Approval workflows are everyday actions that businesses perform on a routine basis. This tutorial will show how easy it is to create an Approval Workflow using . We will use an example of a services Purchase Order workflow to demonstrate design patterns and  features. If you need basic help using the Workflow Designer, please refer to the Build a Workflow guide, and then return here.

What are we going to build?

Many companies offer software services to their new and existing clients. This tutorial will produce a Purchase Order workflow for services that follows this business scenario:

• A sales person accesses the company's Purchase Order form, fills in the customer's email address and other required information, signs it and clicks Continue.
•  sends a customized email to the customer that contains a link to the PO.  
• The customer clicks on the link, reviews the Purchase Order, approves and signs it or sends it back to the company for corrections
• The workflow is routed back to the sales person.
• The sales person reviews the PO, and sends it to his manager for approval. The manager receives an email.
• The manager clicks on the link in the notification email, logs onto to review the PO via the Task List. He approves or sends it back to the sales person for corrections.
• If approved by the manager and the total amount of the PO is greater than $10,000.00, the workflow is routed to the VP for final approval.

What You Will Need

You need either a frevvo Online account (request a demo if you don't already have an account), or a frevvo On Premise software installation. If you are using On Premise software you will also need to create a tenant, add a designer user to that tenant and configure email. 

Example Project

Download this example project (WorkflowTutorial_project.zip) that contains completed workflow examples as well as the forms you need to build the workflow yourself using the steps below.

Upload the project to your  user account. Follow these steps:

1.  Browse the appropriate URL below and log into your tenant as the designer user:
   1. Cloud: https://app.frevvo.com/frevvo/web/login
   2. On Premise: http://<server>:<port>/frevvo/web/login
2. Click the  Add icon at the top of the Projects Home Page and select  Upload Project.
3. Browse for the downloaded project zipfile (WorkflowTutorial_project.zip).
4. Do not check the Replace or Copy checkboxes.
5. Click the Upload button.

The project is uploaded and immediately appears in your list of projects. 

Set Up Roles and Users

We need to create several roles and users assigned to those roles in order to complete all of the steps in this tutorial. Users and Roles can only be created by the tenant admin.

Create the VP Role

1. Login to  as the tenant admin. 

2. Click the Manage Roles link.

3. Click theplus icon.

4. Type "VP" into the role name and click Submit.

Create Users

We'll create a few users and assign some of them roles and supervisors.

Add "jerry"

1. Log on to  as the tenant admin.

2. Click Manage Users on the Manage tenant page
   

3. Click the add new user icon which will bring up the Add New User form

4. Enter "jerry" as the User Name then enter all the required information - leave the Reports To and Roles fields empty. Click Submit.

Edit "designer"

1. You should be back on the user list - click the edit user icon for the designer user.

2. Select jerry from the Reports To dropdown. Click Submit.

Add "ed"

1. Click the add new user icon which will bring up the Add New User form

2. Enter "ed" as the User Name then enter all the required information.

3. Leave the Reports To field empty

4. Select the VP role from the role dropdown. Click Submit.

Add "sue"

1. Click the add new user icon which will bring up the Add New User form

2. Enter "sue" as the User Name then enter all the required information.

3. Leave the Reports To and Role fields empty. Click Submit.

Add "jim"

1. Click the add new user icon which will bring up the Add New User form

2. Enter "jim" as the User Name then enter all the required information.

3. Leave the Reports To field empty. 

4. Select VP from the Role dropdown. Click Submit.

5. You should be back on the user list. Logout. 

Create a frevvo Space

A space is a built-in portal that's very simple to create and makes it easy to test your forms and workflow(s). We will create a space to test the remaining examples. The Task Notification emails for the remaining Purchase Order examples will send the user to their Task List in your space.

1. Login to your tenant as the designer user.
2. Open the Workflow Tutorial project.
3. Find the Purchase Order Workflow in the list.
4. Click the  Action Menu and select  Deploy to remove the development watermark and deploy your workflow to production.
5. Click the Spaces link at left. Click the  Add icon.
6. Enter a Space Id i.e. workflowtutorial and a Space Name i.e. Workflow Tutorial Space and click Create. You will be directed to the Space Editor. Click Save. 
7. From the Action Menu, select Share. Copy the URL, paste it into a new browser window, and bookmark it. We will use it in Step 9 below.

We will add our workflow to the space a little later.

1 - Create the Workflow

First, build the workflow using the Workflow Design Wizard, which provides an easy way to quickly create all of your approval steps and business rules to route them at once.

Let's begin by using the built-in Workflow Design Wizard to create the steps of our workflow and automatically add routing and business rules. 

1. Click the name of the Workflow Tutorial project (or click the  Action Menu and select  Open.) to go to the Forms and Workflows homepage.
2. Click the Add icon and select Create a New Workflow. The Workflow Design Wizard will open.
   
   
   
3. Enter a Name and Description for your workflow, i.e. Name: "My Purchase Order Workflow," Description: "Example PO workflow for tutorial." Click Next.
   
4. Notice that the first three steps are created for us. Name the first step "PO." Then, instead of the default "Create New Form," select the existing form "PO" form from the Step Type dropdown.
   
5. Name the second step "Client Approval"
   1. Leave the default Step Type set to "Approval Step"
   2. Leave the default Assignment Type "To an Email Address." You will see that the email field defaults to your email - leave that as is for now. We will change it to a template later.
6. Name the third step "Sales Review"
   1. Leave the default Step Type set to "Approval Step"
   2. Change the Assignment Type to "To a User." Add yourself as the user. We will change it to a template later.
7. Click the Add icon to add Step 4.
   1. Rename the new step "Manager Approval"
   2. Leave the default Step Type set to "Approval Step"
   3. Change the Assignment Type to "To a User." Add yourself as the user. We will change it to a template later.
8. Click the Add icon to add Step 5.
   1. Rename the new step "VP Approval"
   2. Leave the default Step Type set to "Approval Step"
   3. Change the Assignment Type to "To a Role." Add the role VP (you will have to 1063405619)

Click Finish. Your initial workflow should look like this:

This workflow sends the Purchase Order electronically to the customer for their review and signature.

• The customer's email address is entered by the sales person on the first step.
• An email is sent to the customer with a link to the PO.
• The customer clicks the link to review the PO, approves and signs it or sends it back to the sales person for corrections.
• sends a copy of the signed PDF to the sales person by email. 

Note, the customer does not have to be logged into a