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Aleksandr Davydov

What Bitrix24 business processes are and how to manage them

Businesses that want to streamline their processes use automation actively - to reduce document processing time, increase employee efficiency, and to optimize information workflows. We have automated all these processes relatively fast and successfully for companies in different industries - manufacturing, commerce, IT, education, advertising, etc . We have shared some of these cases, including the positive testimonials from our customers.

As a result of our active work we have noticed that very often when we finish implementation and deliver to the client, they come back to us with the same question : "I understand what kind of result I should get in the end of its work, but I don't understand how to monitor and control the process".

Many customers have a feeling, that Bitrix24 business processes have their own life, separate from that of the company - that when a business process is initiated, an employee suddenly gets an unclear task, he/she receives messages from a mysterious place and strange new instructions begin to appear in the Feed. And then, when the employee asks the portal administrator "what is that and where is it from?", he just shrugs his shoulders and mumbles something unclear about a business process implemented for them by an integrator and that they have to deal with them somehow now.

Therefore, let's show you how Bitrix24 Business processes work, how to monitor them,  and what tools are available in Bitrix24 to control them. We’ll also show you where and how to view the current status of a business process, and how to stop it.


How to Control Business processes in Bitrix24 CRM

When a business process is running, It is strongly recommended to monitor its progress. Sometimes, a process could get “stuck”  because a participant in the process forgot to close a task, thereby impeding the business process. 

Let's show you how to solve this problem in Bitrix24.

Let's launch a predefined business process which is called "Purchase request" from the Feed.


When we click on “send”, the business process is initiated. The employee who initiated the process receives a message in Feed:


The Approver(s) of the request also receives a notification in the notification centre and a message in the Feed:


As new messages appear in the Feed and Notifications Panel, our message will be moved downward. After some time, it’s possible for the initiator and the approver to forget about it, especially if the task wasn't executed at once. 

 

Where can you find your business processes in Bitrix24 CRM?

On the left menu bar, select “Workflows” -> My workflows.
Here, you’ll find all business processes which were initiated by you:



Here one can see which action of the business process is running now. One can see other processes as well, which are finished or in a non-active state.


This section has the following capabilities:

1) We can view documents attached to the business process by clicking on the document link:


2) We can add a comment to a Business Process:


3) You can initiate the same processes which are available in the feed directly from here:


Another section that allows us to track business processes: 

Workflows -> Running Workflows -> ALL.
Only active workflows are displayed here:


From this section’s top menu, we have access to the following:
All, Hung, Feed, CRM, Drive, Lists.


With these tabs, you can sort your active business process depending on their states and what section of the system they are running in:

  1. All  - all initiated Business processes (active, in progress, completed)

  2. Hung -  processes, which are halted

  3. Workflows - All Business processes which were launched from the Feed

  4. CRM - Business processes which were launched from the CRM

  5. Drive  - processes launched from the Company Drive

  6. Lists - processes launched from the Lists section


The following actions can be performed on active business processes:

  1. Delete Workflow.

  2. View a document attached to this business process.

Warning!
If you decide to delete a business process, be aware that you cannot delete the document attached to it.You can delete only the business process(workflow) of this document. 


How to edit and delete a business process in Bitrix24

What could be a reason to edit or delete a business process?
Let's say that an employee requested cash, but while filling in the request, indicated a wrong amount, and started the business process without noticing. He then later realizes his mistake and wants to correct it.

There are 2 ways to solve this, and both require admin privileges.

  1. Edit the Business process


    Select workflows from the left menu bar -> My workflows -> click on the workflow title


    You will be redirected to a new page where you can edit the Business process parameters



    Change the fields that need correcting, and click on save.

If the employee does not have admin privileges, they can request the portal admin to edit the workflow. 

The admin’s process for editing a portal user’s business process is as follows:

Left menu bar “Workflow” -> Running workflows -> ≡ -> Element



They will also be redirected to a page where they can edit the business process parameters.

What will happen after the employee has edited the Business process parameters or changed the attached file?
For predefined processes, nothing will happen. The process continues running.


  1. Delete the Business Process

    If the user has enough privileges to delete the business process he can delete the process and all current tasks associated with it. If he doesn't have access to delete the business process, he can always ask the administrator of Bitrix24 to do this.

 

How to view business process log

Users without admin privileges can view the Business process status from the “My workflows” tab.
They can’t view the logs.


Sometimes, portal administrators may want to check that all processes are running smoothly, and no user has left tasks unattended. For this, they check the logs

  1. Workflow(on the left menu) -> Workflows in feed

  2. Click on the blue highlighted status under the “Business process” tab




  3. The log is displayed

 

 

Changing the Participants/approvers of a business process. 

It may be necessary to change who grants approval to a request if a new person is employed, or the previous person changed departments, or there’s a new policy. 

This is another action that requires admin privileges

As an example, we’ll change the approvers for “Purchase requests”

Workflows -> Workflows in feed -> Purchase request



Actions  -> Configure workflows


Click on the grey box on the left -> constants


On the new page that opens, you can change the persons who grant approval for the Purchase Business Process and the order in which they grant approval.



Granting users access to Business processes

Aside from the initiator and participants in the Business Process, there could be other groups of users who may need to have some sort of access(view, edit or full access) to a Business process - accountants, legal department, etc. 


Workflows -> Workflows in feed -> Purchase request -> actions -> change workflow preferences


Here, we can see who currently has access to the Business Process, and what type of access they have.

To add more user groups, click on “Add”, and select the user or user groups 



Next, set what kind of access they should have, and click on “save”

 


Changing Business Process fields

  1. Add a new field
    Workflows ->Workflows in feed -> actions  -> customize fields -> Add field






  2. Edit an existing field
    You can only change the name, code, and sort of fields. You cannot change the field type. To change the field type, you will need to delete the old field, and create anew one.




Completing a Business Process

When a business process is finished, its status changes to “completed”, and the initiator receives a notification.



In this article, we examined basic means of working with business processes in Bitrix24. 

But what if you need to create a new automated Business process? 

WRITE US


We have shared 5 Business processes that every company needs, and our Business process automation for the popular Restaurant chain “My Box”.

We also shared what HR processes can be implemented and automated in Bitrix24.

INTERVOLGA has been actively automating business processes in Bitrix24 for different companies. We have accumulated enough experience in the field of automating internal processes.

Leave a request in the form below

  • 22.02.2022