Overview - Workflow

Table of contents

Workflow

SmartyGrants allows users to create and manage a Workflow for each program. Workflows can be used to assist users in following the established grantmaking process employed by your organisation.

Workflows are composed of Stages, Rules and Tasks.

Navigation

Each program has its own associated workflow.

It can be accessed from the Workflow tab of a specific Program.

Stages

Stages work like folders to categorise and house applications within. They are used to represent the status of (or milestone in which) applications sit within your funding lifecycle. By design, they are reusable for each round you run.

Example

Consider the following set of stages:

• Eligibility

• Assessment

• Decision Management

• End-of-Grant Reporting

• Completed

• Unsuccessful

Each of these stages describes a milestone that an application can progress through. You may have more or fewer stages in your own grantmaking process.

Changing an application’s stage can be achieved:

• Manually

  • For example, a user updates the stage from the individual application record.

• Automatically

  • For example, with a Rule or Task (more on these shortly).

Stage overview

The Stage overview screen shows information about all applications and tasks in the selected stage. You would navigate here by selecting a stage name under the Stages tab.

In the Stage overview, you can see:

• how many applications are in the stage,

• the decision status of applications in the stage, and

• the tasks that have been created for applications within the stage.

Rules

A Rule automatically moves an application from one stage to another based on an ‘event’ in the system. In this way, they let you create simple automations within your grants process.

Rules can be triggered by the following events:

• When a specific response on a form is submitted

• When a decision is recorded

• When a payment is approved

Example

Consider the following scenario:

I have set up two stages – Decision Management and End-of-Grant Reporting.

In this fictional grants process:

• The first stage is for managing applications where a decision has not been finalised.

• The second stage is for managing applications that have not yet returned a final report on how funding was used.

To begin, I create a rule called “Move approved applications”.

In the Create Rule screen, I tell the system that whenever an application’s decision is changed to Approved, to automatically move the application into the End-of-Grant Reporting stage.

This example rule was designed to eliminate the need to manually change an application’s stage once it has progressed to the next part of the grant lifecycle.

Once the application is moved into a different stage, this can also trigger the automatic creation of Tasks.

Tasks

Tasks are the “to-dos” in your process. They help manage the necessary actions you and your team take as applications progress through the grant lifecycle.

Tasks are for internal use only – your applicants cannot see them. Tasks live in your Workflow tab, but they can also be accessed via the Tasks (calendar) icon at the top of the page.

Task types

There are two types of tasks: Once-off and Recurring.

Once-off tasks are created manually.

• These are great for ad-hoc reminders.

• For example, you may set up a once-off task as a reminder to call an applicant in one week’s time.

Recurring tasks, however, use a template to automatically create tasks for you. A recurring task template will continue to generate tasks until you deactivate it.

• These are great for tasks that apply to many or all applications.

• For example, you may create a template named Complete Assessment that creates a task whenever an application enters a Stage named Assessment.

Creating tasks

When creating a task, you can control:

• The name of the task

• The deadline (and a deadline reminder, if a task is not yet completed)

• Who must complete it, and how they are notified

• What internal form(s) must be completed (if any)

For recurring tasks, you can also control how they get automatically created (the ‘trigger’).

Putting it all together

To help you understand how all three functions can be combined, review the below scenario.

For Small Grants Round 20XX, my goal is to ensure that when an application is ready to be assessed, two staff members who perform all our assessments – Olly Owl and Casey Crow – are automatically given an assessment task to complete.

To achieve this goal, I have set up the following Workflow elements:

1. A Stage called Assessment.

2. A Rule. The rule will move applications into the Assessment stage. It will only apply when:

   1. The “Completeness check” form has been submitted, and

   2. A response to a specific question on that form as been recorded.

3. A Recurring task template. The template will automatically create a task whenever an application is moved into the Assessment stage. It will name this task “Perform Assessment”, associate this task with the application, and assign it to Olly Owl or Casey Crow for either of them to complete.

The final result is the process below:

By using a combination of stages, rules and tasks, the initial goal has been achieved. The two assessors are now automatically given a task whenever they need to complete an assessment.

Where to next?

Head to Reports and Correspondence.