Business processes
A business process can consist of a form (Process Management form) and a series of approval steps or only the approval steps. Business processes are typically used for Know Your Client (KYC) updates.
You can start a business process manually, or it can be initiated automatically. For example, it can be initiated automatically when a contact is created or updated. When a business process starts, and it has a business process form, you fill out questions in the business process form on behalf of the entity. After filling out the business process form, you submit it for approval by one or more reviewers. Approval tasks are then assigned to users specified in the business process. Instead of including a form, you may choose to add approval tasks in the Business Processes tab for an entity and then submit them for approval.
When you initiate a business process, the associated entity is locked until the business process is approved, rejected, or deleted. You can add activities to a locked item but cannot edit other details of the item. If all the reviewers approve the form, the business process is marked as completed and approved. If any of the reviewers reject the form, then the form is returned to you. You can then read comments from reviewers, make changes to the form, and resubmit the business process.
Sometimes an approved business process form can update information in an entity. When your administrator creates a business process template, they can set questions in the form to update corresponding fields in the record. When the form is approved, the answers to the specified questions update the information in the record.
Info
When a business process is initiated but not submitted, it has a status of outstanding. An outstanding business process can be deleted at any time. However, after a business process form is submitted, it cannot be deleted, regardless of whether it is approved or rejected. This is because the submitted form provides an audit trail and a historical record of updates to entity records.
Example of using a business process to update company information
An insurance agent needs to update company information for a client as the company's location has changed. Instead of modifying the company information by editing it, the agent uses a company update business process to update the information and starts the business process from the Business Processes tab for the company on the Contacts workspace. The agent updates the address information provided in the business process form and changes the coverage team members in the Coverage team page. The agent submits the business process for review. The branch manager approves the form and the company record is updated.