to populate the form with.

All the internal timers and reminder stuff gets handled via Forms as explained above.

Hope this helps :)

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Alerting when it's time to complete a form

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