Scheduled Autostart for Document Workflows

For a business, accuracy and seamless process organization are paramount for clockwork efficiency. It may seem trivial, but these qualities help a company survive in the highly competitive market environment and even substantially impact growth. Planning budgets and campaigns is essential, but setting up a timetable for a little daily routine also matters.

In the not-too-distant past, employees spent hours organizing meetings, sending regular newsletters, calling or sending messages to the participants to remind them of the documentation pending their signatures, etc. Things have changed thanks to the automation technologies boom, so now you can automatically schedule workflows and save time and resources for more significant business tasks.

What is a scheduled workflow, and what are its positive aspects?

A scheduled workflow is an integral part of workflow management. It’s a business process configured to start running upon a specific condition. Depending on your needs, you can set up the autostart for your business processes based on changes in forms and agreements, spreadsheets, or CRM records. According to pre-defined conditions, the workflow will run with a single click of a button or without human interaction. Often, the main criteria for autostart is a specific date and time. Such processes are called time-dependent or time-based workflows triggered by the scheduled date.

Setting up tasks this way is a perfect solution for those who need to properly organize their recurring events in the future. Using a time-based workflow allows one to update the lead owner in a CRM or ERP system, automatically initiate a new document workflow, or arrange automatic data collection and data update based on other active workflows. The benefits of applying time-based automation are beyond a shadow of a doubt:

• Configuring a scheduled workflow requires a minimum of time but brings maximum effect on general performance;
• It saves hours of business time and, thereby, human resources and financial costs;
• Data never gets lost, and tasks are done at the appropriate time according to the team’s plan;
• Most of the regular work runs smoothly and more efficiently, due to the automatic launch of the processes;
• The staff makes fewer errors and can focus on customers and new projects instead of wasting time on a routine manual job.

Many online services offer time-based workflow functionality. The complexity of their configuration differs a lot, and airSlate WorkFlow is just the solution with the perfect simplicity-in-use and accuracy ratio you need.

Creating a scheduled workflow with airSlate WorkFlow

airSlate WorkFlow is an all-in-one platform for automating business processes of any complexity. Pre-built workflow templates, the ability to create them from scratch, and numerous no-code bots make airSlate WorkFlow super simple and convenient for users with any level of tech skills. And, in addition to the entire document workflow automation, it also provides their planned launch via the autostart option.

An autostart is a particular action that activates a workflow instance and makes it run automatically according to the defined conditions. Set it up so that your workflow instance works as per the timetable at a given time daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, etc. You can set configurations, create a scheduled workflow upon document completion, after you edit a Google spreadsheet, or update CRM records. And it’s all possible with only several simple clicks.

Configuring a time-based workflow with airSlate WorkFlow requires only a few steps:

• Find Design Automation on your dashboard.
• Upload at least one document to your workflow.
• Select the Add autostart button at the top of the workflow diagram.

Then, select one of the following options for how you want to start the process:

1. Scheduled start: Run the workflow automatically at a specific date, time, and frequency.
2. From another workflow: Initiate the process based on conditions in a different workflow, using pre-filled data.
3. Spreadsheet update (Google Sheets/Excel): Send documents when a row is added or updated.
4. CRM Integration (Salesforce/MS Dynamics 365/NetSuite): Send documents via a custom CRM button.
5. SharePoint: Send documents triggered by a custom SharePoint button.
6. External event: Send pre-filled documents based on conditions within an external service.
7. Scheduled start from spreadsheet: Send pre-filled documents from Excel or Google Sheets on a set schedule.
8. Airtable update: Send documents when a record in Airtable is added or modified.

Once done, the process will launch automatically so that you don’t have to make any extra actions.

airSlate Academy: the best way to learn to create time-based workflows

As you can see, the platform offers various options for pre-planning document workflows. Even though the setup process is intuitive, each option has customization peculiarities. airSlate Academy provides a unique course that reveals all workflow creation and customization steps, accompanied by detailed video guides. The practical section will help you consolidate knowledge and check how it works for your use case. All of this comes free of charge - enroll today!