Set up Workflows

A Workflow is a pre-defined series of tasks.

Workflows help eliminate extra admin work by allowing you to automatically designate tasks that should be actioned for every matter.

The best way to think about what workflows to set up for your practice is to think about what areas of your current process are repetitive. If you are completing the same tasks for every matter of a specific type, it's best to set these up as a workflow. 

Once you've created your workflow, learn how to apply it to your matter.

Create a Workflow

1. Navigate to Workflows in Smokeball Settings.
2. Click into Workflows in the left-hand menu and click the Add New button. 
   
   
3. Enter a name for the Workflow (e.g. NSW Purchase).
4. Select the relevant matter types that this Workflow should apply to. 
   
   
   
   We also recommend ticking always apply this Workflow to new matters. This will automatically apply the workflow to any new matters for the matter types selected. Otherwise, you can choose to apply a workflow to matters later on.
   
   
    

Adding tasks to your Workflow

1. Select New Task.
2. Enter the Name of the task.
   Note: The length of the task name is limited to ~490 characters 
3. Select a Due date for the task. 
   You can set it to be for a number of days before something happens in the matter, after or on a critical date, or upon completion of another task in the workflow. 
   This setting supports a number of different scenarios and you can also set a reminder to be sent some time before the set due date for the task.
4. Select who you wish to Assign the task to. 
   You have the choice of selecting either the Person Responsible, Person Assisting, or another select Staff member.
   • If a staff member leaves your firm, the tasks will be reassigned at the same time the matter is reassigned.
   • If you select a specific staff member by name, tasks will not re-assign. 
   • If you need to assign to multiple people, select Staff and select multiple staff from the list.
     
     
5. [Optional] Enter a Category for this task. Later on, you can use these categories to filter your list of tasks to only show particular ones.
   • Categories, Details (any additional information for the task), and Hours (the expected time to complete the task) are all optional fields.
6. If you prefer, you can link a Form or Precedent letter from the Precedent Library to a task within a workflow.
7. Continue creating the next tasks related to this Workflow. Once all tasks are entered, select Save and Close to complete the Workflow.

Reorder tasks in a Workflow

To rearrange the order of tasks, select the task and use the up/down arrows to move it.

Duplicate, delete or export a Workflow

You can duplicate, delete, and export a workflow by right-clicking on the individual workflow from Smokeball Settings.