Understanding Workflow

EasyContent's Workflow helps your team work efficiently without missing deadlines. In this article, you will learn how to fully utilize it.

Note: We will be using the default workflow configuration for examples in this article. If you're using custom workflows, the examples might not exactly match to yours, but the core concept remains.

Introduction

What is a workflow? It's a systematic approach to content creation that defines the steps you and your team will undergo to create content from start to finish.

Our Workflow feature lets you define your workflow statuses (a.k.a. stages), set default deadlines, and assign responsible users to each status and the rest happens automatically. You get email reminders and notifications that will help ensure that content moves through your workflow process smoothly and on time.

In EasyContent, new projects will have the following workflow statuses by default:

Draft > Editorial review > Approved for publishing > Completed

You're free to customize it however you like. Note that the amount of customization options available will vary depending on which plan you're in.

Each workflow status will have a responsible user(s) who will carry out what needs to be done for that status. For example, a writer will be responsible for the draft status, an editor will be responsible for the editorial review status, and so on.

Assigning People to a Content Item's Workflow Statuses

In the content items page, under the status column, click on a workflow status. In the modal that will appear, you will be able to select people that you want to assign. You can also change or add due dates right here if you want.

When an item moves from one workflow status to another, the currently assigned people will automatically update into whoever was assigned to the next status, and the due date, if there is one, is also automatically set. The assigned users will also get email notifications about this, should they choose to do so, ensuring that they are always up-to-date.

You can also assign people to a content item during its creation. When creating a content item, activate the "assign people after creating" option. 

After creating the content item, the people and due dates modal will appear. Note that this feature might not be available to you depending on your permissions. Contact your account owner or admin if you need access. Learn more about EasyContent's permissions here.

Other ways to assign people to a content item are via the "assign people" menu under the actions column in the content items page and "assignees and deadlines" in the workflow widget on the right sidebar when editing or viewing a content item.

Reviewing Role

To be able to assign a user to a workflow status, you need to make sure that their role is a reviewing role for that workflow status. In the example below, the writer role is a reviewing role for the draft status, the editor role for editorial review, and so on.

This means that items in the editorial review status can't be assigned to or claimed by a user with a writer or admin role. But if you make the writer role a reviewing role for the editorial review status, then any user with that role will now be able to claim or be assigned to any items that are in that status.

⚠️If you create a new role, they are not a reviewing role for any status by default, so make sure you go to the workflow settings and assign them to the appropriate statuses. Otherwise you won't be able to assign a user with that role to any item.

Assigning Multiple People Per Workflow Status

You can assign multiple people in a workflow status as long as they have a reviewing role for that status and they are assigned to the project. In the example below, two people are assigned to the draft status. More can be added by clicking "+ Add". If you want to remove someone, click "X" next to their name.

Claiming Items

If there's no one assigned to an item, any user with a reviewing role for that item's current status will be able to see the claim button under the action column on the content items page. These claim buttons will also appear in the content item editor.

Submitting and Approving Items

Depending on the item's current status, your role, and if you're assigned to the content item, the buttons that appear under the navigation tabs in the content item editor will vary.

Submitting an Item

When items are in the draft status (or whatever the first status is), they can be submitted to the next workflow status by using the "submit for review" button. Only users assigned to this status can see this button, and it only appears on the first workflow status.

When submitting an item, you can choose not to send it forward to the next status. Doing this will put a checkmark before your name in the workflow widget, indicating that you've initiated a submission. This gives other assigned users a chance to review the item and make changes they deem necessary. If you leave a note, users can view it by clicking the clipboard icon next to your name in the workflow widget.

You can cancel your submission by clicking cancel submission and the checkmark before your name as well as your note will be cleared.

The last assigned user to submit the item will have the "send item forward to" automatically checked in the "submit for review" modal. When this is checked, the content item changes its current status to whatever status was selected in the modal after clicking the submit button.

Note that even if you are not the last user to submit the content item, you can still choose to activate the "send item forward to" option. By doing this, it moves on to the status you've selected. Other users assigned to the current workflow status will no longer be able to edit it unless they have special permissions. More about permission here.

Approving and Rejecting an Item

An item not in the first or last workflow status will have the reject and approve buttons under the navigation tabs in the content item editor. These buttons are only visible to users that are assigned to the item's current workflow status.

Approving an Item

Clicking the approve button brings out the approve and complete review modal. It allows you to leave an optional note about the content item and lets you choose to send it forward. You can also leave star ratings for the writers if it is configured. More about them in a later section.

The ratings and the note you leave can be viewed in the workflow widget.

When approving an item, you can choose not to send it forward to the next status. Doing this will put a checkmark before your name in the workflow widget, indicating that you've approved the content item. This gives the other assigned users a chance to review the item and make changes they deem necessary.

Rejecting an Item

Clicking the reject button allows you to reject and request for a revision for a content item. It will bring out the reject and request a revision modal.

You will need to provide a reason for rejecting the item and you can choose what workflow status it should be sent back to. The reason will be sent to  the registered email as well as the EasyContent mailbox of users assigned to the workflow status the item was sent back to. They will also receive an email notification about it if they enable it in their profile settings.

When rejecting an item, you can choose not to send it back to a previous status. Doing this will put a red "X" icon before your name in the workflow widget, indicating that you've rejected the content item. This gives the other assigned users a chance to review the item and make changes they deem necessary or reach out to you if they need more information.

If you are sending back a content item to a workflow status, you will see a prompt asking if you want to keep the reviews or clear them.

If you choose to keep the reviews, the content item will be sent back to the selected workflow status, and the reviews will be kept. On the other hand, canceling the reviews sends back the item to the selected workflow status and clears any reviews left by users listed on the modal.

Keep in mind that if you choose to keep the reviews, users will need to manually clear the reviews themselves to start another submission or approval.

You might be wondering... why keep the reviews at all? Instead of simply clearing the reviews, it could be beneficial to keep them to let users review notes or feedback. Additionally, in cases where multiple users are responsible for a workflow status, with some rejecting the item and others approving it, keeping the reviews can help in understanding why the content item was rejected and sent back for revision.

Manually Changing an Item's Workflow Status

Users with the manage content items permission can change an item's workflow status even if they are not assigned to it. There are several ways to do this.

⚠️ Manually changing an item's status will clear all reviews without warning. There is also no way to leave reviews or feedback when manually changing status.

There are several ways to manually change an item's workflow status:

1. On the content items page, under the status column.
2. On the content items page, under the actions column, click the three-dot menu and select change status.
3. On the content item editor, using the workflow status selection dropdown.
4. On the content item editor, through the workflow status widget.

On the content items page, under the status column, click on the status name, and the people and due dates modal will appear. Click on the new status you want the item to be in.

On the content items page, under the actions column, click the three-dot menu and select Change status.

On the content item editor, using the workflow status selection dropdown.

On the content item editor, in the workflow status widget, click on a status name to set it as the current status.

Grades and Feedback

Grades can be configured so that they are required in any of the intermediate workflow statuses. This will ask approvers to leave star ratings based on the criteria configured in the workflow settings. Learn more about how to configure workflow settings here.

After leaving your star ratings and an optional note, you and your team will be able to view it via the workflow status widget by clicking on the clipboard icon next to your name.

To configure star ratings, in the sidebar menu, click Workflow. Then find the Ratings section. From there, you can view your active ratings and edit or delete them. You can also add new ones. If you don't want to use this feature, you need to delete all ratings so that they won't show up when approving content.

The important parts of the ratings section are the name and the workflow status column. You can leave the descriptions blank as they don't show up in the approval modal. Try keeping the names straightforward.

As for the workflow status, this will define what status the rating will show up. In the example above, when a user assigned to the Editorial review status approves a content item, they will be prompted to give star ratings for three criteria. The same goes for users assigned to the Approved for publishing status, except they will only have to give star ratings for one criterion.

Content Items List and Displayed Avatars

In the Content Items page, when you hover over the status, people, or due date column, a popover will appear containing details about the item's workflow status. This displays an item's workflow information, displaying all statuses it has to go through, assigned people, and due dates.

The avatars shown under the people column depend on the item's current status. This is how it works:

• The first avatar will always display the writer or author of the content item. They are the users assigned to the first workflow status.
• If an item is not in the first workflow status, the first avatar will have reduced transparency. It represents the first user assigned to the first status.
• If there are no users assigned to the current workflow status and it's not in the first workflow status, there will only be one transparent avatar displayed. That will be the first user assigned to the first workflow status, if any.
• If no user is assigned to all of an item's workflow status, the add people icon is displayed.
• This column will always display 4 avatars at most. If there are more than 4 users assigned, it will only display 3 avatars, the fourth will be an icon +N where N is the number of additional users assigned, like in this example: where the +3 icon indicates that there are 3 more users assigned to the current status. The transparent avatar is the first user assigned to the first workflow status, the other 2 avatars are users assigned to the current workflow status. If there are exactly three users assigned to the current workflow status, then instead of the +N icon, the third user's avatar is displayed instead.
• When you hover over the people column, the "add people" icon will appear: . Click on that to bring out the people and due dates modal, allowing you to modify the item's assigned users and due dates as well as change its status if you want.