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.

• If the User Group you belong to has been given access to Administer Automations, you will be able to add, change and delete Processes and Apps and you will see the Process History tab. Refer to Managing User Groups.
• If you do not have access to Administer Automations, you will only see the Processes and Apps tabs and the Edit tool displays as unavailable.
  
• Archived processes are hidden by default. To show these, click the Archived button on the Automation dashboard.

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 View button.

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 View 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. 

Note: If you update the definition or steps in a Custom Process while that process is executing, any changes will not be taken into effect for the executing process. It continues with the settings as when the process started.

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 Settings and Exclusions
Calendar Entry AutoFile
Synchronising Clients, Staff, Jobs, Time, Tax Returns with Xero Practice Manager

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 is only relevant for processes that import documents. This allows you to enter the date from which you want to start retrieving the documents. If you enter a date in the past, this will import documents from that date, This will only import documents that have not already been imported.

Last Run shows the date the process was last run. It includes a green tick or a red x icon to indicate if the process ran as a success or with an error. Clicking the View history link displays the Process History tab filtered to show the history of the specific process, Refer to Automation Process History.

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