End user - Workflow on a Smart Form

What is a SmartForm Workflow?

A SmartForm in Cora PPM is a custom, configurable data-entry page associated with a project — for example, a "Project Status Report", "Gate Review", or any admin-designed form. A workflow on a SmartForm is an approval process that is layered on top of that form, controlling when and by whom the captured data is formally accepted.

Purpose and Why It Exists

Without a workflow, any authorised user can simply fill in a SmartForm and save it. When a workflow is attached, filling in the form is only the first step. The user must explicitly submit the form, which sends it through a configurable chain of steps — conditions, automated actions, approvals — before the data is treated as officially recorded. This is used when the captured information has governance significance, such as committing to a project plan, declaring financial values, or requesting a change.

How It Works — User's Perspective

1. Configuration (Admin): An administrator creates a "SmartForm" type workflow in Admin → Workflow, linking it to a specific SmartForm page. The workflow is versioned and consists of a designed sequence of steps including approvals, email notifications, condition branches, variable assignments, and data outputs. Each SmartForm page can only have one live workflow assigned.

2. Submitting (End User): When a user opens the SmartForm page for a project that has a configured workflow, a Workflow panel appears above the form. If no submission is in progress, a primary Submit button is visible. The user fills in the form, then clicks Submit, entering the iteration into the workflow engine. A history snapshot (an "iteration") of the form's values is created and locked.

3. Approval in Progress: The workflow panel updates to show the workflow name, the current status (e.g. "Waiting For Approval at step 'Manager Review'"), and, if the logged-in user is the designated approver for the current step, Approve and Reject buttons along with a comments text box.

4. Approving or Rejecting: An approver clicks Approve or Reject (with an optional or mandatory comment). The workflow engine progresses: it moves through condition steps, fires email steps, sets variable values on SmartForm fields or project properties, and eventually reaches either an "End Complete" (approved) or "End Rejected" state. The submit button becomes available again only after a final approved or rejected outcome.

5. Rollback on Rejection: When a workflow is rejected, the submitted iteration is rolled back — the SmartForm returns to its pre-submission state so the user can amend and resubmit.

6. Iteration Tracking: Each submission creates a numbered iteration that can be reviewed historically via the iteration drop-down on the SmartForm page. Historical iterations are read-only. The "Latest" view is always editable (subject to workflow state).

7. Variables and Actions: The workflow can read field values from the SmartForm (e.g. a numeric cost field) into workflow variables, use conditions to branch based on those values, assign values back to SmartForm fields, update standard project properties (status, stage, type, project manager), trigger email notifications to configured recipients, and create project baselines.

8. Workflow Management: Administrators can pause, resume, restart, or cancel an in-progress SmartForm workflow from the Workflow Management screen.

9. Access Control: If the workflow definition has "Access Restriction Enabled", only users with access to the project can see that workflow instance in the Workflow Management grid.