Overview
Workflows in Tropic help guide purchase requests from start to finish. They let you customize how different types of requests move through your process, making sure every purchase stays on track and follows your organization’s policies.
Step-by-Step Demo
Workflow Types
Tropic has two main workflow types:
- Purchase Workflows: For requests that need approvals, budget checks, or procurement steps before moving forward. These help make sure purchases meet your policies.
- General Workflows: For non-purchase tasks like contract reviews, vendor security checks, NDA approvals, or other internal processes.
Workflows can be managed by:
- Tropic-Managed Workflows: Set up and maintained by Tropic’s Assisted Purchasing team.
- Organization-Managed Workflows: Created and maintained by your team.
Note: This article focuses on organization-managed workflows. Tropic-managed workflows include protected Tropic tasks but allow limited edits for your organization’s own tasks, triggers, and request forms. For details, see Tropic-Managed vs. Organization-Managed Workflows.
Workflow Details
When you create a workflow, you’ll set:
- Name: A unique name for your workflow.
- Starting Point: Pick a workflow template, start from scratch, or base it on an existing workflow.
- Purchase Category: Assign requests to this workflow.
Note: You can change a workflow's name and purchase category later if needed.
Workflow Studio
Workflow Studio is where you design and manage workflows visually:
- Visual Builder: See tasks as a flowchart so you can easily follow their sequence and how they connect.
- Purchase Category Assignment: If your workflow isn’t linked to a category, click Assign a Purchase Category to enable advanced task rules.
- Request Form Access: If your workflow has a category, click Edit Intake Form to adjust the associated request form.
Go to Stage: The widget in the bottom left lets you jump directly to stages like Requirements Gathering, Negotiation, Approvals and Signatures, or Closing. Each stage has an icon that shows up on tasks too, so you can see which stage they belong to without scrolling.
Tasks and Triggers
Within Workflow Studio, you control when tasks appear:
- Triggers: Decide which tasks need to finish (or be skipped) before the next task opens.
- Parallel or Sequential Tasks: Set tasks to run at the same time or in order.
- Task Rules: Add tasks that appear only under certain conditions, like anticipated spend or specific form responses.
Workflow Assignment Rules
Workflows are automatically assigned to requests using assignment rules:
- The workflow’s purchase category.
- Responses to the request form.
This makes sure every request goes to the right workflow without extra effort.
Additional Resources
For more detailed information, guides, and support, visit our Help Center.