Aleksandr Davydov

How to create and use Bitrix24 CRM business processes

crm business process

What is a business process in Bitrix24?

According to the official business processes training course:

«A Business process or Workflow is a procedure of document processing for which one entry point, several exit points, and a sequence of activities (steps, stages, or functions) to be performed in a certain order and subject to certain conditions are set».

The basic idea of a Business-Process is a Route.
A Route that a document follows in order to be processed correctly. «Document» in this case, can be ordinary files, a list of records or CRM elements (Lead, Contact, Company or Deal). A more human-oriented explanation for a business process is an Algorithm: a sequence of actions that need to be carried out to reach a final result.

Articles and web seminars on Bitrix24 business processes explain them as a general idea, but almost never cover how they can be implemented in the CRM. Every Bitrix24 user can list several tasks which need to be implemented as as automated business process.

In this article, we show you how to solve one of such tasks using CRM business process.

Location of Business processes in Bitrix24

You can find Bitrix24 Business Processes in

The general list of workflows: Feed -> More
Here, you can find a list of business processes which are available to, and can be initiated by the user. You can find purchase request, business trip, leave approval and other predefined business processes here.
The «Create a new workflow» button which is available to the portal Administrator.
My workflows: Automation -> workflows -> My workflows.
This is a list of on-going and completed business processes where you are a participant.

All «Running workflows» and «Workflows in feed» are also available here.

If you want to stop seeing workflows which you do not use in the feed, simply uncheck the «show in feed» boxes of those workflows.

Please Note:
Business processes are not available in the free Bitrix24 plan.
CRM Business processes.
These are business processes which are connected to CRM entities - lead, deal, contact, company, quote, and invoices. They can be found in CRM -> Settings -> CRM settings -> Automation -> Business processes.
This article is about how to create CRM business processes.

The difference between Ordinary Business Processes (Workflows) and CRM Business Processes

Some people think that due to the creation of a separate business process section, in «Automation», CRM business processes will become redundant.

But this isn’t so — these are two different entities in structure and where they are located in the interface.

	Workflows	CRM business processes
Data storage	Every workflow has a table of different data types. When a workflow is created, the sequence of actions related to the data is built on the table.	All data is stored in CRM entities. It is impossible to send data between the entities in the framework of the process. Rather, new entities can be «created».
Visual part	Workflow stages and responsible persons can be seen in the feed and in the list of Workflows. Every workflow has its own card with data about it.	has no visual part. You can only see actions (the tasks and events that take place as a result of the process stages) and CRM entity states changing.
Variables	The usual Bitrix24 variables	The usual Bitrix24 variables and two additional ones: Binding to CRM Elements and Binding to CRM libraries.
Types of business processes	2 types: State-driven Sequential	The same 2 types as workflows, but In order to create a state-driven CRM business process you first have to create a sequential one. Only then, will you be able to choose a state-driven CRM business process in the settings («Create template» — «State-driven business process»).

What are Bitrix24 CRM business processes used for?

In plain terms — To solve organizational problems.

With the help of CRM business-processes you can make organization easy for staff.

You can set automated

reminders for actions that need to be performed on CRM entities
task creation for different CRM stages for sales personnel
emails, calls, messages to be sent when deals reach certain stages.
start to another business process.

And much more.

In a nutshell, CRM business processes should be a vital part of your sales funnel!

Humans tend to forget when there are many tasks to perform in a day. With automation, no one needs to remember anything. No client will be forgotten.

Set up a CRM business process which will set tasks and send reminders to the entity responsible persons! This way, you ensure a smooth workflow for closing deals.

The absence of any visual activity in the feed could make CRM business processes seem inconvenient, but in reality, imagine if you had updates for every CRM action popping up in the feed — It would be a nightmare. What matters is that the actions which should be triggered, are being triggered.

What are CRM Business processes not used for?

A CRM business process is not suitable for a situation where you need to bind several users to the process and conduct the process through several stages.

For instance, to organize the approval of contract documents. You need to send the document to a supervisor, head of the department and then the client. Each of these parties need to make corrections, before the final document is agreed on. You can use our Ready made tool or create your own Workflow in the feed for such situations instead.

Workflows in the feed answer questions such as «Who is waiting for what, and from whom?», «What is the next stage?». We do not have this information for CRM business processes.

How to create a CRM business process

Let’s look at a simple but important task.

A sales person closes a huge deal, and in the excitement of the moment forgets to organize tasks such as getting necessary signatures, delivering original copies of the contract to stakeholders or storing original copies in a shared drive.

We will help this salesperson create a CRM business process which will set a task for any deal responsible person to collect and prepare necessary documents once a deal is closed.

We’ll call this business process «Document collection after closing a deal».

Below is the number of steps we recommend for creating CRM business processes, even the simplest ones.

Determine the purpose of the CRM business process
What are the main tasks
Determine access permissions and launch conditions
Assign roles to participants
Versatility
Draw a sketch of the process on paper
Draw the process using the CRM business process designer tool.
Testing

Determine the purpose of the business process -
To make original copies of documents available to the accounting department and e-copies for file storage.

The Main tasks of the Business process

To remind the person who closed the deal, that he/she should make contract documents available to stakeholders.
To notify the accounting department about the availability of a newly signed contract.
To place the original and e-copies of contract documents into their respective storage places.

Access permissions and launch conditions

As this is a CRM business process, it is only logical that users who work with clients should have access to it.
The process should be initiated only when a deal is closed successfully. Unsuccessful and delayed deals should not initiate launching.

Roles

Role	Description	Data types and used entities
Responsible person	the employee, who closes a deal is responsible for documents preparation.	a variable - the document creator is the person who creates the documents to be sent. In our example, this is the deal responsible person too.
Head of the sales department	the employee who oversees document preparation.	a constant — This field is used as the task originator for document preparation.
Accountant	Should be notified that a deal is closed and documents are ready.	a constant — used as an «Observer» for the task.

Role

Description

Data types and used entities

Responsible person

the employee, who closes a deal is responsible for documents preparation.

a variable -

the document creator is the person who creates the documents to be sent. In our example, this is the deal responsible person too.

Head of the sales department

the employee who oversees document preparation.

a constant —

This field is used as the task originator for document preparation.

Accountant

Should be notified that a deal is closed and documents are ready.

a constant —
used as an «Observer» for the task.

Versatility
For now there are two stages available to close a deal — Close deal and Not closed. We need to set what should happen for each condition through which a deal reaches the «deal closed» stage.

Draw a sketch of the Algorithm on paper.

Before drawing the CRM business process using the designer tool, we have to draw it on paper first. You can use Google Docs schemes for this. Here’s our example below:

Use the Business process designer tool

Here’s the most interesting part— the process of creating a CRM business process using the designer tool.
To access this tool, go to CRM -> Settings -> Automation -> Business processes and create a new template in the «Deal» section.

The initial settings require a title, launching method and variables to be determined.

Title	Document collection after closing a deal
Autorun	When changed If you choose when added, the process will be launched for every newly created deal. «When changed» means the process will be initiated when the deal status is changed, which is what we need.
Parameters, Variables	Don’t determine.
Constants	Let’s define constants with type «Bind to user»: Head of sales department — uCRMAdmin Accountant — Next, set the value (choose a person) for each of these constants.

Title

Document collection after closing a deal

Autorun

When changed

If you choose when added, the process will be launched for every newly created deal.

«When changed» means the process will be initiated when the deal status is changed, which is what we need.

Parameters, Variables

Don’t determine.

Constants

Let’s define constants with type «Bind to user»:

Head of sales department — uCRMAdmin
Accountant —

Next, set the value (choose a person) for each of these constants.

setting template parameters in the business process template designer

set constants in the bp designer

We can appoint the same person for both Head of sales department and Accountant, it won’t change the logic of the process.

Pro Tip:

If you have a lot of users in your portal and searching for an employee is difficult, you can use user ID in square brackets.

Further let’s move our algorithm to the business process designing tool. Here we need to add only one Condition (Flow control block) and only one Task (Interactive Settings block).

bp for organizing document collection in the CRM

Settings of every element should be done according to the method. Let’s start from the Task.

Field	Value	Comment
Title	Document preparation task when a deal is closed successfully	This title is only visible in the designer tool for naming the block. It is not visible when the process is running.
Task name	Prepare documents for deal {=Document:TITLE}	This is what a user sees in the task list and CRM Activities list. The real name of the document (i.e. of current deal) will be substituted in place of the macros.
Create task as	{=Constant:uCRMAdmin}	The name of any user who is currently the «Head of the sales department» will be set as this constant and substituted for the macros.
Responsible	{=Document:ASSIGNED_BY_ID}	We use «Responsible for document» to assign a responsible person for this task. It seems logical that the deal responsible person should prepare the documents. Though this parameter also could be changed to a constant, for example, the «office-manager».
Participants	{=Constant:uBuh}	«Accountant» value of the constant will be substituted into the macros.
Start	{=System:Now}	The CRM business process will be initiated right after it is created.
Deadline	=dateadd ({=System:Now}, «+2d»)	This construction allows us to set +2 days to the date of creation of the task. I.e. We set the task two days forward.
Task description	<ul> <li>Take the original contract documents for signing and scan them</li> <li> put the scanned contract copies into the contracts folder</li> <li>Send the original copy of the contract to the accounting department</li> </ul>	Yes, you can use HTML in your task descriptions.
Bind to current CRM entity	Yes	It is important to set this, else it will be very difficult to find our task in the CRM.

bp designer parameters

The rest of the fields are at your discretion, as they are not very important.

Condition settings for the task creation are in the table below. By adding condition construction there will be three blocks created actually: one for a construction heading and two for assigning conditions.

Construction heading	Deal closed?	It is used only in the designer.
Heading of negative condition	Deal wasn’t closed (do nothing)
Fields of confirmative condition	Document field: Deal closed Condition: Equals Value: No.	By this, we tell the CRM business process to move to the end on the condition that deal is not closed.
Heading of confirmative condition	deal closed?
Fields of confirmative condition	Document fields: Deal closed Condition: Equals Value: Yes.
Additional conditions with «AND» rule	Document field: Deal stage Condition: Not equal Value: Deal is not closed.	This step is required for processing a closed but unsuccessful deal.
Additional conditions with «AND» rule	Document field: Deal stage Condition: Not equal Value: Processing stopped.	This is required for processing another situation where a deal is closed but it was unsuccessful. If you have other non-successful conditions in your CRM, you have to include them too.

Test your CRM business process

Having completed your business process design we have to save and test it. Take any deal, close it and refresh the page.

In the right part of the page you can notice the result — a task is created for preparing documents for this deal.

We have a bpt file for this CRM business process. If you would like us to send you the ready-made CRM Business Process, please «like» our Facebook page.

What Problems can be solved with the help of CRM business processes?

We examined just one problem in working with clients that can be solved with automation. Below you can find a list of other, more complicated problems we successfully solved not only for our Company intranet but also for our customers.

Creation of a task for the responsible person for a lead to remind them that the lead has to be processed. Statuses of leads are controlled and are not processed for «useless» leads.
Creation of a task for further processing when a lead is changed. This is known as «Sales funnel management».
Creation of reminders and notifications for responsible persons when a deal reaches a certain stage.
Creation of events in employee calendars when a deal is closed.
Launching «another» CRM business process or workflow when a deal is closed. For example, launching the «invoice» workflow when a deal is closed.
Automatic creation of new contacts, companies and deals for successful leads.
Organizing loop actions — «customer call», «email», «meeting» in convenient order and required periodicity.

We will be glad to help you work more efficiently by automating your business.

You can send comments and questions about CRM Business processes and this article in the form below.

22.04.2022
Aleksandr Davydov