Workflows let you automate standard processes in your company, such as sending emails or assigning tasks. With our email templates and workflows, you can define an unlimited amount of processes and the associated tasks and notifications. 

Note: 

• To learn how to create workflows and email templates, check out this video!
• To learn how to create recurrent workflows, refer to this article. 

To set up your workflows properly, you will have to follow three steps:

• Step 1: Create the E-mail templates 
• Step 2: Create the Workflows
• Step 3: Add actions to our workflows

Here is an overview of how it works (click on the image to see it bigger):

And here is an example:

Make sure that all employees and admins that you want to engage in a workflow are activated in their employee profile. 

Step 1: Create the E-mail templates 

Go to Settings > Email templates. Here, we will create the emails that will be sent by your workflows once they get triggered.

• Click on (+) Create Email Template 
• Pick a name for the template
• Select the subject of the email

Settings:

Before creating the body of the template, fill out the Email template settings to your right:

• Category: depending on your workflow, choose between HR, Recruiting, or Other.
  
• Company: in case of having more than one company, choose the company it belongs to.
• Language: pick the language in which you will write your email. This will be the language used to auto-complete the Fields in your email, in case you use any.
• Object: choose the same Object as the Workflow where you will use this email template.
• Field: you can add certain fields which will be auto-completed depending on the Object that triggers the action. Copy and paste them to the body of your email and, once the email gets sent, each Field will be replaced by the value of that specific Field. Each Object offers you different fields.

For our example, we have selected the Object "Time off request" and the Fields "Related user - Display name" and "Time off type".

When our workflow sends an email using this template, the system will automatically complete the name of the employee who requested time off, as well as the name of the Time off type the employee requested.

The subject of the email will therefore read: "The employee Albert Bishop has requested Holidays".

Note:

• The selection of the Object is related to the selection of the Object in the workflow. The Object in email templates ALWAYS needs to be identical to the Object of the workflows we want to use them on.
• In the example of creating a workflow for Time Off request, we chose Time off request as the Object in our Workflow. Therefore, in our Email Template, we choose Time off request one more time.

Body:

After you finish adding the name and subject, as well as choosing the category, company, language, and object, it is time to create the body of your email. You can personalize each email and communicate all the necessary information to the recipient by copying and pasting the Fields.

Example: The employee {!relatedUser.displayName} has requested {!_timeOffTypeName} from {!_from} to {!_to}.

In this example, the recipient of the email is informed about the name of the requester, the type of time off requested, and the period of the requested absence.

Once the body of our email is ready, we click SAVE and continue to the next section.

Step 2: Create the Workflows

Go to Settings > Workflows and click on (+) Create Workflow.

You will have to fill out the following fields:

• Workflow definition
• Object
• Trigger
• Schedule
• Filter

Workflow definition:

Add the name of the workflow you want to set up. For example, let's say that we want to create a workflow to receive an email every time an employee requests time off. We will then give our workflow the title "Notification of a Time-Off Request".

Repeat workflow: Activate this option only if you want to schedule a certain action to happen at a certain date in the future. For our example (and for most workflows), we don't need it, so we keep it deactivated. 

• Repeat workflow: Activate this option only if you want to schedule a certain action to happen at a certain date in the future. For our example (and for most workflows), we don’t need it, so we keep it deactivated.

Object:

The object of a Workflow defines what the system is going to pay attention to. In this case, we select "Time off request" as our object.

Trigger:

The trigger is the event that causes the workflow to start.

According to the Object you picked, you will have different choices of triggers available. This means that we can choose what will make the system react and perform the action we later set up. We can only select one trigger for our workflow.

In our example, for the Object "Time off request", we have the following triggers:

• Time off request record is created
• Time off request record is updated

In this case, we will choose the trigger "Time off request is created", as we want to be notified whenever an employee requests time off.

You can also create your own custom trigger by clicking on CREATE CUSTOM TRIGGER and choosing among the options the system gives you. However, in most cases, this will not be necessary, and the existing triggers will already serve the purpose of your workflow.

Schedule:

At this point, you will choose when the workflows will react and perform the action or actions you define. 

You can choose for a workflow to react immediately after, before, or at the same time the event that triggers the action happens, depending on the type of workflow you are creating and the Object you picked.

In this example, we want to be notified immediately, so we select: "Immediately after - Time off request is created":

Filter:

Filters are optional clauses that will help you ensure your workflows only react when the desired conditions are met. 

The filters are determined by Conditions defined by Values. You also have the option to:

• Add a new Condition and Value to the same filter by pressing (+) And
• Add a Condition and Value to a new filter by pressing (+) Or

Usecase with (+) And

We want to be notified of a new time off request when the status is pending AND the Time off type is Vacation. This is how it will look like:

Usecase with (+) Or

We want to be notified of a new time off request when the status of a time off is pending OR approved. This is how it will look like:

After filling out all the fields, click SAVE AND NEXT.

The system will proceed to the "Add Workflow actions" screen, where you set up what you want your workflow to do after it gets triggered.

However, before we can do that, we need to create the content of these actions. The most common actions performed by workflows are email alerts. Therefore, we will proceed to describe how to create e-mail templates for your workflows.

Step 3: Add actions to our workflows

Now that you have created the workflow and the content for the email alert that will be sent out by the workflow, you can put everything together by adding actions to your workflow.

• Go to Settings > Workflows
• Search for the workflow you created
• Click on the three dots icon
• Click on Edit workflow

On the next screen, click the (+) Add action button.

• When defining your action, start with specifying the name of the action and the type of action you want. In our example, we will name our action "Email to managers".

• Choose if you want your workflow to send out an Email alert, or to create a To do in Kenjo. The majority of workflows will use the action Email alert. If you are using Slack and have integrated Kenjo with Slack, you will see a third option, Slack alert, which will allow you to send a message to a public channel on Slack.
  
  
• If you choose the action type To do, your workflow will create a To do assigned to the employee or employees of your choice, as soon as the workflow is triggered. The last step, in this case, would be to determine the due date of the To do, after it gets created.
  
  
• If you choose the action type Email alert, this will enable you to pick an Email template from our existing ones. For our example, we pick the action type Email alert, and select the template we created in the previous step, "Time off Request".

• In the Sender step, you can define the domain for your outgoing emails. The default senders are "no-reply@kenjo.io" and "notifications@kenjo.io", but you can customize this and choose your company's domain if you prefer.
  
  
• In Recipient, we define who will receive the email alert once the workflow is triggered. You can select a single Employee, the Manager of the employee related to your workflow, or groups of people such as entire departments, offices, or companies. 
  
  For our example, we select "Manager". This way, whenever an employee requests a time off, our workflow will automatically send an email to their manager, notifying them about their request.

Note: by default, the recipients will receive the notification on their work email. However, for certain workflows, you might want to choose a different one, such as the emergency email address of the recipient. In this case, click on "Select email field" and choose the most convenient option. If you have created another employee custom field (with the field type "email") in the employees' profiles (e.g. Spouse's email), this option will also appear here. 

Our action is ready, so we click ADD ACTION at the bottom of the screen. We will be redirected to the "Add actions" page, where we have the chance to add more actions if we want or click FINISH when we're done adding actions to our workflow.

You can add as many actions as you need to the same workflow, and every action will take place once the workflow is triggered. For example, you can create a combination of email alerts, To dos, and Slack notifications that help you automatize a certain process in your company and notifies all the necessary parties.

In our example, we only want to add one action, so we click FINISH.

With our workflow completely set up, we click on the toggle ACTIVE to activate the workflow:

Note: only active workflows will be triggered. If a workflow is not active, it will not perform any actions.