Project Workflow

The Project Workflow is a project's own copy of a Company Workflow. It lists the project's milestones in order and shows which one is active. For each milestone it shows the conditions that must be met, the tasks, emails, and text messages it sends, and the questions someone has to answer. You'll find it on the project's Workflow tab.

Benefits

The Project Workflow keeps the whole Project Team on the same page. It shows what has been done, what needs doing now, and what comes next, and it does the routine follow-up for you.

Every project of the same type runs the same steps, so nothing gets skipped.
Tasks, emails, and text messages go out automatically when a milestone starts or completes, so nobody has to remember to send them.
The project status and % Completed update automatically as milestones complete, so reports and dashboards stay current.
Questions let a project take a different path (for example, insurance or retail) without building a separate workflow for every case.

Quick start: attach a workflow to a project

A project can get its workflow in any of three ways:

Automatically, from the company default. In Company Settings → New Project Defaults, under Project Defaults, pick a Workflow and click Save. New projects for that company start with it already selected. To make a workflow mandatory on every new project, check Require workflow to be assigned on the same page.
When creating the project. In New Project, under Step 5: Project management, pick a Workflow. If the company requires one, the field shows Pick workflow (required).
From the project. Open the project's Workflow tab. If the project has no workflow, click Add Workflow, pick one under Pick workflow..., then click Add Workflow.

You can only pick Active workflows. As soon as a workflow is attached, its milestones are copied into the project and the workflow runs for the first time. The first milestone becomes active and fires its start actions.

Reading the Workflow tab

The top of the page

Project status set by Workflow: once a project has milestones, the workflow controls its status and the status is shown read-only. A project with no milestones shows an editable Project status field instead.
% Completed: how far along the project is. When a milestone completes, this changes to that milestone's percentage, unless the milestone's percentage is 0. You can also change it by hand.
Workflow: the name of the attached workflow.
Keep Closed Setting: Enforced: appears when the company has Keep Milestones Completed once Past turned on (see How the workflow advances).
Milestone: the milestone that is currently active.
Canceled: on a canceled project, shows who canceled it, when, and why, with an Uncancel Project link.

The milestone list

A legend above the list explains the icons: a flag for a Condition, a check mark for a Task, an envelope for an Email, a phone for a Text, a red ? for a Question, and a warning triangle for an Error.

Each milestone row shows its position, name, project status, and state. The states are:

PENDING: not reached yet.
ACTIVE: the milestone the project is on now (highlighted in yellow).
COMPLETE: everything it required was satisfied.
BYPASSED: skipped by a user.
ERROR: the workflow could not process it.
CANCELLED: no longer applies.

Click the + next to a milestone to expand it. You'll see its Date Created, Date Started, and Date Ended, then one line for each condition, task, email, text message, and question. Each line shows its own state (Pending, Active, Complete, Bypassed, Error, or Canceled). A condition line has a Go link that opens the part of the project where you can satisfy it.

Logs

A blue info icon or a red warning icon beside a milestone, task, email, or text opens its Milestone Log, which lists the log entries and any errors from each workflow run. When something didn't happen, start here.
⋮ → View add log opens the Workflow Log: who added or imported workflows and milestones on this project, and when.

How the workflow advances

The workflow runs its milestones in order, and only one milestone is active at a time. Each time the workflow runs, it checks the milestones from the top down:

When a milestone is reached, it becomes ACTIVE. Its start tasks, emails, and text messages are created and sent, and the project status changes to the milestone's status.
The milestone completes once all of these are true:
- every condition is met;
- every Workflow Task is closed (pass-through tasks never hold it up);
- every question is answered.
When it completes, its completion emails and text messages are sent, pass-through tasks set to auto-close on milestone completion are closed, and % Completed is updated. Then the next milestone is checked.
The first milestone that isn't satisfied becomes the active one, and the run stops there. When every milestone is complete, the project is set to 100%.

What makes the workflow run. The workflow does not run on a timer. It re-checks the project when something relevant changes, including:

opening or refreshing the project's Workflow tab;
adding an estimate, contract, invoice, payment, work order, material order, bill, or payout;
completing a task;
changing the Project Team;
any action you take on the Workflow tab.

To force a re-check, use ⋮ → Refresh workflow.

Going backwards. Conditions are checked again on every run. If something a completed milestone depended on is undone (for example, its estimate is deleted), the project can fall back to that milestone. To stop that, a company administrator can turn on Keep Milestones Completed once Past in Company Settings → Workflows. Completed milestones then stay complete.

Canceled projects. The workflow does not run on a project in the Canceled status, and its Action menus are hidden. Use Uncancel Project to resume.

Working a milestone: the Action menus

Every milestone and every line under it has an Action menu. Which options appear depends on the item's state and on your permissions (see Who can do what). Every action re-runs the workflow afterwards.

Milestone actions

Edit Milestone: opens the Project Milestone dialog. Not offered on a bypassed milestone.
Bypass Milestone: skips the milestone, along with its conditions, tasks, emails, and texts. Offered when the milestone is not complete or bypassed.
Reopen Milestone: offered on a bypassed milestone. It resets the milestone and everything in it to pending, so its tasks are re-checked and its emails and text messages are sent again when it becomes active.
Complete all Tasks: offered on the active milestone. It marks all of the milestone's tasks complete.
Delete Milestone: removes the milestone and everything in it from this project. Not offered on a complete or bypassed milestone.
Create Milestone After: builds a new milestone for this project only, right after this one.
Import Milestone After / Import Workflow After: inserts an active Company Milestone, or all the milestones of an active Company Workflow, right after this milestone.

Condition, task, email, and text actions

Bypass Condition, Bypass Task, Bypass Email, Bypass Text: skip that one item so it no longer holds up the milestone.
Reopen Condition, Reopen Email, Reopen Text: offered on a bypassed item. The item goes back into play, and a reopened email or text is sent on the next run.
Edit Task, Close Task, Reopen Task: open the milestone task, mark its created task complete, or reopen a completed or bypassed task.
Delete Condition, Delete Task, Delete Email, Delete Text: remove the item from this project's milestone. Deleting a task also deletes the task that was created from it.

You can drag milestones up or down to reorder them. Keep them in project-status order (Lead first, completion last). Otherwise the workflow stops at the out-of-order milestone (see Troubleshooting).

Answering questions

Questions appear under their milestone with YES and NO buttons. A milestone can't complete until all of its questions are answered. Depending on how the question was designed, the answer can add a milestone or a whole workflow right after the current milestone.

If you change an answer that was already given, you are asked to confirm: “This question was already answered. Changing the answer may add workflow milestones. Continue?” Changing an answer doesn't remove milestones that the earlier answer already added.

The Project Milestone dialog

Choose Edit Milestone (or Create Milestone After) to open the dialog. Changes you make here apply to this project only; they never change the Company Milestone. The dialog has five tabs. While you're creating a new milestone, only the first tab is available until you save.

Milestone Details

Milestone Position (read-only) and Milestone name.
Milestone Status: the project status this milestone represents.
- On a new milestone, statuses that would break the order are disabled.
- On an existing milestone, picking one shows a warning and switches back.
MS Start Date: editable once the milestone has started.
MS End Date: editable once it is complete, bypassed, or canceled.
Comments.
% Completed when Milestone is completed (Leave 0 to not calculate).

On Entry

This tab lists what happens when the milestone starts:

Auto Task at Milestone Start: columns Task, Type (WF for a Workflow Task, PT for pass-through), To, From, Delay Until Start (Days), and Days Till Due.
Auto Email at Milestone Start.
Auto Text Message at Milestone Start.

Click Add in any section to add one for this project. Click a row to edit it.

Task fields: Subject, Task To, Task From, Delay Until Start (Days), Days Until Due, Workflow or Pass Through Task, Send Notification Email When Created, Comments.
Email fields: Email Template, To, From, Subject, Body.
Text fields: To, From, Subject, Body.

Conditions

The milestone's conditions. You can add one, and pick a File/Photo Description for the custom upload condition. Conditions are re-checked on every workflow run.

Questions

The milestone's questions, each with its If YES, Add and If NO, Add follow-up. A question's fields are Question, Helper Comment, If YES, add the following:, and If NO, add the following:.

On Completion

Auto Email at Milestone Completion and Auto Text Message at Milestone Completion: these are sent when the milestone completes.

After a task is created or a message is sent

You can still edit a task, email, or text after it has fired, but your edit doesn't change what already happened:

A task is created only once. Editing the milestone task afterwards doesn't change the task that was already created. To get rid of that task, use Bypass Task or Delete Task on the Workflow tab.
An email or text is sent only once. To send it again before the milestone is complete, use Bypass Milestone and then Reopen Milestone on the Workflow tab. That re-sends every email and text in the milestone.

Changing a project's workflow

Add more: ⋮ → Add workflow adds the chosen workflow's milestones after the existing ones. ⋮ → Add milestone adds a single Company Milestone.
Insert mid-stream: use Import Milestone After or Import Workflow After on a milestone's Action menu.
Start over: ⋮ → Delete workflow asks “Are you sure you want to delete all milestones? This cannot be undone.” Leave Also delete all open milestone tasks checked to remove the open tasks too. Then click Delete Workflow. The tab then shows Add Workflow so you can pick a new one.
Company Workflow edits don't reach running projects. A project keeps the copy it received. Changes to the Company Workflow or its milestones appear only when a workflow or milestone is added again.

Who can do what

Some actions require a workflow permission. An executive sets these in the user’s permissions. Users with Has executive authority can do all of them.

Can override and bypass milestones: Bypass Milestone, Reopen Milestone, and Bypass Condition, Bypass Task, Bypass Email, and Bypass Text.
Can edit milestones & workflows: Edit Milestone, and dragging milestones to reorder them. On the company side, this permission is also needed to open, add, and edit workflows and milestones in Company Settings → Workflows.
Can create milestones & workflows: Create Milestone After.
Can delete milestones & workflows: Delete Milestone, Delete Condition, Delete Task, and ⋮ → Delete workflow.

If you don't see an option, you probably don't have the permission for it. Ask an executive.

Troubleshooting

For most problems, start by opening the item's Milestone Log (the info or warning icon on its row). The log shows the exact error.

The milestone stays ACTIVE and never completes. Something is still outstanding: a condition shows Pending, a Workflow Task is still open, or a question is unanswered. To fix it, use the condition's Go link to do the missing work, close the task, or answer the question. If the item no longer applies, a user with bypass permission can bypass it.
The workflow stopped at a milestone and the log says “STATUS ERROR: milestone project status should be greater than […]”. The milestone's status comes before the previous milestone's status (for example, Estimate after Contract Signed). Drag the milestone into status order, or change its Milestone Status in the Project Milestone dialog.
A task wasn't created, and the log says “[Role] is not in project team. Please add [Role] to project team.” or “Invalid User assignee for [Role]”. Nobody on the Project Team holds the role the task is assigned to. Add someone to that role on the Project Team. The task is created on the next run.
A task hasn't appeared yet. It may have a Delay Until Start (Days). It is created once the delay has passed and the workflow runs again.
An email or text shows Error, and the log says “No recipients available”, “No text message recipients available”, “missing email for […]”, or “[Name] missing cell phone”. The recipient has no email address or cell phone on file, or nobody holds the recipient role. Fix the contact or the Project Team. A failed email or text is tried again on the next workflow run.
The project went back to an earlier milestone. Something a completed milestone depended on was undone, and Keep Milestones Completed once Past is off. Redo the missing work, or ask an administrator to turn the setting on.
The Workflow tab says “The custom workflow feature is not enabled for your account.” Your account doesn't include workflows. Contact your Account Manager.
Changes made in Company Settings don't show up on a project. This is expected. Projects keep the copy they received. Add the updated milestone with Import Milestone After, or delete the project's workflow and add it again.