Discover how to set which phases should be included in progress trackers for your users
Estimated Read Time: 4 minutes
➕ Requires the Vendor Portal or Employee Portal
Sections in this Article
Introduction - where & why you can hide workflow phases
Before & After: Employee Portal Example
Before & After: Vendor Portal Example
Introduction 🧑💻
Using our Employee Portal and Vendor Portal modules allows you to provide your users with better tracking/oversight of any workflow process they are involved in
From their Submit Requests/Employee Dashboard or Vendor Portal Dashboard, they can see at a glance how much of a workflow has been completed via the Progress column
More inquisitive users can take this further and click "View More" to see specific information such as:
- Which steps have been completed so far
- When were they completed
- What steps are still remaining to be completed in the workflow
A challenge that might occur for some of your workflows is: How much information do my Employee/Supplier users need to see?
Particularly if you have fairly long workflows or workflows containing AutoActions, you may want to consider hiding certain phases from these Progress bars.
The below configuration steps show how you can do this to reduce the chances of users getting overwhelmed or confused by all the steps in a workflow process!
Configuration 🛠️
You must be an administrator with the "Configuration" additional permission to perform these updates
Editing for Vendor Portal
Step 1) Go to Modules > Vendor Portal in the left hand navigation menu
Step 2) Under Vendor Portal Workflows, find your desired workflow and click Edit
Step 3) Check the box next to the phases you wish to hide
Step 4) Hit ✅ Submit
Editing for Employee Portal (& Submit Requests Dashboard)
Step 1) Head to Modules > Employee Portal in the left hand navigation menu
Step 2) Under Employee Portal Workflows, find your desired workflow and click Edit
Step 3) Check the box/es next to the phases you wish to hide
Step 4) Hit ✅ Submit
"Before & After" Examples ✨
Employee Portal Example: Contract Approval Workflow
Here, a workflow containing many AutoAction Phases and Contingency Phases can be hidden from the standard progression
Since AutoAction phases are instant and need no input/approval from any user, showing them to your requestors is not necessary
"Contingency Phases" here refer to phases in the below workflow like "Review Rejection" and "❌ Contract Rejection [Done] ❌"
Since these should not form part of a standard contract request, removing them from the progress bar will give a better picture to your requestors about what will happen when things run smoothly
Pictured: The Submit Request Progress Counters Before
Pictured: The Submit Request Progress Counters After
Vendor Portal Example: Vendor Onboarding Workflow
As seen in the below gif, this Vendor Onboarding workflow contains AutoActions, Contingency Phases and highly specialised Team Reviews (e.g. a Finance Netsuite Sync)
Including all of these in the progress counter visible to your Vendor users may give the impression that the process is an extremely long & onerous one
Example Kanban Board:
From the above workflow, logically you can remove the below phases
AutoActions, Late Response Escalation ⌛️, ❌ Vendor Rejected ❌ [Done]
If you also have several conditional processes, including all these in the progress my
Pictured: The Vendor Portal Dashboard Progress Counters Before
Pictured: The Vendor Portal Dashboard Progress Counters After
FAQ 💬
Q: Will hidden phases still be visible on the kanban board?
A: Yes! This feature only applies to dashboards where users track progress. The workflow kanban board will be unaffected
Q: What will a user see if one of their cards is currently on a hidden phase?
A: If a card lands on a Hidden phase, Gatekeeper will temporarily reveal that phase to your user (to avoid the impression that their form has dropped into a black hole!)
Q: Can I unhide a phase?
A: Yes, just head back to the Module config screen and uncheck the Hide ☑️ setting