I recently created my first CRM workflow, and it was so simple that I can’t stop thinking up new ways to use this work and time-saving tool. I love it when I can make repetitive tasks automatic, or give myself an automatic heads-up or reminder. For my first workflow, I just wanted to know whenever a new account had been created in CRM, so I could set up the needed account in GP. There are several of us at Rockton www.rocktonsoftware.com who might create an account in CRM, but I’m the primary one to create GP accounts. Rather than assigning everyone else the additional step of “Let Sue know you made a new account,” and then getting a mix of emails, calls, and IMs, some right away, some days later, and some never . . . I just wanted an immediate email notification to my working inbox.
First, I had to get clear on what I wanted the workflow to do: I wanted CRM to send me an email whenever a new account was created. Starting on the Settings tab, I went to Processes and opened a New Process. In the Create Process window, I gave my workflow a clear descriptive name: New Account Creation Notification. For my Entity, I chose Account, and for Category, I chose Workflow.
That took me to the Information window. Here I had to decide whether I wanted my workflow to run only for me or also for others in my organization. Since I wanted to know when a new account was created by . I would eventually set the “Start When” option to “Record is Created,” but for as long as I was in the creation and testing phase, I made it available only as an on-demand process (a kind colleague recommended this. Something about having accidentally deleted several thousand records out of CRM in her early days of writing workflows). So this was all easy and intuitive, just telling CRM the event that I want it to watch for.
Now, I needed to tell it what to do when the thing it’s watching for actually happens. I clicked on Add Step and got a dropdown of choices. I marked Send email, gave it a clear description, and then got to choose whether to create my message from scratch or choose a template. I clicked on Set Properties, and the Form Assistant opened up. I left the default values of Dynamic Values and Set to, and I asked CRM to look first for an Account and then the account number of the new Rockton customer. I told it what I wanted in the From and To fields, and made sure that the Subject line and Regarding field were filled in.
Back on the Information screen, to make sure I only get one email per account creation, I added a second step of “Stop workflow with status of: Succeeded.”
To test my new Workflow, I made sure it was set as On Demand, Saved, and Activated. Then, I went into an Account, clicked on Workflow up in the ribbon, selected New Account Creation Notification, and ran it. Five seconds later, my email arrived looking good. Once I verified that it worked properly, I went back into the workflow, changed it to Start When Account is Created, and marked it Activated.
And that’s it. Now I know instantly when anyone at Rockton www.rocktonsoftware.blogspot.com creates a new account. And my colleagues don’t even know I’m watching . . .
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Written By Sue Roe, Sales Assistant at Rockton Software, .
