I'm still not clear on the reason why you need to save the documents to the repository before the process completes.

Is the supervisor looking in the repository to see the documents, or is everyone looking at the attachments on the form?

Basically, what is the reason they need to be saved into the repository at that point if the back-and-forth communication seems to be handled via the Forms user tasks?

Unless there's some reason to save them earlier, it would make a lot more sense to save the form/attachments after it has been "approved" and can't go back into the loop.

It's hard to provide an alternative without knowing more about the process, but if you loop back to the same activities like that, then there's no way to prevent duplicates without getting a more complex Workflow involved.

We need to save the form & attachments (if any) because we need to keep track of what information was asked to the initiator and if any attachment was sent to them.

Similarly, when the initiator replies with comments and attachments, we need to keep a record of them.

Yes, this folder is viewed by other supervisors and designers, In this process after the supervisor completes the task, the next stage of the task is sent to the designer, here the designer will view all communications and then proceed to finish the project. 

Here the designer also has option to communicate with initiator if there are still missing information or they need to show the initiator some layouts for approval, this loop also creates more duplicates.

Is there a better process design to overcome saving the duplicates and achieving this back and forth communication and attachments getting saved just once.

Thank you

The process is going to save all form attachments, including duplicates, every time so I'm not sure there's a clean way to accomplish that goal.

You might be able to do it by bringing Workflow into the mix, but that's going to get very complex because you're keeping everything in one collection.

Best I can think of off the top of my head is the following:

1. Save the form, but not the attachments in Save to Repository
2. Make sure the folder has a uniquely identifiable folder name, or metadata with the forms bp instance id (i.e., some way you can identify the path within a workflow)
3. Add a read only field (set to always hidden and save the value) to the collection (call it File Saved or something like that)
4. Trigger a workflow that runs after the user task
5. In the workflow properties check "Started by LF Forms"
6. Add a Retrieve Business Process Variables activity
7. Retrieve the Collection
8. Add an Assign Token Values activity and create a new token with the multivalue box checked
9. Add a For Each Row activity referencing the collection
10. In the For Each Row loop, add a condition for if the current row's "File Saved" variable is blank
    1. Inside the condition add a for each File loop
    2. In the for each file loop add a create entry activity to create a document
    3. Add an attach electronic document activity referencing the File from the current iteration of the for each file loop
11. Outside the condition, but still in the For Each Row loop, add another Assign Token Values activity set to Modify your multivalue token by Appending "Yes" or some other value to the token
12. Outside the loop at the very end of the workflow, add a Set Business Process Variables activity that sets the "File Saved" column/variable of the collection equal to your multivalue token (i.e., indicating that every file in the collection has been saved)

I have started to create this workflow, but I see that retrieve and set business process variable is not available in cloud. Is there a workaround for these activities.