Automation Processes

The Processes tab on the Automation dashboard is where Administrators can manage all the process automations for your practice.

FYI is shipped with System Processes which can be modified to reflect the requirements of your practice. They can also be used as templates for your own processes.

To access the Automation Dashboard:

1. From FYI, click the Automation menu option.

2. Display the Processes tab.

Using the Filters on the Processes Tab

You can use the filters on the Processes tab to select which processes are shown in the tab.

• Filter by Status ("Active" or "Draft").
• Filter by Plan can be used to display which processes are available for each subscription plan to FYI ("Starter", "Intermediate" or "Pro").
• Filter by App for example, FYI, Outlook. Xero Ledger, Xero Tax.

List View

To display your automation processes as a list, click the List button on the top right-hand side.

You can use the List View to search for processes, and you can select one or more processes and delete or copy them. Click the Grid button to re-display the process as icons in the grid layout.

Copying a Process using the Clone Function on the List View

From the List View, you can use the Clone function to copy a Process.

1. Click the List button to display the processes as a list.
2. Click the Select button and checkmark the process you want to copy.
3. Click Clone and  confirm the action.

An exact copy of the process is created with "- Copy" appended to the name. You can then edit this copy and make any changes as required.

Opening and Editing a Process

For the relevant process, click the cog icon to edit it. 

Processes with On or Off Settings

The following is an example of an automation process which generally has only On or Off settings to control what is processed.

For detailed explanations of the automation processes, refer to the following:

Email AutoFile
Calendar Entry AutoFile
Xero Practice Manager (Synchronising Clients, Staff, Jobs and Tax Returns)

Processes with Steps

Some processes involve multiple steps, for example, bringing in certain information from Xero Practice Manager, filing it and sending an email or creating a task relating to it.

When you open a process with steps, this shows a summary of what each step does as in the following example. For detailed explanations of the steps that make up a process, refer to Automation Process Steps.

Name. The name of the process.

Trigger. This controls the way in which a process can be triggered:

• Scheduled Daily. 
  For an example of a process that is Scheduled Daily, refer to Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Not Postal/Agreed & Postal).
• Due to an event (for example "Email has Arrived", "Document Created"). 
  For an example of a process that runs due to an event, refer to Negative Email Alert.
• On Demand. 
  The process is run as and when required, for a specific client. 
  For an example of a process that is run On Demand, refer to Client Ledger Reports AutoFile.

Filter. A filter determines what information is or is not included in the process. 
For example, a process is set up that filters import tax assessments that agree with the original assessment and a different process, with different actions, is set up for tax assessments that vary from the original assessment.

Status. The Status can be "Active" or "Draft". A process will only be run if the Status is "Active".

Owner. The Owner is set by default as the user who made the process active and this can be changed if required. If the process fails, an email will be sent to this user as notification. You can set this as "Me" to set yourself as the owner.

Start From allows you to enter the date from which you want to the process to start, for example, to start importing documents. This is useful, for example, if you start to use a process to automatically import Tax Statements and you have some that have already been loaded manually that you do not want to duplicate.

Adding, Editing, Copying, Deleting and Moving Steps

• To add a step, click the Add Step button.
• To edit a step, click anywhere on the step or click the Edit tool next to the relevant step.
• To copy a step, click the Clone tool next to the relevant step. Clone will copy that step below the selected one.
• To delete a step, click Delete tool next to the relevant step. Clone will copy that step below the selected one.

To change the sequence of steps, drag and drop it up or down in the sequence to the new location. You can use the 'move' icon next to the step number to move it. If you click on any other columns, it opens the respective step. Steps are automatically renumbered. You cannot change the sequence of a step to above one that it depends on, that is, where the result of one step is used in a step below it.

Resetting a Process

Clicking Reset will reset the process steps back to the initial configuration as installed by FYI.

Process Steps - Application and Action

In each step, you select the Application and Action.

For examples of the many ways the steps can be used, refer to the following:

Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Not Postal/Agreed & Postal) 
Tax Assessment AutoFile (Variance)
Client Ledger Reports AutoFile
Negative Email Alert