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Workflow elements

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Important

This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, see Microsoft Dynamics 365 product documentation. For the latest release plans, see Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.

Applies To: Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R3, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 Feature Pack, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

A workflow consists of elements. The following sections describe each type of element.

Tasks

A task is a unit of work that must be performed. There are two types of tasks that can be added to a workflow: a manual task or an automated task.

Manual task

A manual task is a unit of work that must be performed by a user. For example, an expense report workflow may have manual tasks that require the assigned users to:

  • Review the receipts that are submitted with an expense report.

  • Call an employee's manager.

For information about how to configure a manual task, see Configure a manual task. To see an example workflow that uses a manual task, see Workflow with multiple users in a task.

Automated task

An automated task is a unit of work that must be performed by the system. It requires no human interaction. For example, a sales order workflow may have automated tasks that require the system to:

  • Perform a credit check.

  • Create a customer record for the customer, if one does not already exist.

For information about how to configure an automated task, see Configure an automated task. To see an example workflow that uses an automated task, see Workflow with a conditional decision.

Approval processes

An approval process is a process that consists of separate steps. At each approval step, the user can:

  • Approve the document.

  • Reject the document.

  • Request a change to the document.

  • Assign the document to another user for approval.

For information about how to configure an approval process and the steps within it, see Configure an approval process and Configure an approval step. To see an example workflow that uses an approval process, see Workflow with multiple users in an approval step.

Line-item workflow elements

A workflow can be created to process documents, or the line items on a document. For example, assume that you have created an approval workflow for timesheets. (We will refer to this workflow as the document workflow.) You can add a line-item workflow element to that document workflow. When the line-item element is executed, each line item on the document is submitted for processing. You may want all of the line items to be processed by the same line-item workflow, or you may want each line item to be processed by a different line-item workflow.

Suppose that an employee has submitted a timesheet that resembles the following figure.

Workflow with line items

In this scenario, you may want to create the following line-item workflows:

  • Line-item workflow 1 – This workflow is used to process line items where the project ID = 1111.

  • Line-item workflow 2 – This workflow is used to process line items where the project ID = 2222.

  • Line-item workflow 3 – This workflow is used to process line items where the project ID = 3333.

For information about how to configure line-item workflow elements, see Configure a line-item workflow. To see an example workflow that uses a line-item workflow element, see Workflow with a line-item workflow element.

Flow-control elements

The following elements enable you to design workflows that have alternate branches or branches that run at the same time.

Manual decision

A manual decision is a point at which a workflow divides into two branches. A user must make a decision, and this decision determines which branch is used to process the document that was submitted.

For information about how to configure a manual decision, see Configure a manual decision. To see an example workflow that uses a manual decision, see Workflow with a manual decision.

Conditional decision

A conditional decision is a point at which a workflow divides into two branches. The system decides which branch to use by evaluating the submitted document to determine whether it meets specified conditions.

For information about how to configure a conditional decision, see Configure a conditional decision. To see an example workflow that uses a conditional decision, see Workflow with a conditional decision.

Parallel activity

A parallel activity is a workflow element that includes two or more workflow branches that run at the same time.

For information about how to configure a parallel activity, see Configure a parallel activity.

Subworkflow

A subworkflow is a workflow that runs in the context of another workflow.

For information about how to configure a subworkflow, see Configure a subworkflow.