Learn how to automate the population of custom Date fields & the possible ways you can use this to set your processes on autopilot....
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Estimated Read Time: 5 Minutes
Estimated Configuration Time: 10 - 15 Minutes
Sections in this Article
Automatically Setting your new Date field
Advanced: Setting variable periods
Re-setting the date for Recurring Scheudled Reviews
Introduction
Background ℹ️
Gatekeeper Workflows are our tool for structuring and streamlining your Contract & Vendor Management processes
They allow you to create dynamic & structured kanban boards to organise and facilitate the steps you takes for key processes like negotiating new contracts, onboarding new vendors and so on
One key feature you can leverage within these workflows is an "AutoAction"
Put simply, an "Actions" can generally be summed up as a task taking place on the workflow which affects something outside the workflow
For Example,
The Create Contract action will take the data from a Workflow Form and use it to create a new record in the Contracts Repository
An AutoAction is just an "Action" which will run on its own once a workflow form reaches a specific phase of the kanban board...
The "Auto" side of these actions works to populate metadata values in 2 ways:
Function 1: They can take values from the form which users have provided
Function 2: They can set "default" or "backup" values so that:
a) Form values missed by your users do not lead to a poorly populated repository
b) Some values can be hidden from your users so that forms they have to complete are shorter and quicker!
Pictured below: An AutoAction: Create Contract Configuration Screen where an admin can set the values Gatekeeper will use for each metadata field for new contract records
💡 Here, Status and Approval will not take user input; they set logical values as the "default" for an "in-progress" contract
This Use Case ✨
With the May '23 enhancement to AutoActions, you can use "Function 2" (see above) to automatically populate any Date field based on the time at which the AutoAction runs
This will allow you to configure calculated date fields for your Contract/Vendor records which self-populate based on processes which have just taken place or processes which you wish to schedule for future reviews
Demo Video Coming Soon...