🌐 Web | 👤 Yokoy admin with Workflow Designer permissions
The Workflow Designer lets you set up and configure workflows for Invoices and Expenses. You can set up custom business logic and combine approval flows using workflow nodes. For example, you can set up a customized workflow to perform these processes:
Invoices: Configure approval workflows to route invoice documents through specific approvers according to the cost object, category and/or other custom logic.
Expenses: Configure approval workflows to route expense documents through specific approvers according to the cost object, category and/or other custom logic.
Working with the Workflow Designer
To access the Workflow Designer, you need to update your Finance/HR roles for your user and select Workflow settings in the Setup dropdown list for each company:
✏️ Note
To view Workflow settings setup in Admin > Finance/HR roles, you need to have been previously granted access by Yokoy.
Once you have done this, you see a menu option: Admin > Workflow Designer.
The Workflow Designer uses nodes to determine the business logic applied in processing expenses and invoices in Yokoy. You combine different nodes to achieve specific business outcomes. The Workflow Designer uses five types of node:
Start node: Starting point where the document enters the workflow. There can be only one start node in the workflow.
Status nodes: Indicate the document’s status.
Condition nodes: Represent conditional clauses. They are if-else conditions based on specific logic that is either true or false.
Activity nodes: Represent actions or tasks behind the scenes in Yokoy.
Approval nodes: Complement activity nodes to reproduce the business logic of an approval flow.
Status nodes are common to both invoice and expense workflows. Condition, activity, and approval nodes are specific to each workflow type. You connect the nodes using paths.
Workflows can have Draft or Published status. Only workflows that have the Published status can be activated. You can view draft and published workflows in the All workflows tab. The table lists the workflow name and ID, its status and type, and the creation date. The Active workflows tab displays workflows that have been activated for at least one legal entity. You can view the workflow ID and the company where the workflow has been activated.
To view an existing workflow, double-click the workflow in the All workflows tab to load it in the Workflow Designer.
❗️Warning
The All workflows tab displays all workflows for the organization and may contain published legacy workflows that have not been created with the Workflow Designer. Legacy workflows cannot be used with the Workflow Designer.
To view these workflows, you need to recreate them in the Workflow Designer using one of the templates.
The Workflow Designer includes a set of tools (1) in the top right corner to upload a workflow template and download a workflow to keep a local copy of the workflow. The workflow configuration is stored in a JSON file. You can also rename and delete workflows (depending on the workflow status).
The undo (Ctrl+Z / ⌘+Z) and redo (Ctrl+Shift+Z / ⌘+Shift+Z) buttons in the toolbar let you work with the draft workflow, undoing or redoing the previous actions performed.
You can zoom in and out of the workflow, fit the workflow to the workspace, and lock the workspace for editing using the navigation tools (2) in the bottom left corner of the workspace. The workspace map (3) helps you to navigate through the workflow.
To create a workflow from scratch, drag and drop a node from the node panel displayed to the left of the workspace. If you click on a node, you can edit the label. Depending on the type of node, you can also edit other options. You create a flow from one node to another by clicking the node exit (depicted by a triangle) and dragging the path to another node entry. You can remove a node by pressing delete.
When you have built the workflow by dragging and dropping the nodes onto the workspace and connecting them with paths, you click Save to keep the changes or Publish to make the workflow available so you can activate it. Alternatively, if the workflow is in Draft status and not Published, you can delete the workflow.
Workflow templates
To make it easier to build workflows, you can use one of ready-to-use templates to start building workflows straight away. Yokoy offers a number of templates for invoices and for expenses. These templates are available in the canvas.
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