Easily Create Your Own SpringCM App

Now that you've learned the ropes of using SpringCM to share your content, edit documents, and start an Approval Workflow, it's time to create your own SpringCM app. You can create an app to automate the review of your press releases, process customer cases, or virtually anything that involves documents or records.

For this example, we'll create an Expense Reports Approval app designed to handle the submission and approval of employee expense reports. This app combines several different tasks you've learned in other StartSmart sections in addition to SpringCM capabilities you haven't learned about yet. 

This app will involve the following steps:

• Creating a folder where all employees will submit their expenses.  Your employees will be able to upload expense reports directly to the folder, or they can send expense reports via email directly to the folder.
• Ensuring an Accounts Payable (AP) clerk monitors this submission folder.  The AP clerk will be responsible for reviewing the reports for accuracy, filling in the attributes (sometimes called “metadata”) with information such as the submitter's name, expense type, office, etc.
• Automatically renaming expense reports with a standard naming convention for easier searching and reporting on expense reports.
• Automatically moving expense reports to new folders while they await approval from the appropriate manager.
• Automatically routing expense reports to the appropriate person for review.
• Upon approval, automatically moving expense reports to a final “Approved” folder.
• Generating management reports and charts summarizing the activity of all expense reports over a 30-day period.  

This section is more advanced than other StartSmart tutorials, and we suggest getting your feet wet with SpringCM before you begin. You can expect this exercise to take about 30 minutes from start to finish.

Creating the Expense Reports Approval app will involve the following six steps:

• Step 1: Create a Folder
• Step 2: Define Custom Attributes
• Step 3: Create a Predefined Work Process
• Step 4: Define Smart Rules
• Step 5: Create a Report
• Step 6: Test Your App

Step 1: Create Folder

Creating folders in SpringCM is just as easy as creating them on your PC or Mac.

To build a folder structure suitable for Invoice Approval, we'll add an Expense Reports folder that will contain a number of subfolders, including:

• Approved
• Chicago
• New York

In this example, our company has multiple offices submitting expense reports. Because SpringCM is designed as a central online location for all of a company's content, an Expense Reports Approval app can handle documents from multiple offices.

Most processes—whether electronic or paper-based—involved folders for items that haven't been reviewed or approved, and folders for items that have been approved. Think of a desk with an inbox for incoming mail, memos, etc. Once you've read the material, you categorize it and place it in the appropriate folder. SpringCM is the electronic version of this process. In our example, the Chicago and New York folders serve as the inbox for users to check—but instead of check, SpringCM will automatically notify your colleagues when items are ready for them to review. Once the expense reports have finished the approval process, they'll be placed in “Approved,” just like you'd place them in storage location for a finished document.

As you follow these steps to create folders for an Expense Reports app, consider a folder structure that incorporates folders for items that require review and folders for items that have been reviewed and approved. You may want to include folders for different forms of approval, such as contract management where review and approval may involve a number of internal parties before being sent to the client for redlining.

Consider what folder structure and naming conventions will be most useful to you and your team member before you begin.
 

> Learn How to Create a Folder.

1. Click the Documents tab.
2. Click the Create Folder button located on the Toolbar. You can also open the File menu and choose Create folder.

3. Enter “Expense Reports” in the Folder Name field.
4. Leave all checkboxes as is for now. We'll discuss Pinpoint and Attributes later.
5. If you'd like your employees to submit documents to this folder via email, enter an Inbound Email address.
6. Click the Save button.

Read more about Creating Folders.

This Expense Reports folder will serve as the parent folder to subfolders. In SpringCM, a subfolder is just like a subfolder on your work computer.

Now you can follow the Folder steps to create the following subfolders:

• Approved
• Chicago
• New York

>To create a subfolder, just click the Folder in which you'd like to add a subfolder and follow the Create Folder steps.

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Step 2: Define Custom Attributes

Attributes provide a way to classify your content by adding specific values to documents. They ensure quick retrieval, enable in-depth reporting, and can automatically drive business processes. Attributes are contained within  attributes group, like an “Expense Reports” attributes group.

Attributes groups do not modify documents; they simply add metadata—literally “data about data” to your documents. In our example, each expense report will be tagged with the name of an office, submitter's name, expense report type, etc. The value for each attribute will impact the overall process, such as entering “Approved” for the “Status” attribute will move the expense report to an “Approved” folder. We will tag all expense reports by status, employee first and last name, expense type, amount, department, and office.

For your custom SpringCM app, attributes will help your process remain automated.

In this section, we'll walk through two distinct attributes components:

• Creating an attributes group
• Creating attributes within the attributes group

Consider what attributes will make sense for your custom app. Remember to think of attributes as key classifications for a document you can use to easily search for items, report on, and drive business processes.

> Learn How to Create an Attributes Group.

1. Click the Preferences tab.
2. Click the Attributes link.
3. Click the Create Group button.

4. Enter “Expense Reports” in the Name field.
5. Enter “[[Employee Last Name]] – [[Expense Type]]” in the Name Template field.

• A Name Template applies a standard naming format to all documents tagged with the attributes of your choice. For example, we're using the “Employee Last Name” and “Expense Type” attributes so all processed invoices will be renamed “Smith – Travel Reimbursement” or something similar. Name Templates allows for easier search and reporting.
• Enter an attribute name surrounded by double brackets “[[attribute name]]” to automatically change the names of documents containing these attributes.

>Learn How to Create Attributes.

1. Complete the Learn How to Create an Attributes Group steps.
2. Enter “Status” in the text field.
3. Select “Drop Down” for the appropriate Data Type: String (a series of alpha or numeric characters), Number (integers), Date (“mm/dd/yy” format), Drop Down (of Strings) or Decimal (currency—positive or negative—rounded to two decimal places).

• You may need to enter additional information in a new field for Drop Down. For example, you'll enter “Approved” and “Denied” for the Status attribute.

4. Repeat steps 2 through 4 to create:

• Employee Last Name
• Employee First Name
• Department
• Office
• Expense Type

5. Click the Save button.

Read more about Attributes.

Now that your folders and attributes are in place, you've laid the pipework to create a workflow to automate all the busywork of routing and monitoring for editing and approval.

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Step 3: Create a Predefined Work Process

You and your staff can avoid busywork that dampers productivity with your process by using Approval Workflows. These automate the editing, reviewing, and approval of documents between multiple users. Approval Workflows eliminate manual process management by:

• Creating an order of tasks for SpringCM users to review, edit, and approve documents.
• Ensuring all users are accessing the correct document versions.
• Checking the progress of an Approval Workflow and reminding users of their deadlines.
• Beginning Approval Workflows automatically when certain events occur.

You don't need to create a new Approval Workflow every time you begin your process. That's why we'll show you to create a Predefined Work Process that can automatically adapt to new processes. In our example, once the AP clerk has filled in the attributes for expense reports, SpringCM will automatically start a Predefined Work Process that routes the expenses reports the the proper approvers.

Bear in mind that your custom SpringCM app may involve editing and approvals, but expanding the number of people and their duties in a Predefined Work Process is a snap.

>Learn How to Create a Predefined Work Process.

1. Click the Workflows tab.
2. Click the Start Approval Workflow button, or open the Start menu and choose Approval Workflow.

3. Click the “I am creating a template” checkbox in the “Template (Optional)” section.

4. Click the “Create A Work Process” checkbox in the “Template (Optional)” section.

5. Enter "Expense Reports Approval" in the Name field.
6. Click the Users or Groups link to select from a list of all the users in your SpringCM account.
7. Inside the Choose Contacts, Users, and Groups pop-up window, click the checkbox for every user you'd like to add to the Workflow, then click the Select button.

8. Click the Next button.
9. Select the first user from the Select user(s) column and click the Approve button.

• Choose Edit if you expect a user to check out a document and make changes, or use the Pinpoint feature to place comments directly on the Document Preview.
• Choose Approve if you expect a user to read a document and simply approve or reject it.
• If you'd like more than one user to Edit or Approve a document in the same step, hold down the Shift button, click the desired users, and click the Edit or Approve button. Although more than one user can be added to the same step, only one user can approve or review a document at a time.

10. Repeat Step 9 for the second user. The user responsible for finalizing the Workflow should be selected as the last Approver.
11. Choose the  options for each user. For the Expense Reports Approval app, we want the process to finish within 2 days, so enter "24" in the duration field for each of your two users.

• Duration covers the length of time each user has to complete his or her task. For example, if your workflow has four users and you would like to give each user the same amount of time to complete his or her task and finish the entire process within four days, enter “24” in the duration field for each user.
• Reminder instructs SpringCM to send email reminders to users in your Workflow as their deadlines approach. The time for the Reminder relates directly to the time set in the Duration. For example, if a user has 24 hours to complete a task and you want SpringCM to send a Reminder four hours before the deadline, enter “20” in the Reminder field. If you'd like the Reminder sent six hours before the deadline, enter “18” in the Reminder field.
• Skip on Overdue should be set for users whose input isn't essential for the completion of the Workflow. If they miss their deadlines, the Workflow will proceed without their action.
• Alert Owner will inform you via email once the user has completed his or her task.
• Alert Recipient allows you to select a user who will receive an alert once the appropriate user has completed his or her task.
• If you want to rearrange a user in the workflow, click that user’s name in the Name column under Arrange steps and select either the Up or Down button to reposition the user.

12. Select the Calendar Weeks radio button in the “Measure time” section.
13. Click the Next button.

14. Click both Email Options checkboxes.
15. Click the Save button.

Read more about Predefined Work Process.

In order to start your Predefined Work Process automatically, you'll just need to set up a few Smart Rules.

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Step 4: Define Smart Rules

Smart Rules tie your entire custom SpringCM app together. These rules trigger specific events to occur. For example, in our Expense Reports Approval scenario, we'll create three separate document rules to:

1. Change the "Status" attribute field to "Submitted" once an expense report has been added to the Expense Reports folder.
2. Initiate the Expense Reports Approval Predefined Work Process once the "Status" attribute field is automatically changed to "Submitted."
3. Move expense report with an "Approved" status to the "Approved folder."

Your Smart Rules steps may be much different than the ones outlined for approving expenses. But they all have tree things in common: events, filters, and actions.

• A Smart Rule begins when an event, such as uploading a document to SpringCM, checking in a document, or changing an attribute value, occurs.
• To ensure only the appropriate documents and processes are affected, you will apply a filter. A filter specifies parameters such as which folders, upload sources, and attribute values you would like your Smart Rule limited to.
• An action can be a function like moving a document, creating a folder, or assigning attributes.

Remember that your Smart Rules should focus on initiating your process. We'll walk through the steps of creating the Smart Rules for Expense Reports.

>Learn How to Create a Smart Rule.

Smart Rule 1: Changing Document Status

1. Click the Preferences tab. 
2. Click the Smart Rules link located in the left-hand navigation.

3. Open the Rule menu and choose New Document Rule.
4. Enter “Expense Report Submission” in the Name Field.
5. Select “Document Added” from the Event drop-down menu.
6. Select “In Folder” from the Filter drop-down menu.
7. Select “Assign Attribute Group” and “Assign Attribute Value” from the Action drop-down menu.
8. Click the Save button.

This Smart Rule has changed the attribute “Status” to “Submitted” by:

• Setting the event to “Document Added” – SpringCM will look for a new expense report.
• Setting the filter to “In Folder: Expense Reports” – SpringCM will limit its search for new document to this folder.
• Setting the action to “Assign Attribute Group – Expense Reports” and “Assign Attribute Value – Submitted” – SpringCM will change the Status Attribute Field located in the Expense Reports Attributes Group.

Smart Rule 2: Initiating Predefined Work Process

1. Open the Rule menu and choose New Document Rule.
2. Enter “Expense Processing” in the Name Field.
3. Select “Document Indexed” from the Event drop-down menu.
4. Select “Has Attribute Group – Expense Report” and “Has Attribute Value - Submitted” from the Filter drop-down menu.
5. Select “Create Folder – In Progress Expense Reports,” “Move Document – In Progress Expense Reports,” and “Start Work Process – Express Report Approval” from the Action drop-down menu.
6. Click the Save button.

This Smart Rule has initiated the Predefined Process we created earlier by:

• Setting the event to “Document Indexed” – SpringCM will look for documents with changes in their attributes.
• Setting the filter to “Has Attribute Group – Expense Reports” and “Has Attribute Value - Submitted” – SpringCM will limit its search to attributes changed to “Submitted” in the Expense Reports attributes group.
• Setting the action to “Create Folder – In Progress Expense Reports,” “Move Document – In Progress Expense Reports,” and “Start Work Process – Express Report Approval” – SpringCM will create a folder for expense reports needing to be reviewed, will move documents to that folder, and will initiate our Predefined Work Process.

Smart Rule 3: Finishing Approval Process

1. Open the Rule menu and choose New Document Rule.
2. Enter “Approved Expenses” in the Name Field.
3. Select “Document Indexed” from the Event drop-down menu.
4. Select “Has Attribute Group – Expense Report” and “Has Attribute Value - Approved” from the Filter drop-down menu.
5. Select “Move Document – Approved”  from the Action drop-down menu.
6. Click the Save button.

This Smart Rule has finished the Expense Reports Approval process by:

• Setting the event to “Document Indexed” – SpringCM will look for documents with changes in their attributes.
• Setting the filter to “Has Attribute Group – Expense Reports” and “Has Attribute Value - Approved” – SpringCM will limit its search to attributes changed to “Approved” in the Expense Reports attributes group.
• Setting the action to “Move Document – Approved” – SpringCM will move the approved expense report and complete the process.

Now the process is complete, and you have all the components you need for your custom SpringCM app. If you'd like insight into how your process is used, you can create a report.

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Step 5: Create a Report

Adding a report to your custom app will allow you to measure key performance indicators, extract metrics around your content, create charts/graphs, and more. For our Expense Report Approval example, we'll just see how many expense reports are approved in a calendar month.

>Learn How to Create a Report.

1. Click the Reports tab.
2. Click the Create Report button.

3. Enter “Expense Reports Activity” in the Name field.
4. Choose “Documents & Attributes” in the Report On drop-down menu.
5. Move “Expense Reports” to the Selected Attributes Groups column.
6. Click the Next button.

7. Hold down the CTRL key to select “Expense Reports Office,” “Document Name,” and “Expense Reports Type” in the Available section.
8. Click the Next button.

9. Under the Filters section, select “Updated Date” in the Columns drop-down menu.
10. Select “Range” in the Comparison drop-down menu.
11. Select “Last 30 Days” in the Value drop-down menu.
12. Click the Save button.

 

Congratulations – you just finished the last step of your custom SpringCM app! Before you ask your employees to use it, test it to ensure you didn't miss any crucial steps.

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Step 6: Test Your App

This test will ensure everything with the Expense Report app is in working order. If something isn't working properly, review the appropriate Step to see what action you might have missed.

>Learn How to Test Your App.

1. Click the Documents tab.
2. Click the Expense Reports folder you created in Step 1.
3. Click the Upload button and upload a test document.
4. Perform the AP clerk's duties and complete the tagging for the Expense Reports attributes you created in Step 2. Once you've tagged the document, click the Save button.

• If you don't see the Attributes, open the Attributes menu and select Expense Reports.

5. This should initiate the Predefined Work Process we created in Step 3. Check with your colleagues to ensure they received the proper email notifications and ask them to complete their steps. The status of the document must be changed to "Approved." You can click the Workflows tab then click the Process Monitor to verity your Predefined Work Process is executing. If you don't see your Predefined Work Process, check the Smart Rules you defined in Step 4.
6. Click the Documents tab and open the Approved folder to ensure the approved expense report is present with the proper name.
7. Click the Reports tab.
8. Click the Expense Reports Process link to verify your Report in Step 5 has completed successfully.

Now you have all the tools you need to build your own custom SpringCM app. Have any questions? Just send an email to help@springcm.com or call us at 877.362.7273.

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